{"id":574408,"date":"2026-02-15T20:14:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T20:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/574408\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T20:14:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T20:14:45","slug":"no-splash-all-substance-heres-the-guardians-answer-to-big-spending-mlb-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/574408\/","title":{"rendered":"No splash, all substance: Here\u2019s the Guardians\u2019 answer to big-spending MLB teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

No splash, all substance: Here\u2019s the Guardians\u2019 answer to big-spending MLB teams<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SCOTTSDALE, AZ \u2014 The Cleveland Guardians<\/a> are one of baseball\u2019s most fascinating teams. In similar fashion to many small-market ball clubs in the MLB world, Cleveland often sits back and watches the heavy-spenders go head-to-head in free agency. Plenty of analysts and prediction-makers consistently count the Guardians out in spring training. And then, like clockwork, the Guards often end up in the postseason nonetheless. So, how do the Guardians keep winning without spending big in MLB free agency?<\/p>\n

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Guardians general manager Mike Chernoff does not have as much financial room to work with as compared to big-market teams\u2019 GMs. He\u2019s done a phenomenal job, however. Chernoff does not take all of the credit, though.<\/p>\n

During Spring Training Media Day in Arizona, Chernoff explained the Guardians\u2019 approach to building a contender<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn today\u2019s economic system in Major League Baseball, we can\u2019t compete in free agency. So, we have to do things very differently,\u201d Chernoff told ClutchPoints. \u201cAnd I understand that in an offseason, we may not be the team that wins an offseason. But our scouts, and our analysts, and our coaches, are second to none. And that group works so hard to make sure that the guys are just consistently improving, and that\u2019s what it comes down to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to win with our own players. We know who we are. We\u2019ve put all of our effort in developing those guys, and we\u2019ve been, you know, really fortunate that we, you know, won, whatever, six division titles in the past, whatever, decade or something like that. Postseason seven out of 10 years. Yeah, but we know we have to do it very differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Cleveland Pitching Factory?\"Jonathan<\/p>\n

Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Another thing the Guardians do well? Develop starting pitching. There\u2019s a reason they\u2019ve been called the \u201cCleveland Pitching Factory\u201d in the past<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it\u2019s a combination of all of the factors,\u201d Chernoff said of the Guardians\u2019 pitching development. \u201cI think our group, our pitching group, is so collaborative. And it has to be a joint effort. You have to be acquiring players that you feel like you can develop and have that upside. I think our scouts and our analysts do a great job of helping to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that transition is seamless, you know, our coaching group is very involved in the acquisition process\u2026 As soon as a guy gets here, we know that player inside and out, and we meet them where they are. We hit the ground running. We have a great group of coaches that finds a way to get the best out of players.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Guardians don\u2019t pay attention to outside noise\"Ken<\/p>\n

Ken Blaze-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

As mentioned, the Guardians are not always included among the top contenders in preseason predictions. One may imagine that Cleveland uses that as motivation. Manager Stephen Vogt<\/a> explained that the ball club simply attempts to tune out the outside noise, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it puts a chip on our shoulder. We try really hard not to pay attention to that,\u201d Vogt told ClutchPoints. \u201cWe focus on us. We know that we have an objective, that\u2019s to go out every night and win. Chris (Antonetti, Cleveland\u2019s president of baseball operations), Mike, they\u2019ve built this organization to win\u2026 Obviously taking over for somebody like Tito (Terry Francona), you just pick up where they left off.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou just try to get better every day. Our group does such a great job\u2026 We\u2019re worried about us. We\u2019re not worried about anything outside of us. I\u2019m thankful that our players are like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Detroit Tigers had a big offseason. The Kansas City Royals have steadily improved. Many of the experts are already taking those teams over the Guardians in the American League Central.<\/p>\n

Will history repeat itself once again? Only time will tell, but it would not be surprising to see Cleveland playing meaningful baseball in October once again in 2026.<\/p>\n

Related: Guardians\u2019 Emmanuel Clase now accused of rigging playoff pitch<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Guardians\u2019 Stephen Vogt drops \u2018incredible\u2019 Jose Ramirez take after contract extension<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No splash, all substance: Here\u2019s the Guardians\u2019 answer to big-spending MLB teams appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2380],"tags":[146,5,135,51,2565,53,538,49238,4,860,57061],"class_list":{"0":"post-574408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-guardians","12":"tag-clevelandguardians","13":"tag-detroit-tigers","14":"tag-guardians","15":"tag-mike-chernoff","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-stephen-vogt","18":"tag-the-kansas-city-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116076483611908584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}