It may have been hard to believe back in March when the Major League Baseball season started, but the Cleveland Guardians are legitimate World Series contenders.
After acquiring a first-time manager in Stephen Vogt, the Cleveland Guardians were projected by many experts to finish .500 in 2024.
Boy, were they wrong.
Cleveland finished the regular season 92-69, good enough to win the division and earn the second seed in the American League.
And chances are, the success won’t stop there for the Guardians.
Here’s how they can win it all in 2024.
The bullpen
When your offense gives you a lead, you hope your bullpen can help you sustain the advantage.
There’s no need to stress about that in Cleveland.
The Guardians finished the regular season with the lowest bullpen ERA and second most saves in all of baseball.
The back-end arms are led by their closer, Emmanuel Clase. The 26-year-old RHP put up 47 saves with a 0.61 ERA. Numbers so good, that his name has been thrown around for the AL Cy Young Award conversation, an award that is typically won by starting pitchers.
Plus, when you have a bullpen where four of the five arms have ERAs under two, simply put, you’re going to win ball games.
And with the offense that Cleveland has, they can win games in the later innings.
The bats
On the other side of the scorecard, the Guardians lineup may not be hitting it out of the park, as they rank in the middle of the pack in terms of essentially all hitting categories.
But they have big names that can do damage.
It’s all led by the face of the franchise in 3B José Ramírez, who’s hitting .279 with 39 HRs and 118 RBIs and his sixth All-Star Game appearance to boot.
But other guys have stepped up, as well.
OF Steven Kwan is always finding a way to reach base in the leadoff spot, and OF David Fry has been a pleasant surprise in 2024, hitting .257 with 18 homers and 66 runs driven in, as both of them earned their first All-Star Game appearances in their careers.
With those guys given a supporting cast of 2B Andrés Giménez, who’s just as dangerous with his glove compared to his bat, and the brothers of Josh and Bo Naylor, who make up a good bulk of the Guardians power in their hitting, the Guardians bats could force a long outing for the other team’s starting pitcher.
The bottom line
This is a team that people didn’t expect to be here.
Coming off a season where they went 76-86, it was hard to imagine that the Guardians would be a top-two team in the American League.
But with the way this team has continued to lean on their strengths and continued to win games and series that have gotten them to this stage, they can rattle off some wins and make a deep playoff push.
Out of 30 big league teams, 12 make the playoffs, two go to the World Series and only one is able to be crowned champions.
With the way the Guardians have been playing this year, don’t be surprised if there’s a parade down Ontario Street come November.
Matt Kiraly is a columnist. Contact him at [email protected].
