our last roster projection<\/a>, and we have had a chance to see players begin hitting and pitching and hear what manager Stephen Vogt has to say about them. The Guardians have to make it a few more weeks injury-free to make Spring Training a success, but, the second week of March is USUALLY when you start seeing managers begin to play their \u201cA-lineup\u201d together for the purpose of repetitions. Today\u2019s (3\/9\/2026) lineup, then, looks like a pretty decent clue as to what we should expect on Opening Day:<\/p>\nKwan CF
Rocchio 2B
Ramirez 3B
Manzardo 1B
Arias SS
Valera RF
Hoskins DH
Hedges C
Halpin LF<\/p>\n
Chase DeLauter played yesterday, as did Angel Martinez, and Stuart Fairchild and Bo Naylor are in the World Baseball Classic, so those are some factors to consider. Nolan Jones has a guaranteed major league contract, but, as we\u2019ve been saying for a while now, since it is unlikely a team will pick him up on waivers and Jones is short of his 5 years of major league service time to refuse a minor-league assignment, I think we will see Cleveland designate him for assignment and, essentially, get an extra option year on him, leaving him as hopefully useful depth in Columbus for a while.<\/p>\n
We know David Fry is making this team. You and I might question if that is the right move, if maybe an option to Columbus might be a better call, but he\u2019s making this team if he\u2019s healthy. We also have seen Daniel Schneemann play tons of positions this spring and I think it\u2019s clear he is the team\u2019s choice for super utility as the year opens. With those pieces of knowledge in mind, here\u2019s how I think the Opening Day roster LIKELY sorts out at the moment:<\/p>\n
Catcher – Bo Naylor, Austin Hedges and David Fry
Notes: Fry will probably also be in the mix at first base as needed, and I assume the team will try to work him into right field reps during the year. It\u2019s possible Fry will DH but I\u2019d much prefer to have him in the field so he can be available to sub in for Bo against tough lefty relievers and for Hedges when anything notable is on the line during a Hedgey plate appearance. That would seem to be his best path for adding significant value to this roster.<\/p>\n
First Base – Kyle Manzardo and Rhys Hoskins
Notes: Hoskins is no Gold Glover at first, but Manzardo has looked borderline unplayable there this Spring. I\u2019d like to see the Guardians give Manzardo no more than one start at first a week, and that\u2019s still a lot. But, in any case, I am optimistic that these two will provide valuable presences in the middle of the order as hitters, most days with one of them as DH and the other as the first baseman.<\/p>\n
Second Base – Brayan Rocchio
Notes: Today\u2019s lineup makes it clear to me that Rocchio will start out at second base and move to shortstop whenever the team eventually decides to promote Juan Brito and\/or Travis Bazzana. Grieve, rage, accept.<\/p>\n
Third Base – Jose Ramirez
Notes: None. He\u2019s the GOAT.<\/p>\n
Shortstop – Gabriel Arias
Notes: Time to pivot from absolutely hating this idea to hoping that Arias has the late stage breakout of a Gio Urshela or Ernie Clement. Why not.<\/p>\n
Utility – Daniel Schneemann
Notes: He can play every position well. That\u2019s basically all you need out of this role, but hopefully, he\u2019ll be able to also be a league average hitter against RHP. Not probable, but possible.<\/p>\n
Left Field – George Valera and Angel Martinez
Notes: It\u2019s not a clear thing if Steven Kwan will become the team\u2019s centerfielder or not. Today, I\u2019m going to guess that they end up being comfortable moving him there. If not, I\u2019d expect either Angel Martinez or Stuart Fairchild to be your primary centerfielder, with Schneemann giving them a day off there now and then. Is that good? No, no, it\u2019s not. So, I assume Steven Kwan will be in center. The murky rules of MLB make me unclear if the Guardians can option Fairchild to Columbus or not, but I believe they can. With Angel\u2019s positive spring, I then expect him to get the first look in that centerfield (if Kwan is in left)\/fourth outfielder role. And that\u2019s more than fine.<\/p>\n
Center Field – Steven Kwan
Notes: No one should ever complain about Kwan ever again if he bites the bullet and takes on the challenge of playing center for this team.<\/p>\n
Right Field – Chase DeLauter (and Angel Martinez, Daniel Schneemann, eventually David Fry)
Notes: I hope it is clear to everyone that the team is going to play DeLauter like a maximum of three days a week in the field to start the season. He will also take some DH days and push Hoskins or Manzardo to the bench. It\u2019s the way it\u2019s gonna be. If Kwan is in left, Valera will get significant time in right to spell Chase, at least for a month or two. I am not sure how well Angel\u2019s arm plays in right field, but, until Fry is ready to try it out there, we are about to find out.<\/p>\n
Kwan CF
DeLauter RF
Ramirez 3B
Manzardo DH
Valera LF
Hoskins 1B
Bo C
Arias SS
Rocchio 2B<\/p>\n
Kwan CF
Martinez LF
Ramirez 3B
Hoskins DH
Fry 1B
Arias SS
Valera\/DeLauter\/Schneemann RF
Bo\/Hedges C
Rocchio 2B<\/p>\n
Notes: The bottom of the LHP lineup is horrendous because DeLauter can\u2019t play everyday. Just gotta hope the top of the lineup comes through.<\/p>\n
Rotation:
Gavin Williams
Tanner Bibee
Joey Cantillo
Slade Cecconi
Logan Allen
Notes: I\u2019ve decided to give up the hope that they start Messick in Cleveland. They will slow play his innings and wait for an injury or an Allen-implosion to bring him up. Do I like that? No, Allen should be the one demoted. But, I have to be an adult and accept reality.<\/p>\n
Bullpen:
Peyton Pallette, RHP
Tim Herrin, LHP
Matt Festa, RHP
Connor Brogdon, RHP
Colin Holderman, RHP
Erik Sabrowski, LHP
Shawn Armstrong, RHP
Cade Smith, RHP
Notes: So far, Hunter Gaddis\u2019s forearm tightness has been the worst news of the Spring. Hopefully, he will be ok to start the season\u2026 but I think the safer guess is that he will not be (may I have just jinxed myself and we find he is pitching today). That could open up the possibility of having Logan Allen be the long-relief option in the pen, but I suspect they use it to get a longer look at Holderman (who has an option) and Brogdon (who does not).<\/p>\n
Overall, the biggest issue for me about this projection is that I badly want the team to put Rocchio at shortstop and have Juan Brito get his chance at second base, while Arias and Schneemann compete for that super utlity role. However, after Stephen Vogt said Arias would play around the infield this spring, Gabby has only been a shortstop (perhaps affected by his brief time on the injury report). I think we need to face the facts that he\u2019s the shortstop\u2026 for at least a month\u2026 and root for him to put it all together.<\/p>\n
What do you think? Whom do you think makes the roster that I\u2019m overlooking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Which Guardians will make the 26-man roster to open this season, as things currently stand in Guardians\u2019 camp?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,2589,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-615297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cleveland-guardians-analysis","10":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116200552597204715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615297","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=615297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}