This review is going to be, obviously, a little different than the other ones you may have read. I’m going to, simply put, look at the facets of DeLauter’s profile as a hitter that will both help and hurt
the team next year at the MLB level.
I’ve included below a statcast-esque snapshot of DeLauter’s batting percentiles at AAA-Columbus this year. The snapshot is supposed to look like the ones you can find on baseballsavant.mlb.com for any MLB hitter.
Red is good, blue is bad. Most of the stats on here you will have inevitably heard of before, but I’ll explain some of the ones you might not necessarily have heard of. ‘Z-Swing%’ measures how often a hitter swings at pitches inside the zone. ‘O-Swing%’, or more commonly ‘Chase%’, measures how often a hitter swings at pitches outside the zone. ‘Z-Contact%’ measures how often a hitter makes contact with swings at pitches inside the zone. The Fangraphs Scouting Grades you see atop the percentile table are the normal 20-80 scouting grades assigned to a hitter’s abilities at one of the 5 scouting tools. “Game” and “Raw” refer to his game power and raw power.
So, as you can see, a lot of red. Good! His main weakness, which has been noted throughout his career, comes from his inability to consistently generate favorable launch angles (non-groundball batted ball events). That’s really his only big weakness. He’s great at hitting the ball hard, and his plate discipline has been consistently excellent. All of these things should get you excited for what a full and healthy season of Chase Delauter at MLB could look like. Everything he brings to the table are things the Guardians have been sorely lacking, not just in the outfield, for at LEAST the last 5 years.
Let’s start with 4-seam fastballs. He was, on the surface, not great at hitting 4-seams in the minors this year. His wOBA on 4-seams was .315, and his xwOBA was .324. His hard-hit rate, though, was 55%, and his average launch angle was 20 degrees. Both of these things would suggest that his xwOBA should be significantly higher than it was. Some of that could be due to the small sample size we’re looking at. I do think that some of this could be explained by his relatively average ability to pull the ball in the air. Hitting the ball hard & at a favorable launch angle are great building blocks, but pulling those hard-hit balls in the air generates the most success of any batted ball type. Pulling the baseball in the air, in general, can contribute to a significantly higher measure of success than what expected stats may suggest. That has been Jose’s biggest strength throughout his career, and the reason he’s been able to consistently overperform his expected stats. Unfortunately, that pitch type-specific pull air% data is not publicly available, so I can only speculate.
I’m going to quickly list his wOBA and xwOBA on every pitch type throughout his AAA career (including the limited 2024 AAA sample size because he simply won’t have faced as many non-fastballs). I’m going to also show you where his stats would have ranked on the Guardians last year among hitters who faced a minimum of 50 pitches. I’m also going to highlight all of his top-half finishes among Guardians.
4-Seam Fastballs (2024-25): .330 wOBA (7th/17), .297 xwOBA (12th/17), 40% Hard Hit% (HH%) (12th/17)
Sinkers: .450 wOBA (1st/15), .462 xwOBA (1st/15), 50% HH% (3rd/15)
Cutters (limited sample): .715 wOBA (1st/11), .503 xwOBA (1st/11), 50% HH% (5th/11)
Changeups (limited sample): .411 wOBA (1st/14), .422 xwOBA (1st/14), 47.1% HH% (3rd/14)
Curveballs (limited): .125 wOBA (9th/10), .303 xwOBA (6th/10), 70% HH% (1st/10)
Sliders: .461 wOBA (1st/15), .376 xwOBA (2nd/15), 38.9% HH% (6th/15)
Sweepers (limited): .359 wOBA (2nd/12), .209 xwOBA (8th/12), 55.6% HH% (1st/12)
Quite a bit of bold lettering. All of this is to say that he provides a number of things that the Guardians desperately need if they want to field a competent offense in 2026. They desperately need an outfield power bat, and that’s DeLauter. One more thing, DeLauter had 34 ABs against LHP in AAA in 2025. He slashed .441/.537/.647 (1.184 OPS). I don’t have to tell you that that would have ranked, comfortably, first on the team against LHP. He’s the bat they’ve been waiting for, and, barring injury, needs to break camp with the team after Spring Training. Whether he plays in CF or in RF is immaterial — this lineup needs his bat.
I’m not sold on the Guardians signing a proven CF to play every day. Here are the 7 Guardians who recorded at least 1 inning in CF this year: Nolan Jones, Steven Kwan, Daniel Schneemann, Petey Halpin, Lane Thomas, Angel Martinez. Nolan Jones will most likely not be on the team next year, and if he is, he will not be seeing playing time over DeLauter and Valera. Kwan is your every day LF, obviously. Halpin is limited at the plate, but is a good option for CF defense. Lane Thomas might not be back, and even if he is, he will see reduced playing time against RHP to give Valera & DeLauter ABs. Martinez might not even make the OD MLB roster next season, and if he does, he’s limited for the same reason Thomas is. So that leaves Schneemann. He is a legitimate CF option, and is arguably the best defensive CF of the proven bunch (excluding Halpin). He is probably the CF1 on the depth chart on Opening Day next year. But, if the Guardians are trying to force DeLauter into the lineup, CF is the best way to do that. An outfield of Kwan-DeLauter-Valera is the best combo you can come up with offensively. The two main issues with DeLauter in CF, as I see it, are injury concern and ‘playability’ concern. There is a concern that, with the increased stress that playing centerfield puts on the body, DeLauter will be significantly more prone to getting injured. The playability concern comes from him having pretty limited experience in CF. Although, the Guardians have shown relatively little apprehension with putting non-experienced (or those who have experience, but are poor defenders) centerfielders in centerfield (Martinez, Freeman, Brennan, Thomas, Jones). You can also wonder if his sprint speed translates to CF, given that Fangraphs has his speed tool at slightly below average. But, I really don’t think he could be that much worse of a CF defender than Nolan Jones (-2 DRS in 193.1 innings) or Angel Martinez (-4 OAA, -8 DRS in 813 innings). Experience should help, which is why I’m expecting to hear reports of him taking reps in CF all offseason, and then after in Spring Training. Obviously, with DeLauter, you have to be more careful than you would with most about the injury concern. I do think, on a related note, that you could ease that issue by playing him in LF. How do you get him in LF? Giving Kwan rest days. Although that is an entirely different tangent, I’d like to see the Guardians give Kwan >1 day/week of rest, especially on days that precede an off day. Kwan’s health and consistency have been his biggest issues throughout his 4 years of MLB playing time, and giving him more rest should ameliorate those concerns. So, DeLauter. I’d like to see him play CF the majority of the time against RHP, and some LF/DH on days Kwan isn’t in the lineup. This gets your best hitting prospect in the lineup as much as possible, which is exactly what you want with a recently called-up prospect — experience. Valera, too, should see as much RF as possible against RHP, so that’d probably be off limits against RHP. The Guardians have to find a way to get their best hitters into the lineup as frequently as possible, and putting DeLauter in center is most likely the best way to do that as the roster stands now.
This is all a reminder that DeLauter is arguably the best hitting prospect the Guardians have had since Lindor. His floor is significantly raised by his good contact rate, his elite plate discipline, and his top-of-the-line ability to do damage on pitches he makes contact with. His average bat speed at MLB this year, although limited, would have ranked T-3rd among Guardians’ hitters this year. His ceiling is extremely high, though limited by his launch angle issues. If he can learn to consistently hit the ball hard and in the air, then his ceiling is almost limitless. Playing him as often as possible gives him the best chance to reach that ceiling. Also, batting him 2nd could potentially destroy the 2-hole curse that has plagued the Guardians since 2023.
Going into this year, DeLauter was projected to put up a .323 wOBA in 2026 by ZiPS’ projection. That would’ve ranked fourth among Guardians with >20 plate appearances in 2025. That will almost certainly go up with the release of their next projections.
Oh, also, in his 3rd plate appearance in MLB, he lined out on a ball hit 110.8mph. That maximum exit velocity would have ranked 9th (/20) on the team. 3rd plate appearance. Not to mention the other 2 hard-hit batted balls he recorded in 6 at-bats. His first 6 at-bats. His first 6 at-bats after 3 months of injury rehab. Play him every day.
