Since 2002, 30 teams have played just under 24 full seasons which totals to 720 “seasons”. Among those 720 seasons the 2025 Guardians 2-hole production ranks like this against the 719 other seasons from a teams 2 spot:
- 716th in wRC+ (60)
- 720th in AVG (.193)
- 720th in OBP (.252)
- 720th in OPS (.579)
- 710th in BB/K (0.3)
2002 is the earliest this data is tracked (at least on Fangraphs).
On an unrelated note, this is how THE BAT X projection system thinks Austin Hedges will hit the rest of 2025:
- 59 wRC+
- .194 AVG
- .258 OBP
- .571 OPS
- 0.25 BB/K
This is not the production a winning team puts between their two best hitters in Jose Ramirez and Steven Kwan.
In recent years the 2-hole has started to morph into the new 3 hitter, with heavy hitters like Juan Soto, Kyle Schwarber, Kyle Tucker, and Vlad Guerrero Jr. all posting more than 300 plate appearances as the 2 hitter in 2025. The Guardians however have 7 different players with atleast 10 games in the 2-hole (including 19 for Jose Ramirez). Other than Jose, none of those players are worthy 2-hole hitters with the possible exception of Kyle Manzardo, who is probably better suited for the cleanup role.
Its impossible to overstate how bad it is for an offense when the hitter in front of your superstar is only getting on base ~1/4 times. Jose Ramirez is somehow still pacing for 100 RBI, despite the historically bad production in front of him (man is he special). I can’t help but wonder how many RBI he would have if there was just an average hitter in front of him, and in turn how many runs that would produce for the Guardians in total.
Going into 2026 the 2-spot needs to be the biggest priority on the hitting side for the Guardians. Whether it is filled internally by someone like Bazzana or DeLauter, who are both great profiles for the 2-hole, or externally by a “splash” free agent that can muster up enough offense to improve one of the biggest lineup holes in the sports recent history doesn’t matter… it just needs to be fixed. Almost any hitter in baseball could put up better numbers between the two Guardians All-stars but in order for this offense to thrive the Guardians will need an above average hitter slotted into the 2-spot everyday in 2026.
