Cleveland, OH
Cleveland Guardians 2024 MLB Season Preview
Key moves included the Guardians trading for Scott Barlow. The former Kansas City Royals closer pitched very well with the San Diego Padres, striking out 32 batters in 29.1 innings.
Cleveland also traded Cal Quantrill to the Rockies, which was a bit of a surprising move. Aside from those moves, the Guardians brought in pitchers Jaime Barria, Tyler Beede, and Carlos Carrasco to minor league deals.
Guardians Projected Lineups
As a team, the Guardians will need to focus on what they do best — which is play with speed. Get on base, steal bases, move the runners over, those kinds of things. On paper, there likely isn’t a ton of guys that are capable of hitting 20-plus home runs, but to improve from last season, there is no reason they couldn’t see five or more players steal 20 or more bases.
This is their identity. I think of old school teams like the 64′ St. Louis Cardinals. Now this team likely won’t win the World Series or even the AL Central, but they could compete if the lineup produces.
Projected Lineup
- Steven Kwan, LF
- Andrés Giménez, 2B
- José Ramírez, 3B
- Josh Naylor, 1B
- Bo Naylor, C
- Ramón Laureano, RF
- Kyle Manzardo, DH
- Brayan Rocchio, SS
- Myles Straw, CF
To take the positivity hat off for a minute though, the offense still remains quite a concern. I look at this lineup and I wonder who will get better?
Perhaps an increase of playing time will provide the Naylor brothers with the tools they need to put up better numbers. Unfortunately, a lot of stock is being put on young prospects that are on their way in Will Brennan, Kyle Manzardo and Chase DeLauter. There is room for improvement for nearly every player in the lineup (except for Ramirez).