As the Guardians are learning with young players, even ones with a few years of experience, development is never linear. That’s true in-season as it is year to year. It’s been a difficult season for top prospect Jaison Chourio, who dealt with shoulder problems early in the year, making two trips to the injured list and struggling when healthy.

It’s not a big sample, and it’s late in the year, but the switch-hitting outfielder is finally starting to show signs of why he’s such a highly regarded prospect in the Lake County Captains’ 5-3 win over the Fort Wayne TinCaps.

Chourio was 2-for-4 with two singles and started to get away from passivity as a hitter that has plagued him much of the year. In a breakout year for Chourio in Single-A Lynchburg, he hit .269/.414/.398 and earned a trip to the MLB Futures Game in 2024. He broke his wrist just days before a possible call-up to High-A Lake County a year ago.

This month, Chourio is hitting .278/.384/.333. He has yet to show much power, but he’s finally relying less on walks to get on base and is swinging the bat like his shoulder also feels better. That’s a welcome development for a Guardians farm system that has seen Chase DeLauter, Juan Brito, Angel Genao, Travis Bazzana, as well as Chourio deal with injuries at points this season.

All five of Lake County’s runs came in the third inning, with Chourio scoring one of them. Jeffrey Mercedes has the big blow with a loud three-run homer to right field.

Caden Favors stepped in to start in place of the recently promoted lefty, Josh Hartle, and allowed three runs (two earned) in five innings to earn the win after a late and sloppy night game on August 21. Sean Matson earned an old fashioned save as the piggyback starter throwing four shutout innings.

Chourio, the younger brother of Brewers star outfielder Jackson, was not the only player with baseball family in the house in this series that played on Aug. 22.

CJ Widger, son of former big league catcher Chris Widger, pitched a scoreless eighth inning for Fort Wayne.

On Aug. 21, Clark Candiotti, son of former Cleveland knuckleballer Tom, pitched four scoreless innings in Game 1 of the doubleheader. Clark pitched at Wichita State and overlapped with Favors, who started for Lake County on Aug. 22.

Lake County finishes its penultimate regular-season homestand of 2025 with Fort Wayne on Aug. 23 with Luis Gutierrez pitching for the TinCaps and Michael Kennedy going for the Captains.

Originally Published: August 22, 2025 at 9:43 PM EDT