{"id":677195,"date":"2026-04-16T22:06:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T22:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677195\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T22:06:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T22:06:33","slug":"continued-progress-in-triple-a-puts-kahlil-watson-on-the-cusp-of-the-big-leagues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677195\/","title":{"rendered":"Continued Progress in Triple-A Puts Kahlil Watson on the Cusp of the Big Leagues"},"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=\"6i\">If it weren&#8217;t for such excellent play by the big league outfield, Kahlil Watson would probably be playing at Progressive Field right now.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">To begin the 2026 minor league season, Watson has been putting the front office on notice for what he has to offer. The 23-year-old, as of Thursday, April 16, is slashing a strong .246\/.403\/.526 for an OPS of .929. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">Just a day ago, Watson left the yard in the bottom of the seventh inning, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.milb.com\/gameday\/cubs-vs-clippers\/2026\/04\/15\/816820\/final\/summary\/homeRuns\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">smashing the ball 416 feet with an exit velocity of 107.6 mph. <\/a>He also went 3-for-3 with a walk drawn as well, contributing three runs and two RBI. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">And with how well he&#8217;s playing right now, there&#8217;s a chance he ends up being one of Cleveland&#8217;s next call-ups if things go awry up at the major league level. <\/p>\n<p>His Quick Start to 2026<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">It didn&#8217;t just begin in the minor league campaign.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">But rather in the 2026 Spring Training window. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">Across eight games played and 14 at-bats, Watson took advantage of the limited opportunities he was given. He slashed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/guardians\/stats\/hits\/spring-training?position=LF,CF,RF,OF\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an eye-popping .429\/.500\/.714 for an OPS of 1.214<\/a>, with two doubles and one triple. Not only was he hitting with power, but he was showing off speed on the base paths. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"76\">He was also being composed at the plate, waiting for pitches he liked and keeping a keen eye. Before being assigned to minor league camp, he drew two walks to five strikeouts. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">Off of that small display in Spring Training alone, many were hoping to see him in the big leagues.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">But instead, the Guardians&#8217; front office wanted to develop him a bit more in Triple-A Columbus, especially with how crowded the current major league outfield is right now.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">After settling in with the Clippers, he has just continued to put himself on the map. Whether it&#8217;s his general contact, home run power or stolen base abilities, he&#8217;s looking sharper and sharper by the game. He looks a lot less jumpy than he has in years past, too, which has always been a big concern with his game.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">He is currently sitting with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.milb.com\/columbus\/stats\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">14 hits, two doubles, one triple and four home runs<\/a>, all while flying on the base paths and stealing four bags. <\/p>\n<p>The Rest of the Group<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\">It may just be something in the air, but Columbus&#8217; outfielders are all looking really good to begin the new season.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7r\">Alongside Watson, Petey Halpin, Nolan Jones and Stuart Fairchild are all contributing at a high level right now. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.milb.com\/columbus\/stats\/hits\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Halpin has 15 hits in 16 games<\/a>, stealing three bases while in the process, and Jones and Fairchild have the highest batting averages of the bunch. Jones currently sports a .250 and Fairchild is at .328. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7u\">If the Guardians are ever put in a dire situation where they are in need of a player to come up and fill a void due to injury, Watson will certainly be in the conversation to make his big league debut. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-17\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7x\">And if his eventual nod doesn&#8217;t come until the September call-ups, he&#8217;ll at least be even more settled in by that point. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If it weren&#8217;t for such excellent play by the big league outfield, Kahlil Watson would probably be playing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,538,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-677195","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\/116416662736448059","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677195","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=677195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}