As a Cleveland sports fan, have you ever asked yourself the question – what if everything goes right for once?
I would like to preface the following article by saying that if you are Paul Dolan, please
stop reading. We should not rely on the current set of players to end the organization’s title drought on their own. You need to invest some more money in this baseball team.
For the rest of us, let’s imagine we have to enter 2026 with the team we have now… what hope would there be that this team could surprise us and win a World Series?
–Injuries and Lack of Spring Training were the problem and June 2023-June 2024 David Fry Returns – Up until June of 2025, David Fry had a 124 wRC+ in MLB with a 23/10 K/BB and a reasonable .305 BABIP. Last year, he had a difficult time finding his rhythm in sporadic playing time. I have to admit there is a small part of me that wonders what might happen if he was handed the starting first baseman gig (with Manzardo spelling him for 200 innings or so). Do I think that’s a good plan A? No, but, again, this is the optimistic take column. Save your realism for westbrook’s News and Notes (all love to westbrook).
–September Bo Naylor Decides to Stick Around – Bo put up a 136 wRC+ in September. Kinda impressive how often as a catcher he finishes strong. Now, can we just get him to START strong and hang around kinda strong? Even a 100 wRC+ and some growth as a pitch-caller and receiver would make a huge difference.
–Jhonkensy Noel’s Mechanics Change is a Miracle – Noel is turning more toward the front of the plate in his set-up. If that could get him back to a player who hits LHP with solid slugging, maybe he could be the right-handed platoon bat the team needs? He has a 95 wRC+ against LHP in the majors even after a PUTRID 2025. (This scenario was tough to type).
–July-October Brayan Rocchio is Real – Rocchio was a league average hitter after his “Wake up!” demotion to Columbus. He had a Gold Glove nomination at shortstop in 2024. I see no hope Gabriel Arias is anything other than what we have seen but I think there’s a chance Rocchio is just a very average player at everything except defense where he is good… in which case he’d be a 3-win player.
–Juan Brito of April 2025 Returns – Before Brito got hurt, he had a 137 wRC+ with a 14.3/15.7 K/BB%. Then, he sustained multiple injuries (thumb sprain and hamstring tear) derailing his season. But, he should be healthy now and if he can get back to the p;ayer who shows great plate discipline and pulls fly balls, the team could put up with a little shakiness on defense now and then.
–George Valera’s Brief Major League Time was Meaningful – Can’t ask for much better than a .330 wOBA for Valera in his debut season. But, his xwOBA was .260. You’d need to see him shake off the luck merchant allegations, but 113 wRC+ would look great in right field on this team should Valera stay healthy and live into what he’s done so far.
–Chase DeLauter Stays Healthy – In Triple-A in 2025, DeLauter put up a 131 wRC+ with a 15.4/14.8 K/BB%. His 52% hard-hit rate and 92 mph average exit velo plays to my eyes. I don’t know that it’s wise to put him in center and hope for the best, but he has some of the best hitting skills this organization has seen in a while.
–Steven Kwan Gets Healthy and Has a Healthy Season – In even years, Kwan has a 128 wRC+, What else do you need to know, really? After dealing with a nagging wrist injury in 2025, let’s hope he comes to Spring Training healthy and does his even year thing.
–Kyle Manzardo Takes the Next Step – In his first full season as a major leaguer, Manzardo put up a 113 wRC+. With a year under his belt and the confidence that accompanies that as he will still only be 25 years old for a good portion of next year.
-Jose Has One More Peak Season in Him – Eventually, Jose Ramirez will start the gradual decline even Hall of Fame players all experience. However, he had another 6-win season in 2025 and that season only didn’t reach 7 or 8 wins because of two factors: 1. Jose had a TERRIBLE start to the year defensively. Eventually, he righted the ship and earned another gold glove nomination, so I expect that slow start to be an outlier, 2. He got hit by the evil Kevin Gausman on June 26th and put up an 86 wRC+ in the next 15 games, and only a 111 wRC+ through August (fueled by an insanely low .206 BABIP). By September, Jose’s hand seems to have had time to regain its strength and he put up a 145 wRC+, exactly the same as the wRC+ he put up from Opening Day-June 26th. A better defensive start and a 145 wRC+ would have put Jose at around 8 wins and give him a real shot at getting that elusive AL MVP.
–The September Starting Rotation is Real – The Guardians young starters put up a 2.60 ERA and a 3.09 FIP in September of 2025. Tanner Bibee finally figured things out, Gavin Williams was dominant, Joey Cantillo commanded the zone, Parker Messick looked like a phenom and Slade Cecconi steered out of a summer slide, while Logan Allen was still somehow way more effective than he has any right to be. Carl Willis is back, so is Corey Kluber – let’s see these guys all take the next steps toward carrying this kind of success into a full season.
–The Guardians Pitching Factory Continues to Produce Relief Gold from Straw – The Guardians have some good bullpen pieces: Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, Erik Sabrowski and Matt Festa. They also have Tim Herrin who began to look like his old self in September. Other than that, they are hoping for their continued ability to send pitchers to their Rumpelstiltskins in the pitching development program and emerge with golden arms if they hope their bullpen will remain dominant. To be honest, relief pitching is where I remain the most confident that the Guardians WILL invest some money. I doubt they’re going to sign Devin Williams or Ryan Helsley. But, I do think in free agency and trades, they will improve this unit. But, for the sake of our optimistic scenario, they figure out Franco Aleman’s walk and homer problem in offseason bootcamps, Steven Perez is the next dominant lefty, and perhaps either Joey Cantillo or Slade Cecconi becomes a high leverage weapon with Allen holding down the fifth starter spot. This group has certainly given us little reason to doubt they can figure out a bullpen when needed.
Based on our optimistic scenarios, take a gander at THESE wild-eyed, rose-glasses projections:
1. Steven Kwan – LF – 120 wRC+
2. Chase DeLauter – CF – 115 wRC+
3. Jose Ramirez – 3B – 140 wRC+
4. Kyle Manzardo – DH – 120 wRC+
5. David Fry – 1B – 120 wRC+
6. George Valera/Jhonkensy Noel – RF – 115/115 wRC+
7. Juan Brito – 2B – 110 wRC+
8. Bo Naylor – C – 100 wRC+
9. Brayan Rocchio – 100 wRC+
Bench:
Austin Hedges – C – Uh-oh, turns out the 94 wRC+ Hedges put up in August-September 2025 is REAL. Watch out world.
Petey Halpin – OF – That 157 wRC+ in the bigs in 2025 was REAL, folks (don’t look at sample-size) and it turns out he can spell DeLauter in center 2-3 times a week and the team barely misses a step.
Daniel Schneemann – IF – Turns out Schneemann, now used to his bench/utility role, is more of the 97 wRC+ he put up from Opening Day-July 1st than the 62 wRC+ he put from then until the end of the season and he continues to be average-good everywhere defensively on the diamond.
That’ll do, pig. That’ll do. If the Guardians got this kind of production from their hitters, they’d have a top 5-10 offense in baseball. Combined with a pitching group in which fans should be comfortably confident, they would certainly qualify as World Series contenders.
Great. Good. Now, please – Paul, Chris and Mike – ignore all this and go get a middle of the order bat, a right-handed hitter who can play center and hit at least at a league average rate, two proven relief options, and some starting pitching depth. PLEASE.
