Rosenthal: Terry Francona thinking about his future — ‘Physically, it’s getting harder’

Sep 5, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona (77) watches player introductions against the Kansas City Royals prior to the game at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
By Ken Rosenthal
Sep 10, 2022
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For the first time, Terry Francona is talking about a finish line.

While Francona, 63, is expected to return as Guardians manager next season, he said Friday he does not plan to remain in the job indefinitely.

“No. It’s getting harder,” Francona said. “Physically, it’s getting harder.”

Francona said he has been discussing his future with president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff, and plans to reach some type of resolution soon.

“Everybody asks you about legacy. I don’t give a s— about that,” said Francona, who led Cleveland to the American League title in 2016, won two World Series in eight seasons with the Red Sox and also managed the Phillies for four years.

“I want to enjoy what I’m doing. It’s getting harder to do that, just because physically it’s harder. I just want to be careful. And at the same time, I want to be fair to the team.”

Antonetti said the Guardians want Francona to remain manager as long as he is physically capable. Francona, who stepped away during both the 2020 and 2021 seasons for health reasons, estimates he has had 45 surgeries, and will require another after the season to remove drains in his back.

“He’s been through a lot over the last three years,” Antonetti said. “(But) at this point, he is as energized as he’s ever been, excited about what’s in front of him. If things continue on the path we’re on, he certainly wants to be back next year, and that’s our expectation.”

The Guardians, in Francona’s 10th season, entered Saturday leading the AL Central by 1 1/2 games despite fielding a bottom-five payroll and the youngest roster in the majors. Their farm system is the third best in the game according to Baseball America. The team also will enter the offseason with only $19.3 million in guaranteed commitments for 2023, ensuring a measure of payroll flexibility.

Francona, whose contract expires at the end of the season, maintains an unusually close relationship with the Guardians’ front office. He said he does not want to “mess up” Antonetti and Chernoff or “hold them over a barrel,” seemingly referring to the team’s future plans. Antonetti said the question is not one of working out a contract.

“It’s more about how Tito is doing. Where is he in his life? What does he want next? At what point for him will it be the right time to step away?” Antonetti said. “I don’t know what the answer to that is. But I also have never wanted to pressure him.

“I care so deeply about him, I want him to have the life he wants to have with his children and grandchildren. I want to make sure he never feels he has this obligation to keep doing the job because he owes us anything. I want him to do what’s best for him.”


Terry Francona walks to the mound during a pitching change in 2021. (David Richard / USA Today Sports)
Francona managed only 14 of 60 regular-season games in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and missed the team’s wild-card series against the Yankees because of gastrointestinal and blood-clotting issues that led to a stay of several days in the ICU.

That winter, he developed gout, then a staph infection in his left big toe, spending 10 days in the hospital and using crutches or a boot for months. After opening the 2021 season as manager, he stepped away again on July 29, 2021, for a hip replacement and then, a few weeks later, toe surgery. He still wears a steel plate in his shoe to protect his toe.

When Guardians owner Paul Dolan’s wife, Karen, underwent a procedure earlier this year, doctors joked she was in the “Tito suite.” Francona, too, typically makes light of his ailments. Asked how he currently is feeling, he said, “I got two shoes on, so that’s progress.”

“I’ve told him so many times, I have no idea how you’ve continued to go on,” Antonetti said. “I could not deal with the things he deals with and continue to do my job in a productive way. To see his strength, it’s a testament to how much he cares, how much he loves what he’s doing. The vast majority of people would not continue to persevere through what he has been through, and is still going through.”

Antonetti has spoken often of how Francona and his coaching staff create a unique culture, enabling young players to develop while also teaching them how to win. The Guardians, Antonetti said, view Francona as “among the best in the business if not the best in the business at what he does.” Francona, in turn, said he might have retired by now if he was with another club.

“I told Chris and ‘Cherny’, if there’s a date where you think I’m not doing it to your (satisfaction), I’m going to walk away and be happy as hell,” Francona said. “I love these guys. I’ll never say a word like (I did when) it ended in Boston. I love our owner. I love Chris and ‘Cherny.’ At some point, it ends. I want to be fair to them, because they’re fair to me. That’s kind of how I feel.”

Francona said he would like to remain in the game when he no longer is managing, but he does not know in what capacity. Accustomed to being in a position of authority, he said, “I don’t know how I’d do not being in charge if I see something I didn’t like.”

“That’s what I’m not sure of. That’s where I want to be a little careful,” Francona said. “I don’t know that I’m to the point where I would be fulfilled not doing something. But I know I think about it a lot more than I used to. I’m getting there.”

Shane Bieber is having an under-the-radar, stellar season — just the way he prefers it



Cleveland Guardians pitcher Shane Bieber throws against the Minnesota Twins in the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept 11, 2022, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
By Zack Meisel

MINNEAPOLIS — Shane Bieber was sitting in the bullpen during Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS, waiting to learn if he would start a must-win game the following day or if he would instead pack up his locker and retreat to his offseason home.

He was a rookie starter armed with promise who had spent his season soaking up knowledge from Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Mike Clevinger and Carlos Carrasco. That was less than four years ago. Bieber and José Ramírez are the only players from that roster who still don a Cleveland uniform.

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Manager Terry Francona’s bunch is back in playoff-chasing mode and, this time, Bieber is at the forefront of the action. It pained him last year to watch helplessly from the sideline as Cleveland stumbled through the summer and he nursed a shoulder injury. So, Bieber is cherishing this opportunity to stand atop the mound as his club eyes its first division title since that 2018 campaign.

Bieber tossed another gem on Sunday at Target Field to secure a series sweep against one of the two teams staring up at the Guardians in the AL Central standings. With each start, his numbers sparkle more. And with each start, those concerns about his diminished fastball velocity fade.

Bieber is having an under-the-radar, stellar season — and that’s the way he prefers it.

It’s difficult to fly under the radar when you hoist the All-Star Game MVP trophy over your head in front of your home crowd in your first, full big-league season. Or, when one of the world’s most famous pop icons, who happens to share your surname, wears a jersey that reads “Not Shane Bieber,” a nod to your Players’ Weekend version that read, “Not Justin.” Or when you author the first unanimous Cy Young Award season in nearly a decade. That all transpired before Bieber’s 26th birthday.


Over his last nine starts, Shane Bieber owns a 1.75 ERA, with nine walks and 68 strikeouts across 61 2/3 innings. (Jim Mone / Associated Press)
On Saturday, after he finished a series of outfield sprints, Bieber signed autographs and posed for photos with fans stationed down the left-field line. Later that night, he joined the Fox broadcast for an in-game segment. A day earlier, he joined the Apple TV crew for a pregame session. On Sunday, he shut down the Twins and before he could sink into the clubhouse couch with his teammates and consume some NFL action, he fulfilled his postgame media obligations.

Such a jam-packed itinerary has been atypical for Bieber this season, and by design. Steven Kwan, Triston McKenzie and Andrés Giménez, three players supplying breakout seasons, have garnered plenty of attention. The throng of rookies and second-year players on the roster, many of whom climbed through the minor leagues together, regularly play cards, chess or basketball on a miniature hoop before games. Bieber has kept a lower profile, and he said he’s been more fixated on his routines.

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“I just try to get lost in what I have to do that day,” he told The Athletic on Saturday.

He joked that he’s become “old and salty,” but really what has fueled his more reserved, focused demeanor this season is that for the first time in his career, he has endured frustrations with his ability. Bieber enjoyed his time on the injured list last season the way anyone enjoys the feeling of stepping on a Lego while barefoot. And this season, after a lockout-shortened spring training, he was still employing detrimental habits in his delivery that he developed when attempting to overcompensate for his shoulder pain the previous year.

As the Guardians reach the most critical stretch of their season, Bieber finally feels close to normal. Pitching coach Carl Willis has noticed Bieber trusting his mechanics more.

“I’m still going through some growing pains,” Bieber said, “just being more sure of myself. I was dealing with a lot of that through the first half of the season.”

Over his last nine starts, Bieber owns a 1.75 ERA, with nine walks and 68 strikeouts across 61 2/3 innings.

“There’s a consistency to his starts that not too many starters have,” catcher Luke Maile said.

Bieber was the most dominant pitcher in the solar system in 2020, a 12-start sample in an unusual environment. Even though he hasn’t overpowered hitters the way he has in the past, his statistics this season actually outshine those from 2019, when he finished fourth in the AL Cy Young Award balloting, and those from 2021. He ranks eighth in the AL in ERA, fifth in FIP, fifth in walk rate and fourth in fWAR.

2019: 3.28 ERA, 3.32 FIP, 10.9 K/9, 1.7 BB/9
2021: 3.17 ERA, 3.03 FIP, 12.5 K/9, 3.1 BB/9
2022: 2.91 ERA, 2.83 FIP, 9.2 K/9, 1.8 BB/9

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He’s had to reinvent himself a bit this season. Bieber has leaned on his slider and cutter more, and has been more selective with his debilitating curveball. Despite the changes in approach, he maintains an elite walk rate and strong whiff, chase and strikeout rates.

“That’s what the veteran, elite guys do,” Willis said. “You have to make adjustments. Hitters are going to figure it out.”

And that’s what Willis and the organization’s pitching gurus insist Bieber has done as well as anyone who has come through the system in recent memory. In the minors, he worked to improve his secondary offerings, even though he could outmaneuver hitters with his unparalleled fastball command. When he reached the majors, he added velocity, crafted a cutter and arranged his pitches to better play off one another.

“That’s what’s gotten him here,” Willis said, “and that’s what’s allowed him (to be successful) this year.”

Only, it seems as though few have noticed. For the first few years of his career, the college walk-on turned all-world ace was one of the league’s most established wunderkinds. Now, as a crafty veteran on the league’s youngest team, he’s piecing together another signature season, one that’s guiding the Guardians toward another ticket to the postseason, and one that’s flying under the radar.

“That’s where I like to be,” he said.

The most difficult task in MLB? Hitting a meaningful home run off Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase




Sep 12, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase (48) celebrates a win over the Los Angeles Angels at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
By Zack Meisel
6h ago

CLEVELAND — There might not be a more demanding, unfair task in baseball than hitting a home run against Emmanuel Clase.

He has surrendered two this season. There have been more no-hitters (three) and more cycles (five) across the league in 2022.

And, really, the number two doesn’t tell the full story. Both home runs came on hanging sliders in lopsided games. When the score is close and Clase is attempting to secure a hard-fought victory for the Guardians? Best wishes. It might be more prudent to try to string together four bunt singles to scratch across a run against him. Or to pray for midges or acid rain.

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“Velocity, movement, deception,” bullpen coach Brian Sweeney said. “It’s hard, with all those variables.”

In what Baseball Reference deems high- or medium-leverage situations, Clase has limited opponents to a .172 slugging percentage. In low-leverage moments, that slugging percentage “soars” to .278. (For reference, the league-average slugging percentage this season is .397.)

Both players who tagged Clase for a home run this season did so when the closer was pitching primarily because he needed work. On April 11, when he had thrown a grand total of five pitches in the first three games of the season, Clase entered in the ninth to protect a five-run lead. He left an 89 mph slider up in the zone and Kansas City’s Andrew Benintendi whacked it out to right-center. On July 6, Clase entered in the eighth with Cleveland trailing Detroit by five. He misplaced a 93 mph slider and Kody Clemens socked his third career homer.

It’s one thing to wield a 100 mph cutter that snaps bats like hapless twigs under a car tire, and a 93 mph slider that plunges out of the zone and into River Styx. Clase’s ability to rarely miss his spots, though, adds another dimension.

“Plus command,” catcher Luke Maile said. “Considering what his arsenal is, how good his stuff is, it’s well above average.”

That’s what made his blown save in Kansas City last week — his first in four months — so shocking. He uncharacteristically couldn’t find the strike zone. One coach estimated Clase nails his intended target on about 65 percent of his pitches, which the coach said falls in line with Shane Bieber, a command artist. Even when Clase misses, though, it’s difficult to pinpoint, because of the movement on his pitches and opposing hitters’ tendency to chase at his offerings. With a pair of elite pitches, he has margin for error.

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Maile said many hitters gear up for the cutter, then look completely off-balance when he throws a slider (which he does more than one-third of the time). The slider carries a whiff rate of 42.8 percent. The cutter’s whiff rate is about half of that, as it instead produces a ton of weak contact in the form of harmless infield grounders.

Average pitcher’s ground-ball rate: 44.9 percent
Clase’s ground-ball rate: 65.1 percent

Average pitcher’s topped percentage: 33 percent
Clase’s topped percentage: 55.3 percent

Average pitcher’s fly-ball rate: 23 percent
Clase’s fly-ball rate: 13.2 percent

Average pitcher’s chase rate: 28.4 percent
Clase’s chase rate: 46.4 percent

Swing rate against the average pitcher: 47.1 percent
Swing rate against Clase: 61.2 percent

Those numbers tell us hitters approach the plate ready to hack away against Clase, but they don’t make clean contact against the cutter, and they routinely come up empty against the slider. And Clase uses their aggressiveness against them, hence the high chase rate.

Clase issued two walks on July 3 and then didn’t walk another batter until Sept. 4. Then, in that nightmarish ninth inning against the Royals last week, he walked the first two batters and later issued an intentional walk. That outing accounted for three of his 10 walks this season.

He’s one of 16 pitchers to have logged 50 or more innings this season and allowed two or fewer home runs. Among those 16, he owns the best ERA, at 1.31, and the best walk rate and strikeout-to-walk ratio.

“If there’s a lane that (Austin) Hedges or Maile go to,” Sweeney said, “he’s hitting that lane.”

This sequence might be the perfect example of Clase’s mastery:


Steven Kwan is one of six qualified hitters in baseball with more walks (56) than strikeouts (51). The other five: Juan Soto, Yandy Díaz, Luis Arraez, Alex Bregman and Alejandro Kirk. José Ramírez isn’t far off, with 59 walks and 67 strikeouts.

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The last rookie with more walks than strikeouts (with at least 50 walks)? Quilvio Veras in 1995. The last Cleveland rookie? Jim Norris in 1977.

Speaking of Kwan, he appeared in his 127th game Tuesday night. That’s a career-high for his professional career.

2018: 66 games at Oregon State, 17 games in Cleveland’s system
2019: 123 games for Class-A Lynchburg
2020: twiddled his thumbs, thanks to the pandemic
2021: 77 games for Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus

Kwan sought guidance last week from Bieber, who offered suggestions for avoiding late-season burnout. Bieber advised him to prioritize his downtime and narrow his off-the-field obligations.

Kwan has played every inning of every game since Aug. 6. Manager Terry Francona assigned him the role of designated hitter Saturday in Minnesota. He drew four walks and then recorded some more steps in the dugout.

“I don’t want to talk guys into being tired,” Francona said, “but I also don’t know that we’ll DH him too much. I think he walked more up and down the dugout than he did in left field. Probably tired him out.”

Will Benson filled in for Kwan in left field that night and made one of the most impressive catches of the year by a Cleveland defender. He couldn’t stop smiling when discussing the grab after the game, especially as he watched a replay for the first time on a reporter’s phone.

In the ensuing days, he said, friends and family members flooded his phone with messages about the catch, and he never tires of watching it.

The Cleveland Guardians’ surge toward the postseason, as told by 4 shouting scenes
Zack Meisel
Sep 15, 2022

CLEVELAND — Cleveland holds a four-game lead in the AL Central, with a pivotal, nine-game stretch on deck against the White Sox and Twins.

These four scenes, each centered on one player’s shouting, tell the story of the 2022 Guardians, a roster full of rookies and sophomores who are implausibly charging toward a division title.


Steven Kwan (David Richard / USA Today)
1. There’s one of Steven Kwan’s shouts as he smacks the blue padding of the home dugout railing during a patented Cleveland late-game rally. Kwan has become a staple atop manager Terry Francona’s lineup, the chief table-setter for an order that functions best when its blossoming young players supply the hits. Entering the season, only José Ramírez and Franmil Reyes seemed like sure things at the plate. Reyes is now a Cub. Still, the Guardians have managed to surround Ramírez with a handful of reliable (and unexpected) sources of offense, and with the aid of new hitting coach Chris Valaika, the team has fostered an unmistakable identity that prioritizes contact and speed.

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Kwan was the first of 15 rookies who have made their major-league debut for the Guardians this season. That’s the most for the franchise in 100 years. He never anticipated making the Opening Day roster or swiftly forcing his way into an everyday role or evolving into the hitter who embodies the club’s hitting style.

The proficiency of Kwan, Andrés Giménez, Josh Naylor and Oscar Gonzalez has been one of the most critical storylines this season. Francona’s lineup is no longer a minefield of question marks.


James Karinchak (Lon Horwedel / USA Today)
2. There’s the shout by a pitcher as he steps off the mound and retreats to the dugout, the euphoric, verbal release of stress following the recording of a crucial out. Cal Quantrill doesn’t hide his emotions when he escapes a jam or punctuates a strong outing with a key strikeout. Triston McKenzie stores up his energy for those profound moments, and describes his reactions as part-Shane Bieber, part-James Karinchak (a relatively tame part) and part-Aaron Civale, but admits he doesn’t quite reach Quantrill’s animated level. Bieber flashes emotion from time to time, a slight step up on the robotic scale from his staff ace predecessor, Corey Kluber.

No production, however, involves as much choreography as Karinchak’s ritual, which includes a primal scream, some hand motions — either lifting his arms toward the sky, or pointing his index fingers down, which irked Jose Altuve — and then a brief pit stop at the umpire for a sticky substance check and a confident strut that only works for a guy carrying a sub-2.00 ERA.

When Karinchak sealed Cleveland’s sweep of the Angels on Wednesday afternoon, he took a different tack. Austin Hedges waited for him halfway between home plate and the mound, with his arms spread wide. Karinchak jumped into his catcher’s grasp, wrapped his legs around his batterymate’s back and patted him on the shoulder.

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Cleveland’s pitching staff has rounded into form in the second half, with the bullpen posting the league’s top ERA (2.20) and healthy starters routinely covering six or seven innings. That transformation from pedestrian to preeminent has fueled the team’s late-summer surge.


Cal Quantrill (Ken Blaze / USA Today)
3. There’s the booming yell, often by Quantrill or Hedges, that emanates from a table in the center of the clubhouse and rattles the loose belongings in each locker stall. It often stems from the result of a card game, an ever-present activity in the clubhouse before and after games.

Following wins, players don’t simply shower and dash home. They stick around to play cards, Mario Kart, chess or basketball on the miniature hoop hanging from a pillar in the back corner of the room. A few hours before the Cavaliers introduced Donovan Mitchell next door, Kwan practiced his post maneuvers against an imaginary defender Wednesday morning. Ramírez rushed to the scene of a shootaround session Tuesday afternoon, demanded the ball and howled “too long” as his shot clanked off the back of the rim.

For some, the basketball bug carries over to the diamond. When Gonzalez approaches third base after hitting a home run, he completes a jump shot motion. Amed Rosario, who has grown into a leadership role, always emerges from the dugout to greet Gonzalez before the final 90 feet of his trot.

Camaraderie doesn’t necessarily equate to wins on the field, but it can’t hurt. A few years ago, when the roster was older and winning was second nature, players would shower after games and then bolt. That’s customary. But this group genuinely enjoys each others’ company. It helps that the players climbed through the minors together, some in San Diego’s system and many in Cleveland’s organization.


Josh Naylor (Matt Marton / USA Today)
4. One of Naylor’s screams can startle a walleye wading through the choppy waters of Lake Erie. The Guardians have mastered the art of the late-game comeback, and when Naylor is involved in the outcome, he relocates to another dimension where the standard procedure is head-butting your manager, firing a helmet off the dugout wall and shouting at teammates, fans or no one in particular.

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Naylor has provided several seminal moments this season, including a heroic, multi-homer effort in Chicago in early May and a walk-off blast against the Twins at the end of June. For a guy who suffered what could have been a career-shortening leg injury last summer in Minnesota, such contributions might mean just a bit more.

The Guardians notched their 30th come-from-behind victory Wednesday. They are 10-4 in games decided in extra innings and 14-5 when tied after eight frames. That’s not typically the calling card for a team that employs the youngest roster in the league, but this group thrives in the late innings.

“We haven’t used (youth) as an excuse,” Quantrill said. “We said this from the very beginning: We knew we were going to be young. Nothing was going to change. We weren’t going to sign a bunch of 40-year-olds. At this point in the year, honestly, I think it’s a bonus. Our guys aren’t tired. Our guys are excited. They’re energetic.

“You look around the locker room; we’re showing up early, we’re leaving late. It’s a fun clubhouse to be in and I think we’ve chosen to take what some people would call a challenge and just make it our identity.”

Thought that was a great article.

Jose Ramirez enjoying the ride in Cleveland Guardians’ unique ‘rebuilding’ year
Updated: Sep. 15, 2022, 9:37 a.m.


By Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- There are rebuilds and there are the kind of rebuilds that the Guardians are going through in 2022.

Which begs the question can a team really be rebuilding when it’s mid-September and they’re leading the AL Central by four games with 21 games left in the regular season?

Jose Ramirez says yes.

Ramirez has been here since Day One, a 3-1 loss to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium on April 2. He has seen and done it all, including hitting the game-winning two-run homer Wednesday in a 5-3 win over the Angels at Progressive Field.


Ramirez’s 27th homer of the year gave the Guardians a 76-65 record. They are a season-high 11 games over .500 and just four wins shy of matching their total from last season.

Not bad for a rebuilding team that has already had 15 players make their big-league debut this year.

“In reality we’re in a rebuild, but it’s a bit different when you have very talented players that know how to play the game and know how to play the game the right way,” said Ramirez, through interpreter Agustin Rivero.

This is a rebuild Cleveland style.

There’s no tear down to the lug nuts. No collecting high round draft picks for six or seven years while losing 100 games per season before randomnly proclaiming that contention is the next order of business.

A Cleveland rebuild starts with the farm system that develops players such as Steven Kwan, Triston McKenzie, James Karinchak, Nick Sandlin, Oscar Gonzalez, Will Benson, Tyler Freeman, Ernie Clement and Richie Palacios. It melds that into an experienced, but still young starting rotation led by Shane Bieber, a member of the 2016 draft class along with Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac. Mix in a Rule 5 find in Trevor Stephan and some heady trades that produced Cal Quantrill, Andres Gimenez, Amed Rosario, Josh Naylor, Austin Hedges and Myles Straw. Add a free agent or two in Bryan Shaw and Luke Maile and you get a rebuilding year and team like few others.


“It’s fun to see them (play like this),” said Ramirez. “I know this is what we’re doing, but we’re going to continue doing it and as long as we keep playing our way, it’s going to be fun to watch.

“I feel it comes down to talent. They are good players, they know how to play the game and they’ve been taught how to play the game the right way. That’s what helps them to play this way.”

Ramirez was asked about rookies Kwan, Gonzalez and Gimenez. Kwan and Gonzalez are Cleveland’s corner outfielders. Gimenez represented the Guardians this year as the American League’s starting second baseman at the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium.

“I remember hearing a lot about Kwan, how good a hitter he was in the minors,” said Ramirez. “When I saw him in spring training, I was able to see the type of hitter he is.


“I’m not surprised with his performance. And the same with Gimenez, he’s a good guy, he works a lot and works hard. He takes it super seriously, so I’m not surprised with the type of success he’s had so far.”

Gonzalez, hitting behind Ramirez in the cleanup spot of late, homered in his first at-bat Wednesday for a 1-0 lead in the second inning.

“I saw him play in winter ball in the Dominican and I knew he was a good hitter,” said Ramirez. “But I’m not surprised. I knew this was the type of hitter he is and he’s going to continue to grow.”

Ramirez, himself a product of Cleveland’s farm system as a international free agent, is the man who brings the whole thing together. In April he signed a seven-year $141 million contact that should keep him in Cleveland for the rest of his career.The best thing Ramirez does is hit. His tie-breaking homer in the eighth inning Wednesday was his 27th of the season and pushed his RBI total to a career high 111.

“He’s the best player in baseball,” said Freeman.

Ramirez has 190 homers in his career, trying him with the legendary Rocky Colavito for 11th place on the franchise home-run list.

“I’m really happy with what has happened, not only with me but with the team,” he said. “I’m really excited and super thankful to the organization for the opportunity to be here. But we’ve got to keep going. I’m really excited for what we’re doing here and really excited for what is next for us.”

Ramirez is hitting .282 (147-for-522) with an AL-leading 41 doubles, four triples and 79 runs. He leads the Guardians in runs, homers and RBI. He leads the big leagues with 410 extra base hits since 2017.


In 2020, Ramirez finished second in the AL MVP voting. He finished third in 2017 and 2018. Earlier this season the switch-hitting third baseman was so hot that he was considered a favorite to finally win the awrard. Since then he’s been overshadowed by Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani.

But in the Guardians clubhouse the 5-9 Ramirez still stands tall.

“I know there’s been some really special players this year, but he deserves to be in the discussion – at least in the discussion at the end of the year,” said Quantrill, who pitched seven innings in Wednesday’s win.

Disagree with that statement anywhere in Cleveland and you might have a fight on your hands.

rusty - thanks for posting that one!!

Love pointing out that the KC, Detroit, Baltimore, Marlins type "rebuilds" with 100 losses for year after year are NOT acceptable here.

And with good management no city should have to go through that garbage.

Mark,

Whole article did not post. Here is the rest.

The best thing Ramirez does is hit. His tie-breaking homer in the eighth inning Wednesday was his 27th of the season and pushed his RBI total to a career high 111.

“He’s the best player in baseball,” said Freeman.

Ramirez has 190 homers in his career, trying him with the legendary Rocky Colavito for 11th place on the franchise home-run list.

“I’m really happy with what has happened, not only with me but with the team,” he said. “I’m really excited and super thankful to the organization for the opportunity to be here. But we’ve got to keep going. I’m really excited for what we’re doing here and really excited for what is next for us.”

Ramirez is hitting .282 (147-for-522) with an AL-leading 41 doubles, four triples and 79 runs. He leads the Guardians in runs, homers and RBI. He leads the big leagues with 410 extra base hits since 2017.


In 2020, Ramirez finished second in the AL MVP voting. He finished third in 2017 and 2018. Earlier this season the switch-hitting third baseman was so hot that he was considered a favorite to finally win the awrard. Since then he’s been overshadowed by Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani.

But in the Guardians clubhouse the 5-9 Ramirez still stands tall.

“I know there’s been some really special players this year, but he deserves to be in the discussion – at least in the discussion at the end of the year,” said Quantrill, who pitched seven innings in Wednesday’s win.

Disagree with that statement anywhere in Cleveland and you might have a fight on your hands.

Yeah ordinarily I would think Ohtani is almost automatic. But the freakish year Judge is having I'd vote for him.

JRam definitely #3 though. No shame in that!!

And when you take in all the intangibles he has brought to this ultra young team....who is to say?? But tough to quantify that.

What are the Cleveland Guardians’ AL Central title scenarios?

Aug 9, 2022; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Cleveland Guardians shortstop Amed Rosario (1) receives congratulations from teammates after scoring in the eighth inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
By Zack Meisel
Sep 16, 2022
16

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CLEVELAND — Twenty games separate the Guardians from the end of the regular season. Their magic number stands at 17, meaning any combination of Cleveland wins and losses by the second-place team in the division that totals 17 will result in the Guardians claiming the AL Central crown.

But how many victories will Cleveland actually need over the final three weeks to secure its first division title since 2018?

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Let’s start by looking at the remaining schedules for the three contenders.

CLE (76-66): five vs. MIN, three @CWS, three @TEX, three vs. TB, six vs. KC

CWS (74-70): three @DET, three vs. CLE, three vs. DET, three @MIN, three @SD, three vs. MIN

MIN (72-70): five @CLE, three @KC, three vs. LAA, three vs. CWS, three @DET, three @CWS

FanGraphs’ AL Central title odds
Cleveland: 72.4 percent
Chicago: 18.9 percent
Minnesota: 8.7 percent

A few notes:

• We’ll learn a lot over the next week, as the Guardians face the Twins five times and the White Sox three times. Really, they just need to survive the week to be in good shape, but if they rattle off a bunch of wins, they can push the White Sox to the brink and all but bid adieu to the Twins.

• Entering Friday, Cleveland has a three-game edge over Chicago, but a four-game lead in the loss column over the White Sox and Twins. Chicago has played two more games than the other two teams, which means it has less of an opportunity to make up ground.

• There is no Game 163 this year if teams finish in a tie atop the standings. The tiebreaker is based on head-to-head results. The Guardians sit one victory shy of securing the tiebreaker against both Chicago and Minnesota. They’re 9-7 against the White Sox, with that three-game set at Guaranteed Rate Field looming next week. They’re 9-5 against the Twins, with a five-game bout on tap this weekend at Progressive Field. So, with one win against each team, Cleveland will essentially gain an extra game in the standings against both clubs.

• While the Guardians host the Royals for a six-game series at the end of the season, the White Sox must travel from Minnesota to San Diego, then host the Twins for the final set of the year. That’s a daunting cap to the schedule. Cleveland could benefit from Chicago and Minnesota dishing uppercuts at each other as time runs out.

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• Triston McKenzie will start the series opener for the Guardians on Friday night, with Shane Bieber and Konnor Pilkington tag-teaming the Saturday doubleheader. Cody Morris will pitch Sunday and Cal Quantrill will close out the mega-series Monday afternoon.

The Guardians wanted to avoid a scenario in which, say, Hunter Gaddis, Pilkington and Morris pitched on consecutive days, fearing the stress that would place on their bullpen. They also preferred not to pitch Gaddis on Wednesday against the Angels, because they would have then needed him to pitch again Monday. So, they sacrificed him to the White Sox on Thursday (and then optioned him back to Triple-A Columbus), and now they’ll pray McKenzie, Bieber and Quantrill can chew up a bunch of innings against the Twins. All three rank in the top 10 in the American League in innings pitched.

Cleveland is hopeful Aaron Civale will make his return in Chicago next week, though the Omaha Storm Chasers whacked him around in his rehab start Thursday. McKenzie and Bieber should also be in line to face the White Sox.

• Whichever team wins the division will likely host the Mariners, Rays or Blue Jays for a best-of-three set in the wild-card round. Those three teams are all bunched together in the standings, with the Orioles 4 1/2 games back. Barring some drastic change, no AL Central team will crash the wild-card party, so the playoff hopes for Cleveland, Chicago and Minnesota all lie within the AL Central battle.

• Let’s say the Guardians go 10-10 the rest of the way, and notch at least one win apiece against the White Sox and Twins. In that scenario, they would finish 86-76. (The 1997 team that squandered Game 7 of the World Series finished 86-75, for whatever it’s worth.) If Cleveland goes 10-10, the White Sox would need to go 13-5 to win the division (since they would need to finish one game ahead of Cleveland, without the benefit of the tiebreaker). The Twins would need to go 15-5 to win the division.

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• Will the Guardians “crumble,” as White Sox shortstop Elvis Andrus forecasted earlier this week? His quote made the rounds in Cleveland’s clubhouse. Catcher Austin Hedges said he wishes the baseball season included more talk along those lines.

“That’s great. It’s fun,” Hedges said. “Baseball needs more of that.”

AL Central title race: Guardians, White Sox set to battle; Twins left to lick their wounds

Jul 23, 2022; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Cleveland Guardians shortstop Amed Rosario (1) scores as Chicago White Sox catcher Seby Zavala (44) makes a late tag during the fifth inning in game one of a doubleheader at Guaranteed Rate Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
By Dan Hayes, Zack Meisel, and James Fegan
4h ago
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The Guardians lead the White Sox by four games in the American League Central heading into Tuesday’s series opener in Chicago. The Twins face the White Sox six more times but are seven games back after dropping four of five in Cleveland. The Athletic’s beat writers for each team discuss the race for the division crown with two weeks remaining in the season.

Zack Meisel (Guardians writer): Well, here we are. A series to potentially determine the fate of the AL Central.

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And … wait a second, what is Twins writer Dan Hayes doing here?

The Guardians took care of the Twins during their exhausting, five-game series. Minnesota now needs a miracle to hang around until the end of this race. I guess Dan can comment on that.

But, James, set the scene for us as the Guardians and White Sox prepare for a three-game duel with significant implications. The battle for AL Central supremacy. The Francona-La Russa/Cairo/that fan sitting behind home plate Cup. Someone has to win this thing. Will we inch closer to an answer over the next few days?

James Fegan (Prisoner of the moment/White Sox writer): The Guardians certainly can take the playground ball that is the AL Central race, and punt it over the railroad tracks this week in Chicago. Winning a single game gives them the season series tiebreaker, and puts their end-of-season responsibilities at “don’t collapse,” for an end-of-season stretch capped off by six home games against the Royals. Winning this series outright shifts their responsibilities to “don’t get too drunk and slip on the tarp during the clubhouse celebration.” A Guardians sweep would just be kind of mean, and involve a lot of “Stop, he’s already dead” GIFs from “The Simpsons” being posted in the hellscape mentions of the beleaguered White Sox Twitter account.

A White Sox sweep is really the only scenario that gives us a furious race to the finish to follow, which really challenges the typical baseball mantra of “take it one game at a time.”

Sox outfielder AJ Pollock tried his best on Sunday to stick to the script: “We’ve got to win the first one, and then we’ve got to win the second one and then after that, we’ve got to win the third one.”

You get the idea.

I hope I don’t offend anyone, but the 2022 Cleveland Guardians are not the best team ever built. But they do seem to be designed in a lab to flummox this White Sox group. Their tenacious team speed and aggression on the basepaths seem conjured to stick a finger in the eye of the glacial White Sox defense. Their contact-oriented approach stymies a Sox pitching staff that is largely trying to blow you away. Adjusting to and conquering this style of baseball would serve as a sort of deliverance from the flaws and mistakes that have defined most of the White Sox season.

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“They’re playing good baseball; I think we’re playing good baseball right now, too,” Andrew Vaughn said. “They’re going to play the same they always have. They pitch well, they can swing the bat. We’ve just got to do those things better.”

They are aware of this. It is odd to hear baseball players talk about seeking “retribution” via going first-to-third on a single, but that is how the Guardians’ offense has made the White Sox feel.


Amed Rosario hits a home run against the Minnesota Twins on Monday. (Ken Blaze / USA Today)
Dan Hayes (Twins writer): Zack, I’m never leaving.

I’m going to stay here to continually annoy you guys with reminders that I will be on vacation starting in two weeks and you won’t. I’ll send postcards from some exotic locale while one of you is freezing cold at a playoff workout and the other is explaining how it all fell apart. And when one of you has to be at the ballpark obscenely early or awfully late because TV will inevitably screw over this division due to poor ratings, I’ll text you then to go on about how the resort perfectly dips the margarita glasses in salt.

I haven’t even picked where I’m headed yet because money is no object. Even though I’m charging only $2 per session, I’ve already cashed in, like, $25,000 consoling Twins fans who are muttering something about bad bullpens and comparing Emilio Pagán’s struggles against Cleveland (he has a 9.90 ERA in 10 innings) to the legendary Ron Davis.

In 16 seasons covering baseball, I’ve never seen anything like this. With the exception of the previous weekend in Minneapolis, the Twins have largely owned innings one through six against Cleveland. Then the Guardians usually wake up, storm back and feast off the Twins’ bullpen. It doesn’t matter which reliever it is, they’ve all struggled at least once.

Even with all the injuries, and there are too many to count, the Twins could have locked up the division if the bullpen was perfect. While it’s unfair to request perfection — especially when you have a team like the Guardians that can foul off pitches to death, and the Twins’ offensive issues have set up their failures — the possibility existed and the Twins didn’t capitalize.

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Which means I have a head start on writing the team’s obituary, even though we’re all in agreement you’ll both be joining me soon.

Fegan: Death, taxes, postgame beers with Hayes.

Hayes: And relevant movie GIFs. Don’t forget the movie GIFs.

Meisel: That this division might belong to Cleveland is pretty bewildering — to me, to you guys, to all but 28 guys on the roster and a coach or two. It’s not as though their front office added some free agents in March or swung some trades in July to load up for a playoff chase. Everyone has asked if the Guardians’ plucky style of offense is sustainable, but I can’t really answer it any other way than to just shrug and point at the field while they slap the baseball around and run around the bases like kindergartners who just chugged a supersized Pixy Stix.

Their pitching has fueled this late-season charge to the top. Shane Bieber, Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill have chewed up innings and shut down hitters. (The White Sox will see the first two this week.) Their bullpen, despite the occasional Rocco Baldelli Head & Shoulders Challenge, is exceptionally un-Twins-like.

It’s been a refreshing brand of baseball to watch. That is, unless you’re a fan of the team they’re playing. I don’t know if they’ll keep the same identity next year or beyond. There might be some personnel changes that influence that. But I know this: 2022 was the year for Chicago or Minnesota or someone to capitalize on Cleveland’s youth.

Hayes: Can that youth hold on two more weeks? I’m fascinated by Cleveland and have been since its eight games with the Twins in June. The starting pitching is good, the bullpen is great and the lineup is fun. José Ramírez receiving any kind of support makes them intriguing to watch.

The Kansas City buffer in their final six games is absurdly fortunate. But young teams always seem susceptible to the emotional roller-coaster ride — playing red hot, then cooling off and becoming a shell of themselves.

We saw it Sept. 9 at Target Field. Cleveland took the big early lead and then made so many uncharacteristic mistakes. After the budding romance between plate umpire Ted Barrett and James Karinchak (sorry, Ted), the pitcher yielded his first homer of the season and it took the brilliance of Emmanuel Clase to save them. Do you think they can get through the next week without another downturn?

Meisel: That’s where manager Terry Francona helps. I’m with you, I keep waiting for the inexperience to rear its head. But the Guardians have rebounded from every downturn this season, whether it’s avoiding the panic button while trailing in the late innings — as you’ve witnessed ad nauseam, Dan — or recovering after a rough series. Francona and his staff have always been adept at keeping the players level-headed. There are some “2016 lite” vibes with this bunch in that regard.

It doesn’t always have to make sense, especially with a young group. I don’t want to reveal too much of an upcoming Steven Kwan feature, but he often thinks of a line from a book he read that suggested humans are terrible at predicting the future. The line didn’t mention that it especially holds true for those who follow Major League Baseball, but it should have.

No one thought Kwan or Oscar Gonzalez would blossom the way they have. No one expected Trevor Stephan to develop into a steady setup man. No one would have imagined Andrés Giménez’s name would surface on the lower portion of voters’ AL MVP ballots. So maybe the Guardians are just destined to win this division, and we shouldn’t have spent the last month or two being so skeptical.


Eloy Jiménez has been a catalyst for the White Sox of late. (Kamil Krzaczynski / USA Today)
Fegan: It should probably at least be acknowledged that the reason we’re talking about this series with any anticipation is the White Sox have somewhat discovered the brand of baseball they were supposed to play all year: bash the shit out of the baseball so much that nothing else matters.

They have hit .274/.327/.460 in 19 games under acting manager Miguel Cairo, or simply out from under manager Tony La Russa’s concept of offensive approach, and bashed 31 home runs. A fully operational Eloy Jiménez is wholly out of place with the Guardians’ style of baseball, and also an offensive weapon beyond anything else being touted in the division.

Imagine Byron Buxton if he couldn’t run … OK, but if he also wasn’t trying to run … but also everyone is fine with him not running because it’s not his purpose to run. Jiménez is carrying this team and has spearheaded what should be a good battle of types between offensive firepower and, you know, baseball fundamentals.

Also, I don’t have a logical segue for it, but Lance Lynn has successfully added a sweeping slider and is effective against lefties now.

Hayes: Well, Lynn and whoever else pitches in those last six meetings with the Twins (Sept. 27-29 in Minneapolis; Oct. 3-5 in Chicago) will have to do some serious research for the game plan. I’m not sure who will be in uniform for the Twins for those series aside from Carlos Correa, Luis Arraez, Nick Gordon and Jose Miranda.

After the Twins dropped four of five in Cleveland, I’m going to test Kwan’s theory about predictions. I highly doubt Buxton, Jorge Polanco or Max Kepler resurface this season. They’re all dealing with hip and knee injuries. Maybe we’ll still see Trevor Larnach and Ryan Jeffers. But the last four days have to have reduced the Twins’ urgency to push their injured guys. That could throw another wrinkle into the final two weeks.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy working these next few weeks. I’m headed to the beach.

Guardians take a massive step toward AL Central title: ‘This ain’t Nintendo’

Cleveland Guardians' Steven Kwan, center, is congratulated in the dugout after scoring on Jose Ramirez's sacrifice fly against the Chicago White Sox during the 11th inning of a baseball game Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, in Chicago. The Guardians won 10-7. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
By Zack Meisel
3h ago
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CHICAGO — Every day for nearly a week now, Mike Barnett, the Guardians’ replay coordinator and the victim of most of manager Terry Francona’s pranks, has proudly donned a red T-shirt displaying his own face.

A few other members of the organization have sported the shirt in recent days, but Barnett has made it a habit, citing the team’s performance since the traveling secretary handed them out. On the back of the shirt reads a Barnett quote: “This ain’t Nintendo.”

That’s the longtime coach’s way of saying nothing comes easy, especially something worth hard work. On Tuesday, the Guardians landed a pivotal jab in the battle for AL Central supremacy. It didn’t come easy: They waited out another rain delay, pestered a Cy Young candidate, stormed back from a late-inning deficit, survived a rare blown save and a blatant missed call at home plate, and ambushed opposing pitchers with bloops and slaps and hits to the gaps.

Not even the infamous “Gray Cloud” could prevent them from capturing a critical win that moved them one giant step toward a division title. Francona’s longtime friend and former college teammate Bill Kinneberg attended the series opener against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. He sat on a bench in the visitors dugout before the game, just as storm clouds started forming. Francona, of course, pinned the blame on his buddy. The manager also wondered whether Kinneberg’s presence might serve as some sort of “reverse jinx” against Dylan Cease, whose slider had so much zip in his last start against Cleveland that “you could hear it,” Francona said.

Cease ultimately became a footnote in Cleveland’s 10-7, 11-inning victory, in large part because Aaron Civale, making his first start in three weeks, matched his proficiency. Civale said he remembers starting against the White Sox last September, the day Chicago whacked him around for four home runs in 1 2/3 innings.

“It’s been in the back of my mind for a while,” Civale said.

The Guardians own a five-game lead over the White Sox with 14 games remaining. With the win Tuesday, they also secured the tiebreaker against Chicago, so it’s really a six-game lead. If the clubs are tied after Game 162, the Guardians would advance to the postseason.


It was fitting that the Guardians waited until after midnight ET to nail down the win. They continue to plug along and prove people wrong, no matter who is paying attention or sleeping on them. Despite Elvis Andrus’ claims that Cleveland would “crumble,” the Guardians have done the opposite, saving their best baseball for their September meetings with the teams clumsily chasing them in the standings.

Enyel De Los Santos, the Guardians’ unheralded, pre-lockout addition (on a minor-league deal), threw a scoreless ninth to preserve the tie. He has logged a 3.10 ERA, a 2.81 FIP and more than a strikeout per inning this season.

Steven Kwan, the rookie who six months ago never expected to crack the Opening Day roster, supplied four more hits out of the leadoff spot. He’s the catalyst for Cleveland’s lineup, and when the team is employing its “Death by 1,000 Paper Cuts” approach, he’s almost always involved.

Myles Straw, who has floundered at the plate since early May, entered Tuesday’s game with a .389 average over the previous two weeks. He tacked on a timely two-run double in the 11th to jump-start the decisive offensive barrage. Cleveland’s five runs in the 11th were the club’s most in that inning in 14 years.

“I figured it wouldn’t be horrible all year long, so I thought this would be a good time to turn it around,” Straw said.

When Straw scored the third run of the 11th, Amed Rosario was standing on deck, so he didn’t need to travel far to praise his teammate. An inning earlier, though, when Josh Naylor delivered a go-ahead single, Rosario dashed out of the visitors dugout, across the track and onto the grass to commend him. As Naylor, lifted for a pinch runner, retreated to the bench, he reminded all South Side denizens that he has, uh, fared quite well in their neighborhood this season.


Josh Naylor’s single in the 10th gave the Guardians the lead, but it took another inning to finish off Chicago. (Matt Marton / USA Today)
The Guardians improved their record in extra-inning affairs to 12-4 this season.

“I feel like we thrive on (close games),” Straw said.

FanGraphs’ projection model now gives Cleveland a 96.3 percent chance of capturing the division crown. The Guardians have Triston McKenzie and Shane Bieber, the anchors of their rotation, pitching the next two nights in Chicago.

“It’s a lot of good baseball happening,” Kwan said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

The Guardians have won 13 of their past 16 games to surge toward October. Their dramatic triumph Tuesday was their most profound entry in the win column yet, even if it didn’t come easy.

“That’s playoff baseball right there,” Straw said. “Nothing’s going to be easy, so you try to win those games however you can.”

Keith Law: MLB players I was wrong about, from Spencer Strider to Andrés Giménez




By Keith Law

At the end of every season, I look at players who’ve succeeded in the majors beyond the expectations I had for them and explain where my projections for those players went wrong. Sometimes it’s what I saw (or didn’t see), sometimes it’s a matter of incomplete information from sources, but regardless of the reasons, they’re my mistakes, and it’s on me to learn from them to improve my projections for other players who might show similarities to these guys in the future. Last year, I wrote about just one player, Austin Riley, going deeper into the massive changes he made to his approach to go from a sub-.300 OBP guy to a viable MVP candidate. This year, I’m returning to my old format of identifying several players who made substantial changes or otherwise crumpled up what I wrote about them and threw it in the wastebasket. Good for them, if not for me.

Andrés Giménez, SS, Cleveland

The Guardians have returned to contention this year thanks to several big steps forward from hitters in their mid-20s who had yet to fulfill the expectations laid on them when they were prospects. Amed Rosario is having his best season at the plate and in the field, with a 3.5 WAR total that’s nearly double what he was worth a year ago. (He could stand to take a walk now and then.) Josh Naylor came into the season with 0.2 career WAR, and has been worth a full win this year, nearly doubling his career home run total and staying healthy for most of the season. But nobody on the roster has been as big of a surprise as Andrés Giménez, who is now sitting on 6.4 WAR, one year after he hit .218/.282/.351 and looked like he might struggle to hold a major-league job.

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Giménez made my top 100 just once as a prospect, landing at No. 97 before the 2019 season, where I praised his plus defense at shortstop and superb baserunning, but questioned the bat: “At the plate, however, he doesn’t project to have much impact — at the very least, he has to get a lot stronger, and he doesn’t have the body or swing to ever be a big power guy.” That looked accurate until this year, but Giménez has made several small changes that have added up to a big boost in both power (16 homers) and quality of contact.

Giménez’s hard-hit rate was below-average in 2020 at 26.4 percent, and crept up to adequate last year at 30.4 percent, still nothing to write home about. (Does one write home about hard-hit rates? Should I? You never call, you never write about hard-hit rates.) This year he’s all the way up to 37.5 percent, which amounts to 25 more hard-hit balls this year based on his batted balls through Sunday’s games. If I told you a hitter could convert one soft or medium-hit ball a week into a hard-hit one, you’d take it, right?


Andrés Giménez (David Richard / USA Today)
He’s also improved his production on offspeed stuff, especially, somewhat oddly, on changeups, a pitch he’s destroyed this year, hitting .400 on changeups with a .738 slugging percentage, with a hard-hit rate of 51 percent on that pitch. He hit .160/.250 on changeups in 2021, for comparison. He’s not hitting them more often, but when he hits them, he hits them a lot harder. To be fair, I never saw an issue with him hitting non-fastballs; I just saw a guy who never hit the ball hard, and didn’t have the swing to do so.

Chris Valaika, the Guardians’ new hitting coach, spoke about the small changes that have made such a big difference for Giménez, especially eliminating his leg kick. “His big issue was getting on to that front side,” says Valaika. “We wanted to get him into a more consistent spot where he could use the ground. With the leg kick, he was losing the ground early. The results from that limited him, and he’d get those low top spinning singles.”

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By getting rid of the leg kick, Giménez now uses his lower half more to generate more power, and also comes at the ball from a slightly lower starting point, so his angle through contact is better — his average launch angle is up from 8.8 degrees last year to 12.8 this year, and his rates in the optimal ranges are up slightly as well (e.g., between 26-30 degrees, he’s up from 5.8 percent last year to 6.8 percent this year). I think that’s a smaller part of the equation than the way he’s generating more power from his legs, though; the swing is a little different, but he’s gone from slapping the ball using just upper-body strength to using his whole body to drive the ball, especially to his pull side. The Guardians get a ton of credit in the industry for the development work they’ve done on the pitching side, turning a bunch of command right-handers from college into above-average or better big-league starters, but they have a reputation for getting less from their hitting prospects over the same timespan. That might be about to change if their work with Giménez is any indication.

With Will Brennan, Gabriel Arias up, Cleveland Guardians’ ultimate roster coming into focus



Sep 21, 2022; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Cleveland Guardians right fielder Will Brennan (63) hits an RBI single against the Chicago White Sox during the third inning at Guaranteed Rate Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports
By Zack Meisel
Sep 21, 2022

CHICAGO — Andy Tracy had cautioned his players at Triple-A Columbus to avoid employing the “Do Not Disturb” feature on their phones at this point in the season, and to answer every phone call.

Sure enough, Will Brennan’s phone rang at 1 a.m. ET on Wednesday. He never saved his manager’s number, though. So, the name “Tiffany Tracy” popped up, his service provider’s best guess as to the identity of the caller.

“She obviously pays the phone bill,” Brennan joked Wednesday afternoon.

A couple of hours after they were together at the ballpark, Andy Tracy asked what Brennan was doing. Brennan replied he was in bed.

“Oh, you’re not out?” Tracy said.

“Absolutely not, Coach,” Brennan said. “We have a game tomorrow.”

Two games, in fact, as the Clippers’ game at Toledo on Tuesday night, which ultimately went 13 innings, was suspended in the 11th because of rain.

“That’s good,” Tracy said, “because you’re going to go meet the team in Chicago and help them win.”

Brennan said he reacted by shouting “a couple words that I shouldn’t say right now.” About 15 minutes later, he received a text from his new manager, Terry Francona — “in all lowercase,” Brennan specified — to relay that he’d be starting for the Guardians in right field Wednesday at Guaranteed Rate Field. Brennan woke up his mom, his grandparents and his girlfriend, several of whom immediately cried, he said.

Brennan had four family members and two of his Kansas State college coaches at the game Wednesday. Francona said he could hear them, but Brennan couldn’t find them. “It was like playing ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Brennan said.

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, Brennan and Gabriel Arias replaced Ernie Clement and Richie Palacios, who were designated for assignment and optioned to Triple A, respectively. This is the next evolution of a Cleveland roster that is zeroing in on a division title. The Guardians brought a coffin with them to Chicago; they just need to find a shovel Thursday night and they can all but officially bury the White Sox.

The team’s brass has kicked around these transactions for a few weeks. Brennan, especially, could have joined the Guardians weeks ago (or even months ago), especially when Myles Straw was mired in a dreadful stretch at the plate. But when president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti asked where Brennan would receive regular playing time, Francona wasn’t quite sure. So, they opted to keep him at Triple A to play every day and continue his development. Straw rediscovering his swing in September helped to justify that decision a bit, though there have been opportunities for another hitter, given the club’s vacancy at designated hitter.

With Columbus about to embark on the final week of its season and the Guardians charging toward October, the team determined it was the right time to enhance their major-league roster. Brennan batted seventh in his debut and socked an RBI single up the middle in his second plate appearance. He tacked on another single later in the 8-2 victory, the Guardians’ 14th win in their last 17 games. He became the 16th Cleveland rookie to debut in 2022, the most the franchise has had in a season in 100 years.

Brennan was doused with blue Gatorade on the field and every liquid in sight once he returned to the clubhouse after the game.

“I had no idea that was coming, to be honest with you,” he said. “I will never forget that, ever again. That was awesome.”

Both players could be eligible for the postseason roster. Any player on the 40-man roster before September is eligible, which covers Arias. Brennan was added to the 40-man roster Wednesday, but any player in the organization prior to September can replace a player who is on the injured list. So, for example, Brennan could claim Anthony Gose’s spot.


Gabriel Arias heads out to second base during his MLB debut on April 20. (David Richard / USA Today)
This is Arias’ third stint with the Guardians this season. He swung by Progressive Field to start both ends of an April doubleheader against the White Sox. He rejoined the club for a few days in early July. A shortstop by trade who can also handle second or third base, Arias has learned first base and left field in recent weeks to boost his versatility. He worked at first base during Wednesday’s pregame session. Arias posted a .240/.310/.406 slash line in 77 games with Columbus, a year after logging a .284/.348/.454 clip at Triple A.

Brennan, meanwhile, started the season at Double-A Akron. Francona and several members of the front office have made Steven Kwan comparisons, at least in terms of the profile, which is rooted in a lot of contact, a high on-base percentage and some stolen bases.

“The same adjectives,” Francona said. “The same type of kid. A competitor, which, to me, is a pretty high compliment. … I’ve been hearing people talk about him since spring training.”

Kwan told Francona he’d show Brennan around on his first day. The manager was appreciative of the way one rookie could guide another. Kwan and Brennan chatted in right field during defensive practice before the game.

“That’s my hero,” Brennan said.

“He’s being a little dramatic with that,” Kwan countered.

Brennan registered a .314/.371/.479 slash line in 129 minor-league games this season. He totaled 20 stolen bases and 40 doubles and recorded an elite strikeout rate of 11.7 percent.

When he was in elementary school, Brennan attended a Red Sox-Royals game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. He approached Francona, then Boston’s manager, who signed a baseball for him. Brennan then pressed his luck, and asked if Francona could help him land an autograph from Dustin Pedroia.

“I think I said something to him not very …” Francona’s voice trailed off, leaving us to assume he uttered words similar to the ones Brennan shouted when he received the 1 a.m. call.

Kwan told Francona he’d show Brennan around on his first day. The manager was appreciative of the way one rookie could guide another. Kwan and Brennan chatted in right field during defensive practice before the game.

“That’s my hero,” Brennan said.

“He’s being a little dramatic with that,” Kwan countered.

This has been consistent all year. The young kids all know Kwan and he acclimates them to the big leagues as only he can do.

Kwan quickly has become MVP #2 on this team after Jose. And the leader of the kids.