Why this Guardians offense could be their best in 7 years

This story was excerpted from Tim Stebbins’ Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

DETROIT -- Steven Kwan has been around long enough to see a few iterations of the Guardians’ offense, including one that struggled mightily in 2025. He can’t recall a lineup as deep as this year’s.

“It’s a deep lineup and it’s a young lineup too, which is really cool,” Kwan said. “We always talk about how we have guys ready to go, 13 vs. one. This feels like we really embody that.”

The Guardians signed Rhys Hoskins over the offseason, but otherwise made zero additions to a position player mix that ranked 28th in the Majors in runs per game in 2025 (3.97). Cleveland opted to provide runway to its up-and-coming players, from returnees to those within the farm system, while leaving room to pivot in-season if that plan did not bear fruit.

We have a long way to go this season, but this could be Cleveland's best offense in years.

The Guardians entered Thursday’s series finale against the Tigers averaging 4.41 runs per game, which was just below league average (4.43) but a major jump from 2025. It was higher than '24 (4.40) and would be their highest since ‘21 (4.43), and in the mix for their highest since ‘19 (4.75) -- when offense spiked around the Majors and the league average was 4.83 runs per game.

Given the run-scoring environment of 2019, it may be most appropriate to turn to the '18 season (5.05 runs per game) as that which this group is trailing.

“To this point in the season, a number of young guys have taken the opportunity and run with it, and that's been really encouraging,” Guardians assistant general manager Matt Forman said. “The thing that's most enduring is not necessarily the results or the outcomes that guys have had, but the work that they're putting in consistently [behind the scenes].”

The results don’t hurt, of course, certainly as lineup anchors Kwan (.590 OPS through Thursday), José Ramírez (.780) and Kyle Manzardo (.659) each had an up-and-down start this season. That trio has begun trending up, but the Guardians haven’t had to be as dependent on them as they were in 2025.

Kwan, Ramírez and Manzardo were the Guardians’ only qualified hitters with at least a .700 OPS last year. Cleveland has eight players with a .700 OPS or better this year (minimum 80 plate appearances) in Ramírez and Hoskins (.704), rookies Travis Bazzana (.793) and Chase DeLauter (.813), and returnees Angel Martínez (.786), Brayan Rocchio (.796), David Fry (.738) and Daniel Schneemann (.730).

The larger trend behind the offensive improvement has been the Guardians’ plate discipline. Cleveland entered Thursday with the Majors’ largest year-over-year increase in walk rate (+3.3 points), going from 8.3 to 11.6 percent. Bazzana (15.9 percent) and DeLauter (12.2) have been two of the poster children.

“[Hitting coach Grant] Fink and the hitting group talked about, ‘We need to take more walks. We have to have better swing decisions,’” manager Stephen Vogt said. “We talk about ‘scare pitchers into the zone.’ When you lay off those borderline pitches and you take them for balls, they have to come into the zone, and you’re going to get better pitches to hit.

“We knew we needed to add more offense this year. You're not always going to just get slugging, and you're not always going to get that. So we have to look for different ways to get to first base, and that's been the goal of our offense -- touch first base. It doesn't matter how you get there.”

The more you get on base, the more opportunities you have to score. The Guardians entered Thursday with a 101 wRC+, well up from 2025 (87). That would be their highest since ‘18 (106). Consider their team-wide numbers year over year.

2025: .226/.296/.373, 8.3 BB%, 22.6 K%

2026: .231/.326/.377, 11.6 BB%, 19.7 K%

“I wouldn't say we have an old-school mentality,” Bazzana said. “But [we’re] just playing the game the right way. Runner on second, no one out, we're going to try to get the guy over. And then when there’s time to slug where you feel like you’ve got to get ‘A’ swings off, we're going to try to do that. We’re putting together really good at-bats.”

There’s a lot of season remaining. The Guardians will inevitably go through some low points at the plate. But there’s clear reasons to be optimistic about this group and what could lie ahead with so many guys emerging at once.

“Our approach has been really good,” Kwan said. “Talking to other teams, they can see what our approach is. It's frustrating to have to deal with that. As long as we're in their heads and we're putting up good at-bats, we’re going to be in a good spot."