In July of 2017, the Cleveland Guardians signed a 16-year-old Venezuelan shortstop named Brayan Rocchio. At that time, the Guardians had one of the best shortstops of our generation, Francisco Lindor, calling the infield home. In 2021, Lindor was traded to the New York Mets, and the question of who would take over between second and third base was on everyone’s mind. At the time, the answer came from that trade. Andrés Giménez took over at shortstop until he was switched to second base. That opened
the question up once more. Enter Brayan Rocchio.
Rocchio made his Major League debut on May 16, 2023 and played 23 games that season. During those 23 games, the Guardians began testing him at shortstop. He played 17 games in the position, splitting time with Gabriel Arias. In 2024, the position was all Rocchio’s. He played 130 games at short and answered the question of who would play there.
He started the first game of the 2025 season, opening with a walk and a run scored in a 4-3 win against the Kansas City Royals. He then had a hit in each of the next three games, pointing to a promising start of the season. In the month of April, he hit .200/.275/.250 with 12 hits and six runs.
He really began to cool off in the month of May – to the point where I’m not sure that’s a strong enough phrase. He put his bat in the freezer. In the first seven games of the month, he had zero hits and zero walks, but was able to score twice and steal a base. His .000/.053/.000 (thanks to a hit by pitch) for the month resulted in a trip to Triple-A Columbus. He was activated by the Clippers on May 12th and spent the next month and a half working on every part of his game.
Over 41 games with the Clippers, Rocchio hit .252/.353/.484. Nothing extraordinary, but it showed that he was working hard to get back to Cleveland. He collected 40 hits in that time, seven of which were home runs. That was all the Guardians needed to see to call him back up, which is exactly what they did on July 1st.
His bat seemed to heat up as soon as he returned to the team, hitting .266/.310/.443 and totaling five walks and 14 RBI. He lost a bit of his power after his return, only hitting one home run. His success continued into the summer, and he saw a bit of that power return. He hit two home runs in the month of August, and collected four stolen bases. His line moved ever so slightly to .267/.305/.356, proving more than anything his consistency.
That consistency continued into the final month of the season with Rocchio hitting .238/.316/.381 in September. Plus, who can forget his walk-off homer off the foul pole in the last game of the season?
On top of his offensive success, he was frequently lauded for his middle-infield defense. He was charged with 12 errors across 115 games, and contributed 247 assists. While he’s no Lindor, Rocchio is a perfectly consistent player who continues to contribute meaningful at bats and plays.
When it came to the Wild Card series against the Detroit Tigers, he had a rough first game. He went 0-3 with two strikeouts. However, the final two games of the series were all his. In the bottom of the eighth inning of a tied game two, he broke the tie with a home run and kicked off a five-run stretch. In game three, he hit a single in the bottom of the eighth which ignited an almost-comeback. He came around to score on an error, but the Guardians could not use that spark to complete the comeback.
From July 1st through the end of the season, Rocchio had a 96 wRC+ with a 19.9/6 K/BB% (add in his playoff 109 wRC+ and we can call that a league average hitter). If Rocchio can sustain that production and return to his gold-glove nomination-worthy defense of 2024 at shortstop, he makes a great case to be the team’s primary plan at shortstop for 2026. Adding 13% to his hard-hit rate in 2025 and decreasing his groundballs while increasing his pulled-fly ball rate are all very positive sign for his growth as a hitter. He’ll surely hit the weight room this offseason and come in motivated to secure a starting job in Spring Training.
From the stadium-shaking moment of the tie-breaking home run in the Wild Card to the countless claims of “Build Rocchio Statue Now”, it’s clear to see that Brayan Rocchio is just as important to this city as the city is to him. So let’s start crowdfunding that statue.
