CLEVELAND -- The Guardians had as successful of a homestand as they could have asked for leading up to the Trade Deadline. But now that the team is back at .500, where does it go from here?
After taking two of three games against the Phillies, the Guardians then won the three-game set against the Royals, punctuated with an 8-3 victory in the series finale on Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field. With the Twins’ loss to the Mariners in Minnesota, the Guardians sit just two games out of first place with six days remaining to make a move before the Aug. 1 deadline.
Maybe a 51-51 record isn’t what the Guardians expected to have at this point in the season, but because the American League Central as a whole has been underperforming, Cleveland has remained in contention.
The questions now turn toward the future and how the Guardians can build from this uneven foundation they’ve constructed thus far. Let’s try to answer a few of these pressing questions.
Can they live without a power bat?
Josh Naylor’s hot bat (though it has cooled the past week) is a big reason to remain optimistic about the potential of the lineup. Having him behind José Ramírez will continue to benefit the Guardians, as they witnessed on Wednesday, when the All-Star third baseman enjoyed his second multihomer game of the season (22nd of his career).
The supporting pieces around these two big bats will determine the fate of this season. A lot of it starts with the team’s big offseason signing, Josh Bell, who has looked much better since the All-Star break. He currently owns a seven-game hitting streak, but he’s failed to demonstrate consistency at any point this season, leaving it difficult to know whether this stretch is indicating he’s moving in the right direction or if it’ll be another short-lived spurt.
The Guardians have tried to find more ways to keep David Fry's hot bat in the lineup, which has helped the offense but made it more difficult for Bo Naylor, who also had a two-homer game on Tuesday, to get even more at-bats. These two have shown they can help bring more life to the offense, but they haven’t had the opportunities to do so as frequently as others.
Adding an impact outfield bat to this mix should be a tremendous help, especially for a team that owns the fewest number of homers in the Majors -- by a landslide -- even after hitting three more on Wednesday.
Do they have enough pitching?
On paper, the Guardians have many quality pitching options, despite Shane Bieber, Cal Quantrill and Triston McKenzie all being on the injured list. Gavin Williams, Logan Allen and Tanner Bibee have done an exceptional job at handling the workloads that were abruptly thrown at them this season, and they have continued to develop as reliable arms in the rotation.
But as their innings counts keep creeping higher to new career highs, the Guardians need to be wary of overworking them to avoid possible injuries or waning results due to fatigue. Williams was solid in his start on Wednesday, but because of a high number of foul balls, his pitch count was in the 80s after just four innings, causing the bullpen to take on another heap of frames. And if the bullpen is exhausted for the final stretch of the season, it’ll be hard to stay in the win column.
Maybe the Guardians have enough pitching to barely get by for the rest of the season. But it would be infinitely more comfortable for the entire organization if another arm could be acquired by the Deadline to help give a little more breathing room to a group that’s had no room for error.
Is winning sustainable?
The Guardians haven’t proven this just yet this season.
The team has spent little time above .500. Cleveland has taken advantage of each time it has played Kansas City, going 7-3 so far, but the Guardians are just 8-11 against the rest of the AL Central. Seven games against the White Sox are on the schedule over the next week and a half. In the last two months of the regular season, the Guardians will have seven contests against Detroit and six against Minnesota. If nothing else, Cleveland will need to make sure it dominates the division to assure its spot in the postseason.
“Obviously our division's very winnable,” Fry said, “and so we're just trying to maintain and keep climbing up the leaderboard.”