Anthony Castrovince filled in on this version of Mandy Bell’s Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Who will be in the Guardians’ Opening Day lineup?
Um, respectfully, who cares?
OK, OK, Opening Day is a big deal, and there’s no getting around that. We love Spring Training battles, debating potential batting orders and seeing player reactions when they get the news that they made the cut.
That’s all good stuff.
But the 2024 Guardians are shaping up to be a particularly excellent example of the malleability of the long Major League season.
We will go into this year feeling reasonably confident that Cleveland can field a competitive pitching staff (the club has finished in the top 10 in MLB in ERA eight of the last 10 years, and in the top half of the Majors in 11 of the last 12), especially with the healthy returns of Shane Bieber (whose improved velocity is an early highlight of camp) and Triston McKenzie (who is set to make his Cactus League debut Wednesday).
But where is the production going to come from? How is a club that ranked fourth from the bottom in the Majors in runs scored last season, and did not make meaningful improvements over the winter, going to up the ante offensively?
It’s going to have to happen internally. And it could happen with what is shaping up to be an evolving roster.
“We have a lot of roster flexibility,” rookie manager Stephen Vogt said on Tuesday. “That’s a good thing. When you have a young team, things happen throughout the course of the season. The way we’re looking at it is everybody who is in camp is going to have an opportunity to impact us at some point.”
When MLB Pipeline released its list of the Guardians’ Top 30 Prospects on Tuesday, it was notable that 13 of them have “2024” listed as their ETA. If you’ve ever been to an airport, you know ETAs are made to be moved, but that nevertheless speaks to the burgeoning prospect pool in play.
On the position player side, we know the Guards lack thump in their projected Major League lineup. But the club’s No. 1 and 2 prospects -- outfielder Chase DeLauter, the 16th overall pick in the 2022 Draft who performed well at three Minor League levels last year, and first baseman Kyle Manzardo, the Aaron Civale trade acquisition who smoked the ball in the Arizona Fall League -- have both been making strong impressions in Cactus League play, sporting OPS marks north of 1.100.
“Professional at-bats,” Vogt said of that pair. “They don't look big-eyed. They look ready to go.”
This should also be the year we start to make some sense of that unusually large assemblage of middle infielders the Guards have been stockpiling.
The focus in camp is Gabriel Arias vs. No. 3 prospect Brayan Rocchio for the starting shortstop gig, and either one of them could stick. But No. 7 prospect Juan Brito, No. 10 prospect Angel Martínez and No. 24 prospect José Tena are not far behind (and the Guards retain the option of shifting uber-defender Andrés Giménez from second to short to make room for any of them, should they see fit).
Martínez has been crushing the ball in this camp, with two homers and two doubles in his first 14 at-bats.
“His practice has been intentful, and when he gets in the game, he's not scared,” Vogt said. “I love seeing that from a young player.”
Fans will inevitably roll their eyes at the mention of Brito, because they know too well that it took a trade of outfielder Nolan Jones, who went on to star for the Rockies last season, to get him. But Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt said not to sleep on Brito.
“We gave up a good player for [Jones],” Schmidt said. “I think the Cleveland fans will see that this year.”
So don’t sweat that Opening Day roster too much. It’s a moving target. And the Guards’ Top 30 Prospects list tells us it might be moving in an interesting direction.