CLEVELAND, Ohio — As the Guardians’ bats continue their historic slump, an increasingly urgent question hangs over the organization: Why aren’t top prospects Chase DeLauter and C.J. Kayfus already in Cleveland providing a desperately needed offensive boost?
The team’s recent six-game homestand, where they batted a paltry .176 and were shut out three times, has intensified calls for an injection of fresh talent. And for the first time, it appears the front office might be acknowledging that the time has come.
On the latest Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast, Joe Noga revealed a significant development: “Over the weekend, for the first time, really, we heard from Chris Antonetti saying that as far as development goes, as far as major league readiness goes, Chase DeLauter, the organization’s number two overall prospect is major league ready. It’s just finding an opportunity for him to get out there and play.”
This admission from Cleveland’s president of baseball operations represents a shift in messaging. Previously, DeLauter’s injury history seemed to be the primary factor in keeping him in the minors. Now, with the 23-year-old outfielder finally healthy, the excuses for keeping him down are wearing thin.
“I’m going to throw the phrase out there. I hope it catches on. I hope everybody runs with it. We’ve got to find a place for Chase,” Noga urged on the podcast.
Paul Hoynes was even more direct about the obvious openings in Cleveland’s lineup: “There’s a bunch of opportunities on this team. It doesn’t take a genius to go up and down the roster and see where DeLauter could fit. Right field has been like a desert without vegetation. They’ve got nothing out there. It’s just miles and miles of, of unproductive at bats.”
The numbers support this assessment. Cleveland’s right fielders rank near the bottom of MLB in nearly every offensive category, and center field hasn’t been much better. Meanwhile, DeLauter has been thriving in the minors after finally staying healthy following several freak injuries that delayed his development.
Another name gaining momentum is C.J. Kayfus, who was just named to the MLB Futures Game roster.
Since his promotion to Triple-A Columbus, Kayfus has been nothing short of exceptional, batting .303 with 10 home runs and 33 RBIs. His versatility as both an outfielder and first baseman gives the Guardians multiple options for integrating him into the lineup.
“The Guardians need a shot in the arm,” Hoynes declared, perfectly summarizing the situation.
The timing of these potential promotions remains uncertain, though Hoynes speculated: “In the next three weeks, I would imagine they’ve got to make a move either with DeLauter or Kayfus. They’ve got to bring one of those guys up.”
For a team desperate for offensive production, the solution seems to be sitting just a phone call away in Columbus. The question now isn’t if these prospects will arrive in Cleveland, but when – and whether it will be soon enough to save the Guardians’ season.
To hear the complete discussion about the Guardians’ prospect situation and potential timeline for promotions, check out the latest Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast with Joe Noga and Paul Hoynes, where they break down all the latest developments from the front office.
Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast by cleveland.com. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions.
Podcast transcript
Joe Noga: Welcome back to the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. I’m Joe Noga, joined by Paul Hoynes. Hoynsie the Guardians swept in their home the final game in their home series against the Cardinals over the weekend. Three straight games, three straight losses. Shut out in two of them. They lose 70 on Sunday and Matthew Liberatore, another left hander goes out there pretty much dominates them throughout his you know, five plus innings. Just the home stand in general. One in five.176 batting average for the Guardians. Offensively this team is, is a disaster right now.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, they’ve bottomed out show three shutouts in you know, a six game home series. Just brutal to watch. You know every, it seems like they lose the same way every, every game in, game out which is, you know, the sign of a bad, bad ball club. And even when breaks go their way, even when they score six runs in one inning, the bullpen can’t hold it. So they are on one of those skids that is going to take you know, it’s going to take a Herculean, Herculean task to an event to break to get them going again.
Joe Noga: I don’t see Hercules coming in through that clubhouse door anytime soon. Hoynsie the sweep by the Cardinals kind of historic. They were the last team standing, the only team that had never swept the Cleveland. So now the, you know, the Guardians franchise has been swept by every team in Major League Baseball. They had held out this long since 1901 hadn’t been swept by the Cardinals and it doesn’t get any easier for this club. Six teams above.500 on the schedule before the All Star break. They’re in the middle, the middle of that stretch. They’re, they’ve got three straight first place teams that they’re facing coming up and beginning with the Cubs just you know, the, the road isn’t going to get any harder. But Stephen Vogt seems to be remaining positive about things.
Paul Hoynes: Even Vote is the eternal optimist. Joe I guess all managers have to be that way but he is, he’s taking it to a different level. I mean he said you know, I know he said June has not been was not our best month. It was not good to us. But that doesn’t mean July won’t be better than ever. August won’t be better than that and September won’t be better than the you know, July and August. So he is the glass is always half full with Vote and you need that with the young team and the this is his second year and this is a drastic reversal from, from last year, Judd. At this time last year, they were 52 and 30 after 82 games with a six game lead. Today they’re 40, 40 and 42, 11 and a half behind the Tigers. So this is, this is the, the other side of the coin, but also.
Joe Noga: Just two and a half out of the wild card. So there, there’s something to it. There’s. And if you want to dig into numbers a little deeper, you can go back to 2022, as far back as 2022, a Terry Francona team that made the postseason at the midpoint of the season that year after 81 games, that club, just like this year’s team, was 41 or 40 and 41. And we all know what happened down the stretch. That team caught fire. They played real well. They invented, sort of came up with that, that small ball philosophy and, and really rode that into the postseason. And, you know, that could happen again. We’re not saying that can’t happen again, but you’ve got the trade deadline coming up and it all depends on if this team is going to sell off some veteran pieces like Carlos Santana, Lane Thomas, Emanuel, Clase, if guys like, you know, Chase DeLauter are going to be ready to come up and over the weekend, for the first time, really, we heard from Chris Antonetti saying that, you know, as far as development goes, as far as major league readiness goes, Chase DeLauter, the organization’s number two overall prospect, prospect is major league ready. It’s just finding an opportunity for him to get out there and play. So I’m going to throw the phrase out there. I hope it catches on. I hope everybody runs with it. We got to find a place for Chase. We got to find a place in the, on the roster, make it happen. If, if Antonetti’s point is, you know, it’s now just waiting for that opportunity. Well, he’s the guy who determines whether or not that opportunity is, is. Is ready right now.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, there’s a bunch of opportunities on this team, Joe. It doesn’t take a genius to go up and down the roster and see where, you know, Dilater could fit. They’re just not, you know, right field has been a, you know, like a desert. It’s been, you know, without vegetation. They’ve got nothing out there. You know, it’s just miles and miles of, of unproductive at bats. You know, center field is no, is no great shakes. You know, the only outfield position that’s produced is left field. So DeLauter can play center, he can play Right. He. He can dh, you know, give him a shot. It’s probably time to bring him up. I know they were worried about him staying healthy. It seems like they’re, they’re coming to terms with that. The guardians need a shot in the arm.
Joe Noga: Yeah. I think with Chase DeLauter, the only question about ability is. Or his. His is. His question is his availability. You know, that’s. Was he going to be able to stay on the field, stay healthy? All of these little, you know, freak injuries that happened to him on his development path after being drafted, you know, and they, and they took him knowing that there was going to be injury issues there with, with his foot early on, but apparently he’s past that. Apparently all the precautions that they took and during the fall league and everything have paid off and he’s ready to go now. So when can we realistically expect that move to happen? Could it happen ahead of the Cubs series? Could it happen. You know, you don’t want to start him in right field. Your major league debut up against the ivy and the brick walls in Wrigley Field, where, you know, you’ve smashed your toe on a, on a wall and been out for a couple of months in the minor leagues. I think the opportunity could be coming, you know, really soon.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, I think it could, Joe. I don’t know if it’s, you know, before the break or after the break, but in the next three weeks, I would imagine they’ve got to make a move either with, you know, the Lauder, with CJ Kayfus, you know, they’ve got to bring one of those guys up, you know, and obviously, you know, you covered the game yesterday. What about an update on areas?
Joe Noga: Yeah, that was kind of a scary scene in yester game in the third inning, Mason win, sends a ground ball deep to the hole. In short, Gabriel Arias ranges far to his right, goes into sort of a slide to try and stop the ball. And when he did that left ankle cleat might have sort of caught the. The turf and he rolled over, buckled on, on. On his, you know, sort of awkwardly on his left ankle. It looked like it was going to be a lot worse. As they brought the cart out, they had him in an air cast. They were checking his knee for stability and that kind of thing. But we got the report by the end of the game that it was a left ankle sprain. X rays were negative, which is good. But, you know, you never know the severity of those high ankle sprains. Those could be even worse sometimes than a break in terms of, you know, recovering from those, depending on how badly the ligaments are torn up in there. So don’t expect to have Gabriel Arias for an extended period of time. Probably. He’s almost assuredly going on the injured list, which makes Brian Rocchio an option to come back up. The infielder who started the season as the Guardians, you know, number one shortstop, he’s been actually hitting pretty well down in AAA since he was sent down. It’s, you know, the numbers are, you know, not, not terrible. 37 OPS, seven home runs, 30 RBIs in more than 100 at bats. So maybe. And you said that, you know, it looks like he’s a little more patient at the plate.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, that jumped out of me, Joe. You know, 27 strikeouts, 23 walks. You know, that’s a good sign, you know, patient, that perhaps Rocco is kind of reining in that swing and being a little more patient at the plate hitting.252. If he could come up here and hit.252, I think the Guardians would take that in a heartbeat, you know, and we’ve always seen that sneaky power that he said. We saw it last year, we saw it in the postseason. Unfortunately, we didn’t see it for the first two and a half months of the regular season before he got sent down.
Joe Noga: Yeah. And we saw, so we saw him develop into such a, you know, a good threat at the plate during the postseason. Last year he seemed to be hitting everything and he was, his confidence was so high. And that I think is a big part of, of what Brian Rocchio needs when he comes back up here. If he’s, if he’s going to take Arias a spot on the roster is, is just show that confidence to know that you can, you can do that at the major league level. You’ve done it before, you’ve done it on the highest stage in the postseason and just go out there and believe in yourself. I think a little bit of that will go a long way. Yeah.
Paul Hoynes: And I think, you know, there’s never been a question about his defense. You know, he, he, you know, he really played Gold Glove caliber defense. He was a Gold Glove finalist last year. And I think the offense and the defense kind of, you know, his offensive struggles affected his defense this year and during his first stay with the club. But hopefully, you know, as you mature, you really learn how to separate those, those two elements of your game as.
Joe Noga: Far as the future of the franchise, the future of prospects. Major league bas. Announcing today the AL rosters for the MLB Futures Game, which will be played over All Star Weekend. Parker Messick, left hander, is, is going to be on the American League roster. Well deserved spot for Parker, but also a name that might come as a surprise to some people. Not really, but CJ Kayfus, who’s having an outstanding season, moved from Double A to Triple A this year and also one of these guys that you’re talking about, you know, potentially bringing up and having an impact on the major league roster. But he’s going to go to the Futures Game doesn’t necessarily mean or doesn’t necessarily tip, sort of give an indication of what the franchise is thinking with him to put him on the roster. Because in the past guys who have been announced for this Futures Game roster have gotten called up in between being announced for the, the roster and when the game is scheduled to be played. It’s happened multiple times in the past that, you know, those spots have gone to somebody else because no, whoops, the guys got called up to the big league. So it wouldn’t be the first time if something like that happened. But CJ Kayfus has to be pretty satisfied knowing that he’ at least making a trip to Atlanta this next month to, to sort of, you know, showcase his abilities.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, he’s making progress on both fronts. Joe, the Futures Game is a big, you know, that’s a big, you know, kind of, you know, that’s a big, that’s a big award. That’s a, you know, that’s, you know, that’s a step in the right direction on your way to the big leagues. That’s a feather in your cap. And CJ’s also, you know, he’s been, you know, since he came up to Columbus from Akron, I mean, all he’s done is hit. He’s hitting.303, 10 home runs, 33 RBI. He’s playing the outfield, he’s playing first base. He’s, he’s made quite an impression this year and I would think at some time this season he should get his, he should be able to make his big league debut.
Joe Noga: Yeah, and that, that also depends on what the trade deadline moves are and you know, what, what players are still here. If Carlos Santana, if Lane Thomas are still on the roster by the end of the season, then you know, that might block things and make it a little harder to find room for Kayfus and DeLauter. At the same time. You’ve also got to consider Juan Brito as a possibility if Arias is lost for any extended period of time and if Rocchio struggles in his you know, place. What do you think of the opportunity for maybe a Juan Brito who’s not really played too many games at Columbus since returning from injury, but that’s a guy that they also have to get sort of a look at.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, I think definitely buried would have a shot. But like you said, Joey, he’s coming back from that thumb injury. He needs some time to get his feet under him. So, you know, that’s a guy definitely. I don’t think we’d see until after the break. But, you know, and as you said, you know, it all depends on how the big league club is playing. You know, if this downward slide continues, I think we’re going to see a lot of the younger guys and we’re going to see him a lot quicker than we would if this, if this team stays in contention for, you know, the division or the wild card.
Joe Noga: Yeah, it’s always that, that sort of age old question with Chris Antonetti, you know, trying to thread the needle, stay competitive for this season, but also look to the future and, you know, realizing guys like Carlos Santana and Lane Thomas aren’t going to be around with the organization much beyond this year. Even if you keep them through the end of the season, you know, it’s, it’s hard to sort of predict what they’re going to do. Antonetti said that with the third wild card being implemented, it’s moved these, these trade deadline, you know, sort of activity to within that last 48 hour window. There is sort of what we see. We see the majority of the deals taking place then because teams don’t want to sell too early and, you know, sort of raise the white flag when they could catch, you know, catch a spark and, you know, a week and a half of playing real well gets you right back into contention for a wildcard spot.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, that was interesting what he told you guys on Saturday at the ballpark, you know, just about that when the, when most of the activity, you know, happens and, you know, deadline, you know, really kind of pushes that and everyone goes right to the deadline and then they make the deal. Yeah, I mean, I would think, you know, most of the activity in this deadline on July 31st is going to come right, bumping into the deadline, you know, at the end of July. You know, it’s interesting. You know, I just, I wonder, Joe, you know, in the past, have they gone all in when they have a shot at the wild card, is that enough to motivate them? You know, that’s, that’s the thing that, that we’re That I wonder about and I think that might dictate the direction they take.
Joe Noga: Yeah, I think the wild card is if you stay the course and you run into it, that’s great. I think missing the wild card by a game or two, you’re going to still play competitive games down the stretch. You’re still going to, you know, have people come out to the ballpark and want to see those games. I don’t know, it doesn’t feel like 20, 23 when they sold off Aaron Civale and Josh Bell and, you know, sort of sent that message unintentionally to the, to the veterans in the clubhouse. Hey, you know, we’re packing it in. I just think the, the way that they play out the next couple of weeks here is going to go a long way in determining if they, they make that bold move. If they, if they trade Emanuel Class A and try to get a big return or work a three team deal and, and find a bat to land in the middle of that lineup, even if it’s a one or two year rental, which they could still do, it’s not in their nature, but maybe something provokes that and it happens down the stretch. You know, what we’re seeing out of the starting rotation lately has been really good and it’s giving you sort of the, the hope that they can stay in it. Shane, even with Shane Bieber, you know, not being an option now until more than likely after the, the, the All Star break, just, you know, what are you seeing out of the, the rotation in their last couple of turns through that gives you hope.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, Joe, I think they’re getting deeper into games. You know, that’s a, that’s an encouraging thing. Luis Ortiz especially, you know, went seven innings his last time out. That followed really a good start against the A’s, you know, when he went, I believe, six innings. You know, Logan Allen seems to be getting deeper into the games. You know, Cecconi had been getting deep into games too. He went seven innings the last time out, but he only, you know, he couldn’t get through the fifth, you know, against the Cardinals. So that’s a bit of a concern. You know, ran into the long ball problem again, but I think the rotation as a whole is, is making some strides. You know, they’re still young. They’re gonna, they’re gonna make some mistakes. They’re gonna have good games and bad games, but, you know, they’re what, 26 to 28, I think all of them just. So that’s encouraging, you know, going forward, you Know, I wonder about some of the bullpen guys. I mean, the, the way they played. Does that devalue a guy like. Classy, classy. When was the last time he had a save? I don’t think he, he had a save on this homestand. They only won one game. So I guess I don’t know if he had to save in that game or not, but he really hasn’t pitched. He hasn’t really pitched that much. You know, he hasn’t really had that chance to build those save, those save totals that he did last year. You know, we’ve seen Heron and Gaddis struggle. So, you know, it’s just, I don’t know if it’s the wear and tear from last year or just kind of a reverse thing with the rotation going a little deeper, but, you know, the pitching is, has kind of shifted to, you know, you’re encouraged by the rotation and maybe a little question. Some questions about the bullpen.
Joe Noga: Yeah, not as much of a sure thing when, when Hunter Gaddis comes in the last two games, gives up home runs and back to back games. Doesn’t. Doesn’t look like Hunter Gaddis like he did throughout the majority of last season. Although he did have a stretch last year when they were in Atlanta where, you know, he struggled a little bit, but then, but then he was able to. To sort of lock it back in. And he was really good down the stretch and was really good at the beginning of the season as well. So I’m sure that if we were to ask Stephen Vogt right now, he would remain very optimistic about Hunter Gaddis and just tell, you know, he’s one of the best pitchers in the world and all of the very positive rhetoric that we hear from Vote on a daily basis. Cade Smith, you know, seems to be back from whatever back spasms or whatever back injury was, was ailing him, was making him unavailable for a couple of days there that, you know, I’m still not sure. Sometimes I think it’s all cloak and dagger and, you know, maybe did Kate Smith really have a back injury? He was walking around the clubhouse pretty free and easy. I’m just, I’m wondering, you know, maybe they keep him down for a few days to make it seem like they really needed to keep Class A on the roster, maybe pump up his trade value. I don’t know. It’s all weird conspiracy theories at this point for me, but, you know, I’m not one to put on the tinfoil hat anytime soon. Hoynsie. That’s going to wrap up today’s edition of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. We’ll check in with you from Chicago as the Guardians open a three game series against the Cubs before heading back here to face the Tigers in a big Fourth of July weekend showdown. You know, should be a, an interesting week of baseball after an off day today for the Guardians.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, definitely, Joe. It could be. I mean, it could, you know, really kind of tilt the season one way or the other.
Joe Noga: Yeah, it’s definitely be a topic of discussion tomorrow in terms of is this the, is this the fulcrum? Is this the balance point of the season right now as we approach? So we’ll check in with you again on Tuesday.