The Guardians Are in a Mess of Their Own Making

On self-imposed stasis and a PR campaign for inactivity

On Wednesday evening, a sweltering day in Cleveland, the Guardians trotted out president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti for one of those puffy in-game interviews with the TV broadcast crew. These are standard fare, a way for fans watching to feel like they’re getting some sort of exclusive access to an exec without said exec having to say anything of consequence.

But the timing of this specific chat was curious, as it looked to address another kind of heat. Earlier that day, Guardians in-game reporter Andre Knott called in to ESPN 850’s “The Really Big Show” for what can only be described as a breathtakingly surreal interview with host Aaron Goldhammer. The main topic? Why Guardians brass has shown no urgency to call up one of its top prospects, Chase DeLauter, as the major league lineup currently strings together one of the worst offensive months we’ve ever seen.

It’s rare that Twitter chatter seeps into the conscious of a organization deep enough to warrant a public response, but the volume around DeLatuer looks to have breached the fortress at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. But in attempting to address legitimate critiques of a team currently mired in mediocrity, the Guardians have, intentionally or not, thumbed their nose at us humble peasants beneath them for questioning the process.

First, let’s return to that Knott interview. Objectivity is a blurry line for those ostensibly employed by the team on the broadcast side. You aren’t so much a reporter as you are a promoter, and expectations should be adjusted as such. Criticism is nearly non-existent, and when it does come it’s like a mild salsa, usually followed up with some sort of platitude like “he knows he has to be better, and he will.” So it raised an eyebrow when Knott rattled off these, to be kind, insane reasons why the Guardians haven’t added a guy slugging .513 with an OPS of .956 in Triple-A to an offense ranked 25th in slugging percentage and wRC+:

Reason 1: “No one has seen Chase DeLauter play three months in a row as a pro.” (Wouldn’t fear of another injury be all the more reason to bring DeLauter up sooner than later?)

Reason 2: Will Wilson and Jhonkensy Noel, fringe major league players that were completely overmatched during their brief stints in the majors this season, have similar batting averages in Columbus to that of DeLauter. (This comparison is completely disingenuous)

Reason 3: “90 percent” of minor leaguers that get called up get sent back down the minors. (Well then no minor leaguer should ever be brought up, I guess!)

Each of these talking points is laughable in its own right, the most egregious of which is using batting average in 2025 to compare vastly different kinds of prospects. So when Antonetti was asked later that night about DeLauter (by Knott, no less) and parroted similar bullet points, the antennas were fully up.

After a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday, the Guardians are 40-39 with a run differential of -32. They’re 9.5 games behind the division-leading Detroit Tigers, and one game out of the third and final wild card spot. This is off the heels of a dreamy run to the ALCS last season after winning the AL Central, doing so with a historically elite bullpen, airtight defense and juuuuust enough hitting. So far in 2025, three incredibly predictable things have happened: the bullpen regressed, the defense regressed, and, after choosing not to address it in the offseason, the lineup still can’t score runs!

DeLauter is symptom of a larger problem that plagues the Guardians organization: self-imposed stasis. A team that nearly made it to the World Series with a perennial MVP candidate on a well below-market deal is obligated to do SOMETHING the following offseason, financial and market constraints be damned. Instead, the Guardians traded away Andres Gimenez and Josh Naylor in deals that smart teams forced to operate on the margins make, but without any viable plan to replace them in the short-term. It’s the same sitting-on-their-hands disease that’s cost them a consolidation of the gaggle of infield prospects they’ve hoarded over the years, none of which appear to be very good. They could’ve moved any number of them for major league help over the last few seasons, but aside from acquiring Lane Thomas for two of their more middling minor league options, they didn’t, too afraid to give up on anyone, and now none of them have much value.

So as they drag their feet with DeLauter, then smile while talking to us like children about it, it’s hard not to feel a particular anger bubble to the surface. Jose Ramirez is somehow, at age 32, having one of the best seasons of his career, and the Guardians refuse to maximize the gift they did not deserve when Ramirez took a massive discount to stay in Cleveland. Instead, they’ve paired Ramirez at different points of the season with Wilson and Noel, who, I’m told, have good batting averages in Triple-A.

DeLauter will eventually be called up, but its nearly July. And a season that should’ve been spent chasing a championship is quickly turning to dust.