The Cleveland Guardians open the season Thursday in Kansas City with a few new faces in the field, after the team traded second baseman Andrés Giménez and first baseman Josh Naylor in the offseason.
The team is coming off a surprise playoff run under first-year manager Stephen Vogt, winning the American League Central Division with 92 wins and reaching the American League Championship Series.
Ideastream Public Media’s sports commentator Terry Pluto says there are some questions surrounding the offseason moves.
“I'm trying to just be more upbeat than I kind of am because I'm concerned on a couple of areas,” Pluto said.
Gabriel Arias has been named the team’s second baseman to replace Giménez.
“This guy's been up and down from the minors for about three years and he's a sort of a failed prospect and he's getting one last shot at it,” Pluto said.
Carlos Santana is returning to Cleveland. The 38-year-old spent last season with Minnesota, batting .238 with 23 homers and 71 RBIs in 150 games. He also won his first Gold Glove, becoming the oldest position player to win the honor for the first time. Santana previously was with Cleveland from 2010-17. He returned in 2019, made his first All-Star team and spent two seasons with the club before signing as a free agent with the Kansas City Royals.
“Santana is one of my favorite players, and he's taken over first base for Naylor, but he's knocking on the 40-year-old door,” Pluto said.
This past weekend, the Guardians traded utility player Tyler Freeman to Colorado for outfielder Nolan Jones. Jones, 26, returns to Cleveland after he made his big-league debut with the Guardians in 2022. The second-round pick in the 2016 amateur draft was traded to the Rockies in November 2022 for infielder Juan Brito.
“It's the classic thing of, maybe we liked him more than we did the first time we traded him, because Nolan Jones, if he's healthy, and that's a big if, has a chance to hit for some power," Pluto said. "So that's what that's about. When you lose 30 home runs and 100 RBIs as they did with Josh Naylor, they're shopping around."
The Guardians struggled with starting pitching last season, losing several starters to injuries. During the offseason they re-signed Shane Bieber amid his rehab from Tommy John (elbow ligament) surgery, who will likely be ready to start later this summer.
“In my mind, while they have a couple of starters I really like, Tanner Bibee and Gavin Williams, (who) was hurt last year, he’s thrown very well this year," Pluto said. "After that you're into Ben Lively, who's sort of a journeyman."
Rounding out the starting rotation is Logan Allen and Luis Ortiz, who came to Cleveland in a trade with Pittsburgh.
“I don't know what happened to (Ortiz),” Pluto said. "He had good control when he pitched for Pittsburgh. He was walking people all over the place in spring training. I mean, he's going to be in the rotation, and they keep saying they're not alarmed, but I am.”
The Guardians had the best bullpen in baseball last season. Pluto believes it will still be strong.
“The thing to watch, see how Emmanuel Clase does during the regular season,” Pluto said.
Clase is Cleveland’s three-time All-Star closer who led the American League with 47 saves in 2024. But he collapsed in the postseason, surrendering eight runs in eight innings, representing an increase in ERA from 0.61 to 9.00.
Also in the bullpen is Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, Cade Smith, Paul Sewald, Jakob Junis, Triston McKenzie and Joey Cantillo.
Pluto makes his annual Guardians regular season prediction with caution this season.
“I'm all over the place of my predictions because they (the Guardians) continually surprise me,” Pluto said.
Last season, Pluto predicted they would finish 72-90. They ended up going 92-69.
“(This year) I got them with 84 wins, so that's 84-78, and I hope I'm wrong,” Pluto said. “The one thing about the Guardians, I broke my rule last year when we were talking about this; They're never bad and I should have stayed with that. Some years they're better than others, but in the last 12 years they've had only two losing records. They've been to the playoffs seven times."
