The Cleveland Guardians offense has been an issue of late even after winning their series finale over the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday to get back to .500 on the season. The 3-1 victory ended a four-game losing skid, but the offense continues to struggle and has scored just ten runs over the past five games while scoring three or fewer runs in six of the last seven.
The lack of offensive output is a big reason why top prospect Travis Bazzana was recently called up to provide a spark. It hasn’t happened yet, but overall, it’s a long season and it’s important to highlight the current bright spots in what has been a lifeless offense.
MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins recently touched on Cleveland’s offense and shouted out Chase DeLauter and Brayan Rocchio as two of the lineup’s bright spots. DeLauter has bounced back after a brief slump following his torrid start while Rocchio has been a big surprise in the No. 9 spot.
“We can poke holes in what we’ve seen so far this season, but Rocchio and DeLauter have certainly been two of the Guardians’ top bright spots offensively. Rocchio has taken to the No. 9 spot in the lineup and is hitting .283 with a .360 on-base percentage. His 17 RBIs rank second on the team. DeLauter has been stellar of late, after a mini slump following his historic start to the season. It has almost felt a bit lowkey, but nonetheless crucial given he often slots in the No. 2 spot of the lineup between Kwan and José Ramírez,” Stebbins wrote.
Jose Ramirez and Steven Kwan have been the mainstays in this lineup for years, but they haven’t been at their best through the month of April. They will come around and Bazzana will get going, but it’s great in the meantime to have guys like DeLauter, Rocchio, Daniel Schneemann, and Angel Martinez picking up the slack.
The offense is certainly an issue, but there is at least reason for hope. Last year’s offense didn’t have as much hope, but seeing the improvement of these young hitters has been encouraging up to this point and it will be exciting to see what the offense can look like if the veterans start performing closer to their expectations.
Hopefully Rocchio and DeLauter can keep it up, because having production out of the No. 9 hole adds a ton of length to a lineup. Few expected this kind of production from him, but he has been the biggest revelation of this young season.
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