SEATTLE — The Cleveland Guardians won the AL Central last season despite a negative run differential. Here they sit, through the first weekend of the 2026 season, with a 2-2 record and a minus-9 run differential. What’s old is new. Let’s dive into some takeaways from the opening series.

Cleveland hasn’t employed an outfielder with 20 homers in a season since Michael Brantley in 2014. Chase DeLauter is already 20 percent of the way there. The team hasn’t had an outfielder with 25 homers in a season since Grady Sizemore in 2008.

Sizemore might be an interesting comparison for DeLauter, as powerful, athletic outfielders with injury concerns. Like Sizemore, DeLauter wears No. 24.

“(DeLauter) is built like a football player,” team president Chris Antonetti said. “But the way he plays, yeah, there’s a little bit of that same intensity that Grady played with.”

It’s worth noting Sizemore was headed to the University of Washington to play both football and baseball until the Montreal Expos drafted him in the third round and handed him a $2 million signing bonus to convince him to turn pro.

The day after DeLauter’s fourth home run — the one that had every teammate’s jaw on the dugout floor — Guardians players and coaches were still bewildered by how he conquered a high-and-away fastball by an elite closer on a cold, damp March night in Seattle.

“The ball doesn’t go out that way, especially at 10 o’clock at night,” said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, who hit five home runs in 107 career plate appearances in Seattle. “Pretty special swing. But, he can hit. He’s shown that at every level he’s ever played.”

Perhaps the most impressive part of José Ramírez’s siege on the Cleveland record books is that he’s chasing the ghosts of players who represented the franchise more than a century ago. On Saturday, he joined Hall of Famers Nap Lajoie and Tris Speaker and became the third player in franchise history to collect 400 doubles. That’s his company: guys who were born when it took nine balls to draw a walk and who played when spitballs were legal.

“The question I have for you guys: Who’s the one who has 500?” Ramírez asked a few reporters.

“No one,” a reporter replied.

“OK,” Ramírez said.

“Is it gonna be you?” the reporter asked.

“I’m going to try,” Ramírez said. “I’m going to give my best and hopefully, god willing, we can get there.”

Guardians starting pitchers have totaled 14 walks in 18 innings through four games. Tanner Bibee authored the best start of the bunch, but he exited after five innings because of shoulder inflammation. He has passed every test since Thursday, and the Guardians are hopeful he’ll make his next start against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday.

Gavin Williams self-diagnosed a mechanical flaw with his upper-body rotation that led to six walks and, ultimately, his downfall, as he couldn’t escape all the unforced traffic. Joey Cantillo lasted only 3 2/3 innings because of an inflated pitch count. He didn’t have a feel for his changeup, which is rare, as it’s his best pitch. He actually threw more sliders — a pitch he overhauled over the winter — and the early returns were promising, as it carried a 40 percent whiff rate and resulted in five called strikes.

Slade Cecconi said he woke up Sunday morning feeling under the weather, which explains why his velocity was down 2.0 mph. Cecconi exited with one out in the fifth, having thrown 93 pitches. He could certainly pin some blame on CJ Kayfus for the non-catch on a Dominic Canzone fly ball to left that literally fell in a sliding Kayfus’ lap, but Cecconi then couldn’t put away the Mariners’ Nos. 8 and 9 hitters before Brendan Donovan smacked a three-run homer to right.

Cecconi did win his first duels with Josh Naylor. They were traded for each other in December 2024. Naylor went 0-for-15 in the series.

Kayfus is a natural first baseman, and the Guardians really like him at that spot, but they have a logjam at first, with Kyle Manzardo, Rhys Hoskins and David Fry all hunting for reps. Eventually, hotshot prospect Ralphy Velazquez could usurp everybody there.

The Guardians worked Kayfus in the outfield last year when it became clear he could break into the big leagues. They had Manzardo and Carlos Santana handling first, and Fry was limited to designated hitter duties.

2023: Kayfus started 11 games at first base and four games in left field
2024: Kayfus started 82 games at first base and 21 games in left field
2025 in the minors: Kayfus started 46 games at first base, 12 games in left field and 21 games in right field
2025 in the majors: Kayfus started 12 games at first base and 26 games in right field

So, he does have experience in left. He said he feels comfortable there, or at any position the Guardians assign him.

There were three plays in left Sunday that Kayfus was involved in that ultimately led to Mariners runs. There was the Canzone double in which Kayfus might not have needed to slide to haul it in. Cecconi couldn’t stop the bleeding and Seattle grabbed a 4-0 lead.

There was a Randy Arozarena double that landed out of the reach of a diving Kayfus, in front of Steven Kwan in left-center. And there was a Cal Raleigh RBI ground-rule double that bounced in front of an approaching Kayfus down the left-field line and caromed into the seats.

Kayfus said he didn’t “mean to make excuses” but felt he had a ton of ground to cover on the Raleigh ball because the Guardians were shading him to pull. Raleigh pulled the ball on 54.5 percent of his batted balls last season; the league average was 37.4 percent.

“Dead pull hitter goes the opposite way down the line,” Kayfus said. “It’s tough, but that’s just how it is sometimes.”

The Guardians moved Kwan to center field so they could squeeze more offense out of their roster. There’s clearly going to be some trial and error with this setup, pun intended.

Ten years ago, Shawn Armstrong was included in a trade that never materialized. Cleveland agreed to a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers that would have swapped catcher Jonathan Lucroy for four prospects: Armstrong, catcher Francisco Mejía, infielder Yu Chang and outfielder Greg Allen. The morning of the 2016 trade deadline, Cleveland acquired Andrew Miller for four other prospects. But Lucroy vetoed his trade to Cleveland.

Armstrong said the Brewers had tried to draft him five years earlier. They had long coveted him. And Armstrong knew there was a logjam in a deep Cleveland bullpen, which ultimately spurred the club to the World Series that fall, so he would have embraced the new opportunity. Lucroy, however, nixed it for everyone.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Armstrong said. “It wasn’t meant to be at the time.”

Now, Armstrong is back, as he said the Guardians were one of three teams on his wish list over the winter. He enjoyed a career year in 2023 with the Tampa Bay Rays, as he posted a 1.38 ERA over 52 innings. He entered the 2024 season as an impending free agent and knew if he pitched well, he’d set himself up for a lucrative payday. Unfortunately, he put too much pressure on himself, and he struggled enough to bounce from the Rays to the St. Louis Cardinals to the Chicago Cubs.

“The only thing I was chasing was the dollar,” he said.

He was surprised to land a big-league contract with the Texas Rangers for 2025 and he parlayed it — thanks to a 2.31 ERA and .157 opponent average — into the largest salary of his career, with an organization to which he wanted to return.

“I’ve been on eight different teams,” Armstrong said. “Have fun. You never know where it’s going to take you.”