{"id":689206,"date":"2026-05-03T11:42:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T11:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/689206\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T11:42:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T11:42:35","slug":"espn-names-the-cleveland-guardians-top-10-prospects-for-may-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/689206\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN names the Cleveland Guardians top 10 prospects for May."},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN names the Cleveland Guardians top 10 prospects for May. <\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Guardians<\/a> have one of the best crops of prospects in the Major Leagues. We’re already seeing the benefit in real time with two of their best prospects, Chase DeLauter<\/a> and Traviz Bazzana, making an immediate impact on the Guardians club. Both men have added a boost to the offense since being called up, and one of them, so far, DeLauter, is currently in the discussion for AL Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n

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So it’s not surprising to see ESPN put both men at the top of their\u00a0 Top 10 prospects<\/a> list for May. They’re not the only guys, though, that you should know about, however. So let’s give you a rundown on who everyone is and where they are currently.<\/p>\n

1. Travis Bazzana, 2B – Cleveland Guardians
Triple-A Stats: .287\/.422\/.511 OPS: .933
2 HR, 10 RBI, 8 SB, 21 BB<\/p>\n

Traviz Bazzana was called up from Triple-A Columbus to the Major Leagues, making him one of the most anticipated callups the Guards have had in some time. He played only 50 combined games for Triple-A Columbus, with 24 of those games coming in the 2026 season, but he played well during his time down there, hitting .287 and having an OPS of .933.<\/p>\n

2. Chase DeLauter, RF – Cleveland Guardians
MLB Stats (as of May 2nd, 2026): .296\/.389\/.528 OPS: .917
5 HR, 20 RBI, 17 BB<\/p>\n

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ESPN.com considers Chase DeLauter a prospect still, despite having played every game of the 2026 season with the major league club. He’s been nothing short of exceptional and DeLauter has seemingly become a front-runner for the Rookie of the Year award, hitting .296, with five home runs and 20 RBI.<\/p>\n

3. Ralphy Velazquez, 1B – Akron RubberDucks
Double-A Stats: .284\/.394\/.432
3 HR, 15 RBI, 1 SB, 14 BB<\/p>\n

It may be another year before Ralphy Velazquez gets promoted to the Major Leagues, with the first baseman currently grinding out a solid season in Double-A Akron. The RubberDucks’ first baseman may be called up to action sooner if Guardians first basemen Kyle Manzardo<\/a> continue to perform poorly.<\/p>\n

4. Khal Stephen<\/a>, RHP\u00a0 – Akron RubberDucks\u00a0 \u00a0
Double-A Stats: 1-2, 2.91 ERA, 21.2 IP, 26 Ks<\/p>\n

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The RubberDucks Khal Stephen has been one of the better pitchers in the organization’s minor league system all season. He’s shown a high success rate with his control, striking out 26 hitters through the first month of the season, while keeping an ERA under 3.00.<\/p>\n

5. Braylon Doughty, RHP – Lake County Captains\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0
Advanced Single-A Stats: 1-2, 2.76 ERA, 16.1 IP, 16 Ks<\/p>\n

Another young ace in the making is Braylon Daughty, who has shown the same kind of control for the Lake County Captains. He showed great command in 2025, walking only 23 batters in 85.1 innings of action.<\/p>\n

More:\u00a0Travis Bazzana’s first career hit for the Cleveland Guardians comes at the perfect time<\/a><\/p>\n

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6. Angel Genao, SS – Akron RubberDucks\u00a0\u00a0
Double-A Stats: .273\/.426\/.390 OPS: .815
2 HR, 10 RBI, 2 SB, 21 BBs<\/p>\n

The versatile shortstop can not only hit from both sides of the plate, but can play wherever he’s needed on the infield. A solid bat to start the year has highlighted the unique possibilities that a player like him can provide when he finally gets to the Majors.<\/p>\n

7. Juneiker Caceres, RF – Hill City Howlers\u00a0 \u00a0
Lower Single-A Stats: .253\/.375\/.380 OPS: .755
2 HR, 14 RBI, 4 SB, 15 BB<\/p>\n

It’ll be interesting to see what Juneiker Caceres can do for the Lower-A Hill City Howlers. He’s already shown some great instincts at the plate, walking 15 times, with only nine strikeouts. A figure that’s on the lower side of the team. Still a few years off from being a factor in the Majors.<\/p>\n

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8. Jaison Chourio, CF – Lake County Captains\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
Advanced Single-A Stats: .316\/.419\/.487 OPS: .906
2 HR, 7 RBI, 8 SB, 15 BB<\/p>\n

While he doesn’t have the power many hope prospects have, Jaison Chourio has some of the best consistency at the plate of any prospect. Despite being in Lake County, he’s played a lot of ball so far and is routinely averaging either just under or over .300 regardless of where he goes.<\/p>\n

9. Cooper Ingle, C – Columbus Clippers\u00a0 \u00a0
Triple-A Stats: .394\/.630\/.788 OPS: 1.418
4 HR, 16 RBI, 20 BB<\/p>\n

With how poor Bo Naylor<\/a>‘s pro career has gone on the big stage, it seems almost inevitable that Cooper Ingle makes his Major League debut for the Guardians in 2026. He’s not normally close to hitting .400, but he’s routinely about a hundred points higher on his batting average in the minors than Naylor is over the last few seasons.<\/p>\n

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10. Jace Laviolette, CF – Lake County Captains
Advanced Single-A Stats: .214\/.353\/.443 OPS: .796
4 HR, 8 RBI, 2 SB, 14 BB<\/p>\n

The power that Jace Laviolette has could be a game-changer if he’s able to raise his consistency at the plate. He belted 29 home runs as a junior in just 68 games at Texas A&M, but he did have 81 strikeouts. So it’s possible if he makes it to the Majors, he could become a 40 or a 50 home run guy, while also posting north of 200 strikeouts.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN names the Cleveland Guardians top 10 prospects for May. originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2380],"tags":[13460,5,867,22912,135,51,2565,538,32105,1389,71212,4,727,709,45056,12569,87042],"class_list":{"0":"post-689206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-akron-rubberducks","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-bo-naylor","11":"tag-chase-delauter","12":"tag-cleveland","13":"tag-cleveland-guardians","14":"tag-clevelandguardians","15":"tag-guardians","16":"tag-khal-stephen","17":"tag-kyle-manzardo","18":"tag-lake-county-captains","19":"tag-mlb","20":"tag-ops","21":"tag-prospects","22":"tag-ralphy-velazquez","23":"tag-travis-bazzana","24":"tag-traviz-bazzana"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116510467240446493","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689206","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=689206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}