Nine numbers that reflect the state of the up-and-down Cleveland Guardians

Sports

add

The Cleveland Guardians need a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds next month or they’ll relinquish the Ohio Cup to their Buckeye State foes for the first time since 2014. These are desperate times in northeast Ohio.

Let’s examine some numbers that shed some light on the Guardians’ state of play as they embark on a week of in-division play against the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers, the two teams ahead of them in the AL Central.

29th: Guardians right fielders’ rank, by OPS, among the league’s 30 teams

That OPS, by the way, was a meager .526 entering Sunday. Only the Royals’ right fielders have been less productive. Jhonkensy Noel is 12-for-80 with 27 strikeouts. Nolan Jones is 19-for-105 with 36 strikeouts. For an offense that, as a whole, ranks 21st in OPS, this has been the greatest problem area. Lane Thomas could help to alleviate what’s been a black hole when he returns in the coming days. Perhaps the most shocking part about this right field timeshare? Jones and Noel, whom both possess the muscle to pepper the upper deck seats, have combined for only four homers.

.320: Carlos Santana’s slugging percentage

Entering Sunday, only 12 qualified big leaguers had logged a lower slugging percentage. Santana is drawing walks at a healthy clip, per usual, but his extra-base hits have vanished. He has three doubles and four home runs, or about one extra-base hit per week.

Santana’s at-bats per extra-base hit, by year:
2025: 21.3
2024: 10.6
2023: 9.6
2022: 11.6
2021: 16.6
2020: 13.7
2019: 8.8

David Fry will return soon from elbow surgery, and if Santana’s power hasn’t resurfaced by then, the Guardians can’t be afraid to slice into his playing time.

144: José Ramírez’s wRC+

That’d be his highest wRC+ (weighted runs created plus) since 2020, when he finished runner-up in AL MVP voting. This signifies that he’s been 44 percent more proficient than the league-average hitter this year, in case anyone was concerned that the 32-year-old was slowing down at the plate. He has boosted his walk rate, trimmed his strikeout rate and is hitting for his highest average since 2017. He’s on pace for 32 homers and 42 stolen bases. Stephen Vogt’s lineup couldn’t survive without him.

José Ramírez crushes a 401-foot homer 💥 #RivalryWeekend pic.twitter.com/RAjiFaRK3F

— MLB (@MLB) May 16, 2025

35: Kyle Manzardo’s home run pace

He has 10 thus far, and where would the Guardians be without that new power source? Here’s the list of Cleveland hitters with 35 or more in a season in the 21st century:

• José Ramírez (2018, 2021, 2024)
• Francisco Lindor (2018)
• Edwin Encarnacion (2017)
• Travis Hafner (2006)
• Jim Thome (2000, 2001, 2002)
• Juan Gonzalez (2001)
• Manny Ramirez (2000)

7: Starts of at least six innings with no more than two earned runs allowed

Tanner Bibee is responsible for three of the seven. Luis Ortiz has two, and Logan Allen and Gavin Williams have one apiece. That’s it. That’s about one start of that caliber per week. The rest of the league has accounted for 409 of these starts, or about 14 per club. It helps to explain how Cleveland has already used 21 pitchers (after using an average of 27.5 the last four years), and that doesn’t include Vince Velasquez, who spent a few days on the roster but didn’t enter a game.

6.2: Strikeouts per nine innings for Tanner Bibee

Among Cleveland’s starters, only Ben Lively has a lower rate. Bibee hasn’t looked like himself for much of this season. Last year, he struck out more than five hitters in 18 of 31 outings. This year, it’s 0-for-9. His chase rate and whiff rate have tumbled, too. A shift to focusing on efficiency for the sake of piling up innings, rather than chasing strikeouts, is perfectly sensible, and Bibee has been pitching deeper into games over the last few weeks. The results, however, have been mixed. Bibee’s 4.06 ERA is right around league average.

1.06: Kolby Allard’s ERA

That’s across 17 innings (even though, somehow, he has recorded only six strikeouts). Allard has been a savior for Cleveland’s pen, just as everyone would have expected. The quartet of Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Tim Herrin remains the team’s core strength. But the other half of the bullpen has been a revolving door. The Guardians need another reliable arm or two, even if Allard’s output proves sustainable. The answers might be waiting in Triple-A Columbus in the form of Andrew Walters, Franco Aleman and Nic Enright.

Allard was a first-round pick a decade ago and a consensus top 100 prospect for three years. He broke into the big leagues before he turned 21. But it’s been a bumpy road to this point. Now 27, Allard signed a minor-league deal with the Guardians — his fourth team in eight years — and worked his way into their bullpen. He has pitched in long relief to rescue the staff and has even dabbled in high-leverage opportunities. He’s putting to use the lessons learned from 10 years of trials.

“I wouldn’t have always been able to sit up here and tell you exactly who I am as a pitcher,” Allard said. “I stopped trying to chase velocity, velocity, velocity and tried to focus more on making pitches, mixing pitches and putting them in the right spots. … I’ve taken some lumps at the big-league level and there were times when I thought throwing harder might solve those problems. Just getting older, being a little more mature, slowing the game down a little bit out there and seeing things before they happen (has helped).”

Kolby Allard entered Sunday with the 14th-best ERA among qualified relievers. (Nick Turchiaro / Imagn Images)

2nd: Daniel Schneemann’s rank, by OPS, among Guardians hitters

Only Ramîrez can top Schneemann’s .839 OPS, a development everyone surely predicted. He ranks third on the team in homers, with six (one more than he hit all of last year in twice the trips to the plate). His emergence has been critical for a middle infield in flux. Brayan Rocchio was so ineffective he was optioned to Triple A. Gabriel Arias has been fine. Juan Brito is sidelined until the middle of the summer. Angel Martínez has been needed to patrol center field.

14: The number of American League pitchers who have made at least 38 starts and logged a sub-3.70 ERA since the start of last season

This is, admittedly, an oddly specific statistic. Why is it interesting? Well, one of those 14 is Bibee. OK, fine. Another one? Ben Lively. No one would have anticipated that when Lively, a career journeyman with a 5.05 ERA, landed in Cleveland on a league-minimum deal a year and a half ago.

He’s on the injured list, and is awaiting a second opinion on his right forearm strain. But he was pitching as well as he ever has, allowing only one run in 14 innings in May and holding the opposition to zero or one run in five of his last seven starts.

“That’s the worst part about it,” he said. “That’s why I just wanted to keep running back onto the field, even though it was (painful).”

He first felt the discomfort on a strikeout of Josh Bell in the fourth inning of his start against the Washington Nationals on May 6. That day, he lasted only 63 pitches. He exited after three innings against the Milwaukee Brewers last Monday and then wound up on the injured list.

He said he endured “the craziest mental game of all time” as he debated whether to speak up about his injury as he stood atop the mound and knew something wasn’t right. Ultimately, his forearm felt tighter, and despite insisting he was fine, “They were basically like, ‘OK, stop, Mr. Tough Guy,’” he said.

(Top photo of José Ramírez: Ben Jackson / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Mirtle: The Maple Leafs imploded again. How they lost shows what needs to change

Sports

Next

trending_flat

Tennis wants its spectators to provide atmosphere, but abuse of players persists at tournaments

Sports