CLEVELAND -- Chase DeLauter put himself on the map in March with a historic home run surge during the Guardians’ season-opening series against the Mariners. Perhaps rejoining Cleveland’s lineup with Seattle in town will prove to be a good omen.
“I hope so,” DeLauter said with a smile Sunday morning. “I hope so. We’ll see.”
The Guardians activated DeLauter off the 10-day injured list prior to Sunday’s series finale against the Mariners at Progressive Field. He was in Cleveland’s starting lineup, hitting third as the DH. Outfielder Petey Halpin was optioned to Triple-A Columbus in a corresponding move.
DeLauter suffered a right rib cage fracture on June 13 against the Tigers, when he crashed into the right-field wall at Progressive Field attempting to make a leaping catch. He went on the IL four days later, during a streak of tough injury luck for Cleveland.
José Ramírez (left hamate fracture) and Angel Martínez (non-displaced left foot fracture) were injured during the same game as DeLauter.
DeLauter did not go on a rehab assignment before rejoining the Guardians. He noted the recovery process in part was a matter of waiting for his rib pain to decrease so he could resume swinging and doing other baseball activities.
“It’s kind of annoying,” DeLauter said of the rib injury. “The small things are worse -- the coughing, the sneezing. Stuff like that sucks more than getting hot and swinging and running. When I'm hot and moving around, [I'm] kind of not thinking about it a whole lot. Waking up in the morning, laying down, relaxing, a lot of that stuff's a little bit uncomfortable.”
DeLauter resumed baseball activities during the Guardians’ recent nine-game road trip and has been going through a progressive build-up the past few days. He most recently took on-field batting practice and fly balls pregame Saturday. The 24-year-old said he’s “swinging good enough to get in there, for sure,” and his return could be a boon to the Guardians.
DeLauter has emerged as a key piece in Cleveland’s lineup as a rookie this season. Over 66 games, he has a .263/.337/.408 slash line with 12 doubles, seven home runs, 34 RBIs and 28 walks with 36 strikeouts. He went deep four times against the Mariners at T-Mobile Park in the Guardians’ first series of the season.
Meanwhile, the Guardians entered Sunday ranked 29th in MLB in June in both runs scored (76) and OPS (.623).
DeLauter has already set a new career high in games played at any professional level this season. He dealt with multiple injury setbacks in the Minor Leagues before he made his big league debut in the postseason last year.
DeLauter never dealt with a rib injury, and he feels fortunate his recovery was not too drawn out. He’s rejoining a roster that has grown increasingly young recently. Kahlil Watson (who hit fifth and played right field on Sunday) and Cooper Ingle (who hit seventh and played left field) each made their MLB debut this month.
Coupled with DeLauter, Travis Bazzana and others, there’s a cast of rookies and up-and-comers who played together in the Minors and hope to do so for a while in The Show.
“We had offseason camps up here hitting and stuff like that, purely for moments like this,” DeLauter said. “We're gonna be a group that's gonna be together hopefully for a while. We want to get up here and start kind of working that stuff out and seeing how we want to play and attack the year.
“Now we're all here, and being able to live that out is sick.”