The Cleveland Guardians Need Upgrades To Bolster World Series Chances
The Cleveland Guardians are the best team in MLB—at least for the time being. With last night’s 10-8 win over the Baltimore Orioles and losses by the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies, their 51-26 record is now the best in the majors by a few percentage points.
Their ascension to the top of the standings took baseball by surprise. After a 76-86 finish last season, FanGraphs’ preseason projections pegged them to go 80-82 this year and gave them a 33.4% chance of reaching the playoffs. As of today, those projections have been upgraded to an expected 92-70 record and 94.1% playoff chances.
The Guardians’ ascendance is attributed to several standout performers, starting with left fielder Steven Kwan, who leads MLB with a .385 batting average and a 97.6% zone-contact rate. David Fry came out of nowhere with a .309/.421/.525 slash line while rotating between catcher, designated hitter, and outfielder. Third baseman José Ramírez is enjoying his usual All-Star caliber campaign, and first baseman Josh Naylor’s 20 home runs make last offseason’s trade speculation seem laughable.
Cleveland’s secret not-so-secret weapon is the best bullpen in MLB, including closer Emmanuel Clase’s 0.70 ERA and 0.65 WHIP. Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, and Cade Smith also have ERAs under 2.00 and average fewer than once basreunner allowed per inning. Collectively, they have an incredible team bullpen ERA of 2.34—the next-best in MLB is the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 3.02.
Despite how well they’re playing, they have some key areas in where they can improve by making additions at the trade deadline—especially up the middle. Shortstop has been a black hole for the past few years. Rookie Brayan Rocchio is batting .214/.316/.303 and has a 2nd percentile hard-hit rate. Gabriel Arias hasn’t been any better, sporting a .262 on-base percentage.
