{"id":649269,"date":"2026-03-28T21:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T21:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/649269\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T21:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T21:09:18","slug":"evaluating-if-the-cleveland-guardians-can-realistically-win-2026-world-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/649269\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluating if the Cleveland Guardians Can Realistically Win 2026 World Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">The Cleveland Guardians had a September to remember last season, followed by a postseason and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/guardians\/onsi\/news\/cleveland-guardians-offseason-moves-that-already-look-smart-and-questionable-01kmgr66t58y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">long offseason to forget<\/a>. Luckily, the team gets a fresh start tonight in the season opener against the Seattle Mariners.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">Today marks MLB Opening Day, even if the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants squared off last night on MLB Opening &#8220;Night&#8221; on Netflix. The Yankees won in a laugher, getting the 2026 campaign underway.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">Guardians fans have seen the club have quiet offseasons for years, only for the team to routinely succeed. Most recently, this includes back-to-back AL Central division titles and seven trips to the postseason in the last 10 years. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">The regular-season success has been there, yet fans are still waiting on the first World Series title since 1948. Can the Guardians win it all this season?<\/p>\n<p>The Guardians remain a solid team full of unknowns<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">It has become a foolish move to count the Guardians out from the start of a season. The organization has proven to be a strong one and last year&#8217;s pennant race was straight out of a movie. The issue was running out of gas in October.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">Fans have been clamoring for a true power bat for years, and the front office responded by&#8230;signing Rhys Hoskins to a minor-league deal. He ultimately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/48308041\/guardians-add-1b-rhys-hoskins-roster-ahead-season-opener\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">made the roster<\/a> in what is a low-risk, potentially high-reward move. This type of move can be compared to the Guardians bringing Carlos Santana back once again in 2025. He was released before year&#8217;s end, clearing the way for younger talent to take over at his spot.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Guardians\u2019 rotation plan:<\/p>\n<p>Thursday: Tanner Bibee<br \/>Friday: Gavin Williams<br \/>Saturday: Joey Cantillo<br \/>Sunday: Slade Cecconi<br \/>Monday: Parker Messick<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zack Meisel (@ZackMeisel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ZackMeisel\/status\/2036931432917197185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">That is the tricky thing with the Guardians. Fans hear all about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/guardians\/roster\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">potential of the young talent<\/a> and how great they could be. But questions remain. Is Tanner Bibee ready to be a true ace? Can Chase DeLauter stay healthy for an entire season? Will the team trade Steven Kwan to maximize his value?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">Those are just a few of the many questions surrounding this team as of March 26. The only absolute is that Jose Ramirez is once again expected to play at his usual MVP level.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"76\">A positive is that the team&#8217;s top rival, the Detroit Tigers, is facing plenty questions of their own. Specifically, will they trade Tarik Skubal before the deadline? That could end up being a major distraction for the team and the pitcher as the year begins.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">The Guardians are still the two-time defending division champions. But to win it all, they likely need to find a way to add more star power in all facets of the game. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">That, or they truly need all the young pieces to get hot at the exact same time.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Guardians had a September to remember last season, followed by a postseason and long offseason to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,538,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-649269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-guardians","11":"tag-clevelandguardians","12":"tag-guardians","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116308853647257583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649269","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=649269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}