Rebuilding Cleveland Guardians for 2026

Rebuilding Cleveland Guardians for 2026

The Cleveland Guardians made a historic mid-season turnaround, swiping the AL Central crown from the Detroit Tigers to then lose to those Tigers in the wild card. Now with an important offseason to fix the issues of the team, will the front office actually make moves to improve the team or will they stick to their cheapkate ways? Hello, my name is Avery Taylor and welcome to Rebuild October, a series where we rebuild a new team every day across the month of October. So whether you’re looking for your favorite team or just generally curious as to how every team should approach the offseason, then this is the series for you. And with that, let’s jump right into the video. As you can see from the war by position, it paints a good picture of where this team is at. The pitching continues to be incredible, especially in that bullpen. While the offense, aside from Ramirez and Quan, has a lot of issues. And that offense should be the primary focus of this off season. However, before we can talk about the additions to the roster, we have to talk about the impending free agents. The Guardians are faced with three unrestricted free agents as well as one club option. For the unrestricted free agents, the Guardians will watch them all hit the open market as all of them are fairly replaceable. As for the one club option, they have a $6 million club option over John Means. The Guardians signed this contract with full knowledge of Means 2025, potentially being a lost cause after Tommy John’s surgery. He made some minor league appearances, but never cracked the major league roster. Means is the ultimate wild card because he’s made a total of 10 starts since the start of 2022. However, every time he steps onto the mound, he’s still very good. While the Guardians did have a rotation that improved massively during the second half of the season, Means has enough upside that the Guardians might as well take a flyer on him to start the season and can always move on if he gets injured or underperform. As for prospects the team could turn to, the first has to be the team’s number one overall pick in 2024, Travis Bazana. Bazanna really turned things around in the second half of the season and was able to make it to AAA and performed fairly well there in 26 games. He’s a little different to the prospect that we expected coming out because his extremely plus hit tool has yet to really show through. While he has an incredibly high walk rate, his batting average and strikeout rate are just not where a 65 grade hit tool should be. However, the upside is undoubtedly there. And this is where my rebuild will look much different to what the Guardians will probably actually do. The Guardians need some life from their upthe-middle bats. And while Bazana probably needs more time in the minor leagues, he’s going to be my second baseman to start the season. Chase Delotter actually made the wild card roster for the Guardians despite not playing any games during the regular season at the major league level. Delau is one of those cases where he’s as talented as they come, but struggles to actually make it onto the field. Since the start of the 2023 season, Delotter has only played in 138 games. So, with roughly one full season of play across the last three years, Chase has an 888 OPS with 20 homers across that time. He is quick enough to play in center, but can play all three outfield spots. And if he can get some confidence in his health, he can also swipe a few bags. As a fellow West Virginia native, I have to push Delau to the major leagues. Not only because I want to, but because the Guardians need life in that offense, and we know it won’t come from free agency. Another name the Guardians will see at some point during the season is Angel Janelle. Angel is a shortstop prospect with a hit overpowered type bat. He’s a plus infielder and that combined with his hit tool should carry him to the majors relatively quickly. However, it just won’t be at the start of the season. It’s a similar story for Cooper Engel, a catching prospect that reached Triple A last season. There is definitely a case for Engle to make the major league roster out the gate as a backup catcher. However, with the bat overfield type profile, I need to see more from him at the AAA level than what he showed in a small sample last year. A prospect further down the system that will make the major league roster is Parker Messik, who had an incredible debut run with the Guardians last season. In seven starts, he had a 2.72 RA with a great strikeout to walk rate and was a large part of the rotation’s turnaround late last year. Messi absolutely deserves a spot on this 2026 roster and it’ll be in the starting rotation. Another name that will grace the 2026 roster is Khal Watson. Watson, aside from his hit tool, has a great set of tools. He has some good pop, some good speed, a good arm, and feels the outfield at a solid level. He’ll make the 2026 roster as a fourth outfielder to provide a jolt to this uninspiring unit. For other players returning to the roster, it’ll be Bo Naylor behind the dish, Kyle Manardo at first, Gabriel Arias at shortstop, Jose Ramirez at third base, Steven Quan back in left field despite the trade rumors, George Valera platooning in right field versus righties, and CJ Kay platooning versus righties at the H. On the bench, the team will welcome back David Fry as a pseudo backup catcher/platoon versus lefties as a DH. Hopefully, he can bounce back now that he’s returned fully from Tommy John surgery and his face surgery. And then Daniel Schneman will occupy the extra infield spot. That leaves one spot of the positional players left to fill. And for that, the team will turn to free agency. And that’s where Cleveland will grab Austin Hayes, the platoon versus left-handed pitching and right field. Hayes mashes left-handed pitching and will fit the platoon nicely. Defensively, he hasn’t played much right field recently, but he actually fits the profile very well. He has a strong arm and limited range, so it would be a good fit for the Guardians. Moving to the rotation, it’s more of a matter of who we leave out as opposed to who we keep because the Guardians do have a lot of options. Gavin Williams and Tanner BB are the sure starters to be back with Joey Kantio grabbing the last rotation spot. And then for the bullpen to start the year, it’ll be Cade Smith, Hunter Gatis, Eric Sabrowski, Matt Festa, Kobe Aller, Zack Kent, Sam Hinges, and Logan Allen. And that’s going to do it for the video. The Guardians have the makings of a really good team and they have that really exciting prospect system as well, but the financial limitations make this team really hard to do much with. Promoting those prospects straight to the major leagues probably isn’t the most realistic, but this offense needs a jump somewhere.

The Cleveland Guardians made an Historic comeback to swipe the AL Central, only to lose to the tigers in the Wild Card. With even more prospects on the way, will this be the offseason where the guardians finally invest , or will it be cheapskate central.

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