At this point, with less than a month to go in until pitchers and catchers report to camps for spring training, most publications and specialists have released their projections for the 2025 campaign.
ZiPS, Steamer, and several other projection systems are already available, and they represent a cool way for us to understand some trends and realities.
This week, Ariel Cohen revealed his ATC projections.
On Tuesday, we reviewed how they think the Cleveland Guardians are projected to have the league’s best bullpen once again.
Now, we take a look at offensive numbers.
To evaluate it, Cohen uses wRC+, which means weighted Runs Created Plus. It’s a metric that evaluates offensive performance relative to the league average of 100.
The Guardians are, per the aforementioned projections, a bottom-half offensive club.
2025 Projected wRC+
Projections: ATC by @ATCNY pic.twitter.com/EupoEsRjGV
— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) January 21, 2025
Unsurprisingly, the Los Angeles Dodgers lead the pack with a projected 115 wRC+.
The difference between them and the second-ranked team, which is at 110, is considerable.
Cleveland is 19th in this table with a 101 wRC+.
That’s essentially a hair above the league average, established at 100.
The Guardians offense lost a key contributor in Josh Naylor, but Carlos Santana can potentially provide similar production.
They also traded their second baseman, Andres Giménez, and are projected to start rookie Juan Brito or some inexperienced alternatives in Angel Martinez or Gabriel Arias.
Cleveland, however, will enjoy a full season from Lane Thomas already settled in, another campaign of Jose Ramirez’s prime, and several young, up-and-coming sluggers like Kyle Manzardo, Jhonkensy Noel, and potentially Chase DeLauter at some point.
Yes, most projections have this offense as an average unit, but there is no denying it has tremendous upside.
NEXT: Former Guardians Star Elected To Cooperstown
