Guardians' meager offense: Kwan and José and then hope and pray

New York Times

3 days ago

CLEVELAND — One afternoon in September 2013, Cleveland's pitchers roamed the outfield grass during batting practice. So, too, did a chicken.
Depending on whom you ask, it was either Corey Kluber or Justin Masterson who decided to convert the outfield into fowl territory, the master plan to boost morale after a rough road trip that threatened the team's postseason chances.
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The chicken, though, became part of the team's identity (and part of reliever Cody Allen's responsibilities. It also helped cement 'Chicken Al' as Allen's nickname). It sparked a 20-6 finish and a Wild Card berth, a momentous end to Terry Francona's first year at the helm.
Anything can jump-start a turnaround. You just need the turnaround to unfold, and then you can go back and conveniently identify the turning point.
It feels as though the 2025 Cleveland Guardians have been sitting back and waiting for a hot stretch to appear. If only it were that simple. Perhaps they need some poultry.
Maybe the catalyst will be Will Wilson's sacrifice bunt attempt Sunday, a tapper that trickled halfway up the left side of the infield grass and, thanks to an error, resulted in a go-ahead run and Wilson's reaching second. The Guardians can't be picky about how they score. The sac bunt vaulted Cleveland to a series sweep-avoiding victory.
The Guardians are 34-30, and yet, for much of the season, it's been an uninspiring brand of baseball to consume. The starting pitching is trending in the right direction. That's the strength of the team. The back end of the bullpen remains ever-reliable, too.
But the offense … where do we begin?
Let's start here: José Ramírez is a few months from turning 33 years old. Fortunately for the Guardians, he's showing no signs of slowing down. He boasts a .333/.392/.556 slash line, steals bases daily and has shaken off a rough few weeks defensively with what might be the best stretch of glovework of his career.
However, one of the best position players in club history is starring for an offense that's on pace to finish at or below league average, in terms of run creation, for the seventh straight season. That's a lot of heavy lifting by the 5-foot-8 third baseman.
It's a prolonged failure to construct a competent lineup around a guy who does everything exceptionally well. And this season's dud is perhaps the most head-scratching iteration. Nothing about this offense screams 'This team was one step away from the World Series eight months ago.'
Here's where the Guardians ranked at various positions, by wRC+, entering play Sunday:
(wRC+ measures a player or team's total offensive output relative to the rest of the league, with 100 being league average)
Center field: 30th out of 30 teams (35 wRC+, miles behind 29th place)
Right field: 29th out of 30 teams (42 wRC+, miles behind 28th place)
Shortstop: 29th out of 30 teams (45 wRC+)
Catcher: 24th out of 30 teams (73 wRC+)
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These aren't new issues, by the way.
Here's the club's production over the last 15 years:
Center field: 29th out of 30 teams
Right field: 26th out of 30 teams
Catcher: 26th out of 30 teams (and 30th over the last 10 years)
Their offensive identity might as well be 'Kwan and José and then hope and pray.'
The Guardians rank second in offensive production at third base (Ramírez), left field (Steven Kwan) and second base, where Daniel Schneemann has been a savior. Cleveland ranks in the top half of the league in output at first base and designated hitter. So, truly, if the Guardians didn't have putrid production at all four of the other spots — if the production was even average, or slightly below — this lineup could be somewhat imposing.
But, well, that hasn't happened, and the Guardians have been slow to act on their deficiencies. They finally swapped Jhonkensy Noel for Johnathan Rodriguez on Sunday, though manager Stephen Vogt cautioned Rodriguez still has some progress to make on swing changes he was implementing at Triple A.
The Guardians have acknowledged they did Noel no favors by pigeonholing him into a platoon role during a lengthy stretch in which the club faced few left-handed pitchers. Noel's numbers were gruesome; since Sept. 3, 2024, including the postseason, he owns a .126/.169/.210 slash line, with 57 strikeouts in 167 at-bats.
'You feel like you have to go 5-for-4 every time you play,' Vogt said Sunday morning. 'It's one of those things that, you start to put pressure on yourself. We have conversations with our guys all the time about this. We do our best to keep them in a good mental headspace. But there's nothing that can help when you're struggling and you're down on yourself and you put more pressure on yourself to be perfect. It's a really tough role.'
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And yet, they kept trotting him out there in that capacity. Noel and Nolan Jones seemed primed to, at minimum, hit for a bunch of power, but in 10 weeks as a right-field tandem, they totaled four homers. Their combined .257 slugging percentage would rank as the second worst for any qualified hitter in baseball. Among those with at least 100 plate appearances, Noel's wRC+ of 4 (meaning he's 96 percent worse than league average) is 18 percent worse than the league's second-worst hitter.
Vogt has said, since taking the job, he loathes the word 'platoon,' but the Guardians sure are reliant on them. They lead the league in platoon advantage, 9 percent more than any other team. Perhaps they're too reliant on finding opposite-handed matchups. Maybe Schneemann or Kyle Manzardo or Jones deserves a chance against lefties, especially given the lack of enticing alternatives on the bench. All of the timeshares don't seem to be doing anyone favors.
Schneemann, the 1,003rd pick of the draft in 2018, had reached a dead end at Double A 2 1/2 years ago before he overhauled his swing. Now, he's the one bright example from the organization's middle-infield stockpile. That's both a salute to Schneemann, who has rescued the Guardians on numerous occasions this season, and an indictment on the organization's continued struggle to develop hitters.
Maybe the wildest part of all of this: The Guardians might not be that far off, in terms of American League relevance. The top teams in a wide-open AL seem to be the Detroit Tigers, the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros. The Guardians have hung with all three in recent weeks. They look like they're simply a couple of bats short.
Those bats might have to come from the farm. They need to see what C.J. Kayfus and Chase DeLauter can provide. When Juan Brito is healthy, he should receive some attention, too. But the Guardians never should have positioned themselves to be banking on prospects making a midsummer arrival to bail out their lackluster lineup. They have a self-inflicted minuscule margin for error, not helped by a winter priority list that perplexingly included no means of upgrading the offense.
Ramírez is, once again, performing like an MVP candidate. (Unfortunately for him, in a league where Aaron Judge is a pitcher-torching android.) But there's only so much one player can do. His production should be fueling a team that has obvious designs to push past where its season fizzled last fall. The Guardians reached the final four in October and wield one of the league's better farm systems. Right now, they're not enjoying the fruits of either.
Vogt, of course, is confident a turnaround is on the horizon.
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'Our offense, we've struggled,' Vogt said over the weekend. 'We've struggled to score runs, especially early. We've done a great job getting to bullpens. We've struggled to score off starting pitching, and we're well aware of it. … We're still learning. We're still developing. I love where this offense is headed. We're headed in the right direction.'
They might just be one live chicken away from making that a reality.
(Top photo of Steven Kwan: Ken Blaze / Imagn Images)