To say that this has been a complicated season for the Cleveland Guardians would be a huge understatement.
Once again, they entered this season with some major question marks, and some doubted they would be able to replicate last season’s success.
However, despite being streaky and inconsistent for most of the year, the Guardians have been a playoff-caliber team more often than not.
With that in mind, MLB analyst Kerry Miller had one interesting phrase to sum up their season so far:
“Winning in spite of themselves,” Miller wrote. “At each of shortstop, center field and right field, Cleveland has been one of the worst teams in the majors in 2025. The rotation has been a disappointment, and that was before losing Opening Day starter Ben Lively to Tommy John surgery a few weeks ago. Emmanuel Clase seems to have recovered from his rough start, but his year-to-date numbers pale in comparison to last year’s phenomenal campaign. And yet, the Guardians and their negative-20 run differential would be in the postseason field as of today.”
You never know what version of the Guardians you’re going to get.
Other than Jose Ramirez and Steven Kwan and, now, Emmanuel Clase, everything else has been a bit of a toss-up.
Then again, they’ve been the second-best team in the division for most of the season, and it seems like there’s nowhere to go but up now.
Granted, losing Ben Lively is a big blow, but the team will get Shane Bieber back at some point in the season.
David Fry’s return was also a welcome sight, as the team had been nothing special at the plate, particularly against left-handed pitching.
The Guardians need to make some moves to find a suitable player to fix their outfield woes, and perhaps Travis Bazzana will get a call-up at some point, although he’s going to be out for the next 8-10 weeks because of an injury.
Whatever the case, and even though this clearly isn’t the most talented team in the league, they keep finding ways to get wins out of the mud.
NEXT: Steven Kwan Sends Big Message To Guardians Fans
