The Guardians are your 2025 AL Central Division Champions.
I was reminded of a hilarious line in a hilariously bad move, The Rise of Skywalker. When bringing Emperor Palpatine back from the dead, the scriptwriters
wave the continuity problems away by having a likeable character somberly intone, “Somehow, Palpatine returned.”
The Guardians are still bottom three in team wRC+, they are middling in starting pitcher ERA and lower than that in FIP and/or SIERA. Their bullpen is good. Their run differential ended the season at -6 with an expected won-loss record 6 games below their actual record of 88-74. There are a lot of plot holes and continuity errors in the idea of the Guardians making the playoffs in 2025.
When it comes to the postseason and the top of the AL Central, though – somehow, the Guardians returned.
Here is Deborah Williams with the recap of a crazy game that seemed to mirror the Guardians’ season. Here is Zack Meisel on the miracle Guards, and here is Tim Stebbins on this amazing run.
Now, to take a deep breath before Tarik Skubal and the Tigers (who lost to the Red Sox while resting Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson, I might add) come to town. We will have our various series preview articles out soon, so stay tuned!
Hey, so several of our commenters accused our writers of homerism when we predicted the Guardians (as a composite number) to finish 88-74 and make the playoffs. You can read that article here. Read it and weep (for joy). And, of course, I notice I accidentally wrote Braves twice when I meant Brewers as a wildcard team just now.
The Guardians AGAIN beat FanGraphs’ preseason projections. This time by TEN games.
AROUND MLB
The Reds and Tito Francona made the last wildcard spot and sent the $350 million Mets home. It’s Yankees-Red Sox, Dodgers-Reds, and Cubs-Padres in the wildcard round, with the Blue Jays awaiting the Yankees-Red Sox winner, the Mariners facing the winner of Tigers-Guardians, the Phillies facing off with the winner of Reds-Dodgers, and the Brewers getting the winner of Cubs-Padres. Should be a fun time, but I can’t shake the feeling of just being happy to be here at the moment.
