Since the American League Central was founded in 1994, Cleveland has captured 13 of the 32 division titles. The Minnesota Twins have won nine, the Chicago White Sox have won five, the Detroit Tigers have won four and the Kansas City Royals have won one.
The Guardians are going for their third in a row. It’d be their third three-peat. The Twins and Tigers have done it once. The White Sox have never won in back-to-back years. The Royals only have that one division crown, though they parlayed it into a World Series ring in 2015.
The Guardians haven’t made this easy on themselves. They’ll incorporate some top prospects into the fold, but otherwise they’re running it back with a team that fell behind in the division race by 15 1/2 games last summer before tearing through the September schedule like a Labrador puppy left alone with a stuffed animal.
With spring training getting underway this week, here are three questions for the Guardians in their pursuit of AL Central supremacy.
1. Will they accelerate the kids’ timelines?
The Guardians’ decision-makers have repeated throughout the winter that they don’t want to block opportunities for their young players. That, we’re told to believe, explains their $78 million payroll and their inactivity on the heels of a season in which they ranked second-worst in the league in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
If we play along with their premise, it means the only people with the potential to block the kids are the ones making the roster decisions.
Chase DeLauter was good enough to be thrown into a playoff series for his big-league debut at a position he hadn’t played all year after missing three months with an injury and beginning his postseason trek home to visit his family. So wouldn’t that suggest he’s good enough to start for the Guardians on Opening Day? Or will the Guardians send him to Triple-A Columbus at the outset for reasons that definitely don’t have anything to do with service time manipulation, nope, not at all?
Will Juan Brito be offered a chance to add a jolt to the lineup? Does George Valera have the inside track on the bulk of the at-bats in right field, even though the Guardians were granted an extra minor-league option on him? Travis Bazzana is likely ticketed for Columbus, especially since he’ll miss part of spring training while playing for Team Australia in the World Baseball Classic, but how deliberate will the Guardians be in promoting him to the majors if he’s faring well at Triple A? This is an organization that tends to operate conservatively with its young players, but it’s also one that has harped all winter that it’ll be prioritizing said young players.
2. Can this be another patented, envied Cleveland rotation?
Cleveland deployed a six-man rotation in September, the strategy that sparked a historic comeback in the AL Central race. Here were the six starters’ ERAs that month:
Tanner Bibee: 1.30
Joey Cantillo: 1.55
Gavin Williams: 1.88
Logan Allen: 3.22Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Parker Messick: 3.81
Slade Cecconi: 3.90
The schedule and roster limits won’t allow the Guardians to lean on a six-man rotation for six months, and we can’t simply lean on a one-month sample to anoint this group as one of the sport’s most formidable staffs. These are, however, pitchers still finding their way in the big leagues, so a collective run like that, especially given what was at stake, can only be viewed as encouraging.
Will it be a springboard for 2026? That’s the burning question.
The Guardians need Williams and Bibee to be the anchors. Williams pitched like an ace for the last four months of 2025, finally settling on an arsenal that had him attacking the strike zone and setting up his devastating breaking balls. Bibee shook off a frustrating few months with a rousing September that better resembled the guy who led the rotation the previous two years.
Cantillo might have the best chance at joining them as a rotation staple. He wields one of the league’s best changeups, mixed in a really good curveball last season and started throwing more strikes as the season went on, trimming his walk rate from 14.6 percent in July to 5.4 percent in September. That’s key, since hitters rarely chase his pitches out of the zone (second percentile in chase rate) yet frequently whiff when they do swing (80th percentile whiff rate).
Messick looked the part once he joined the rotation in August. He made seven starts; five were excellent and two were subpar. Cecconi’s first year with the organization was a mixed bag, but included some tantalizing outings. He had two September starts in which he tossed a combined 15 scoreless innings, while allowing only three hits. Allen had his moments, too, and perhaps the team will get a peek at what Khal Stephen or Yorman Gómez can offer before the end of the year.
For the Guardians to claim a third consecutive division title, they need the rotation to once again be the club’s backbone.
3. Is there an overlooked offensive breakout candidate?
There’s a ton of risk with the Guardians’ approach to roster construction. Not only are they banking on health for a group of young players who have lost significant time to injuries, but they’re presuming DeLauter, Bazzana, Valera, Brito and C.J. Kayfus sidestep early-career speed bumps.
Then, there’s the issue of handedness. About 10 percent of the world’s population is left-handed, but 110 percent of the Guardians’ lineup is left-handed.
Among those vying for a roster spot, four are switch hitters: Brito, José RamÃrez, Angel MartÃnez and Brayan Rocchio. Only four bat solely from the right side: David Fry, Johnathan Rodriguez, Gabriel Arias and Austin Hedges. Stuart Fairchild, a non-roster invitee vying for a backup outfield spot, hits right-handed as well. That’s not exactly a group that’s going to instill fear in the Detroit Tigers’ one-two punch of lefties Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez.
The point is, the Guardians need more than just a couple of rookies to blossom. They need a familiar face or two to make a leap. Perhaps Rocchio, who has wielded an imposing bat in the playoffs and a soggy twig in the regular season, can pretend every month is October. Or maybe Bo Naylor can build off a strong September (though we wondered the same thing two years ago).
Naylor in 2024: 7.5 percent walk rate, 31.4 percent strikeout rate, .614 OPS
Naylor in 2025: 10.9 percent walk rate, 23.9 percent strikeout rate, .661 OPS
Naylor did make significant strides in his walk and strikeout rates last season, but he still finished with an 85 wRC+ (which suggests he was 15 percent worse than a league-average hitter).
For the Guardians to seize another AL Central crown, they can’t have an offensive repeat of 2025, when only two regulars (RamÃrez and Kyle Manzardo) posted an above-average OPS.