Will Brennan will stay with the Cleveland Guardians.
Well, at least for now.
On Thursday, Nov. 6, the front office of the Guardians opted to keep Brennan in the red and navy blue, activating him off the injured list in preparation for spring training. Brennan underwent sports hernia surgery in September after already having Tommy John surgery earlier in the year.
No doubt, 2025 has been rough for the once highly touted outfield prospect.
The hope for Cleveland is that he can return to solid form and provide relief for a young outfield corps that struggled mightily in 2025. The team saw very little consistency, something that Brennan gave the team in 2023 and 2024.
Across 269 major league games, Brennan has slashed a pretty solid line of .267/.307/.373, along with a bWAR of 0.5. While he definitely needs to show some signs of increased production in the 2026 season, he may be one of the best current options for the Guardians come Opening Day.
A bunch of Guardians moves:
-Declined John Means’ 2026 club option. he is a free agent
-Outrighted Kolby Allard, Ben Lively, Dom Nuñez, Will Wilson, Matt Krook to Columbus. Each elected free agency
-Activated Brennan, Hentges, Walters off 60-day IL
40-man at 37
— Tim Stebbins (@tim_stebbins) November 6, 2025
Prior to being injured for nearly the entire 2025 season, 2024 Brennan looked to be trending in the right direction. He was finally starting to showcase a bit of heavy-hitting power along with his usual knack of placing the ball in empty corners of the field.
He finished that season with a slash line of .264/.309/.388 with 87 hits, 13 doubles, two triples, eight home runs and 30 RBIs. He also cut down on his strikeout percentage and ticked his walk rate up a bit.
On the fielding end, he sacrificed himself an awful lot on diving plays and remained one of the more athletic fielding players in the league. Through 694 innings played, he recorded a fielding percentage of 98.8Z%, primarily supporting the team in right field with 157 putouts.
He also had just two errors.
Brennan returning to the Guardians shows that Cleveland, at least for now, knows that they don’t have anyone else better to place out in right field. None of the exciting prospects are ready to make their way into everyday spots at the major league level till late in 2026, or at the earliest, not until mid-season.
A likely outfielding unit look will consist of the Golden Glover Steven Kwan in left, George Valera in center field and Brennan in left.
The team has a lot of talent; they just have to weed out those that either don’t fit the Guardians’ system or don’t fit the timeline Cleveland has right now, with the clock ticking on some of their major pieces.
If Brennan isn’t able to return to previous form after undergoing plenty of surgeries this past year, they can spend a bit more time with him in the minor league system with options to send him down still.
Alongside Brennan, the team activated relief pitchers Sam Hentges and Andrew Walters. Both will help at least provide a bit of stability to the bullpen for the meantime.
They let go of infielder Will Wilson, catcher Dom Nunez, relievers Kolby Allard and Matt Krook and starters Ben Lively and John Means. Each can potentially reach a new deal in free agency with Cleveland.
However, the hope is that the Guardians plan on making a few major additions to the major league team with the extra cap space before the start of the upcoming campaign.