The Cleveland Guardians entered this season with some big question marks.
They clearly had some special talents on their roster, but there weren’t many prime offensive options.
Other than Steven Kwan, there were no guarantees at the plate coming from any of their outfielders.
Fast forward to today, and those concerns haven’t gone away.
If anything, they’ve gotten much worse.
With that in mind, Tim Britton, Aaron Gleeman, and Eno Sarris of The Athletic pointed out quite a worrisome stat from the Guardians’ outfielders to put in context just how much they’ve struggled at the plate:
“The Royals are 30th in offensive production from their outfielders this season. The Guardians are 27th — a remarkable achievement considering how good Steven Kwan is in left field. ‘Kwan has more hits this season than every other Cleveland outfielder’ is a stat that isn’t quite true but is close enough to make you do the math to be sure. Outfielders not named Kwan have more than 550 plate appearances this season and an OPS that is lower than that number of plate appearances,” per Britton, Gleeman, and Sarris.
Stephen Vogt’s team has struggled to find much consistency this season, and a lot of that has had to do with their outfielders’ struggles.
Jhonkensy Noel entered the season with a strong projection after his impressive performances in last year’s postseason, but he failed to live up to the hype until he was eventually optioned to Triple-A Columbus.
Of course, it’s still way too early to give up on him and his career, but he might need some time in the minors to get his legs back under him and recover his groove.
The Guardians have never been an aggressive team at the trade deadline.
But if they truly believe that they can make a deep postseason run this season, they will need to make some moves and address their glaring need for more firepower in the outfield.
Otherwise, they will have a tough time replicating last year’s success and trip to the ALCS.
NEXT: Guardians Legend Endorses Controversial Lineup Move
