The Cleveland Guardians won the AL Central division last year.
They defeated the Detroit Tigers in a hotly contested AL Division Series.
Then, they succumbed to the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
Still, they secured a place among the four best teams in baseball just a few months ago.
In the offseason, they added talent, earned flexibility by shedding bad contracts, extended their best young pitcher, and made some shrewd trades.
Yet in almost every power ranking or preseason list, Cleveland was overlooked.
Most of the time, they weren’t even listed among the top ten or even 15 teams entering the new season.
Why does the league continue to sleep on the Guardians?
Analyst Justin Lada weighed in.
“Only thing I can think of is lack of maybe offensive star power…” Lada’s said.
Are the Guardians being slept on going into this season? #ForTheLand
"Only thing I can think of is lack of maybe offensive star power…"
–@JL_Baseball pic.twitter.com/a98H3zpRXe
— Matt Fontana Show (@MattFontanaShow) March 29, 2025
Lada explains that there is not much star power outside of Jose Ramirez and maybe Steven Kwan, and even some are expecting the latter to regress a bit.
He also said bullpen regression is a possibility, but even if it happens, Cleveland’s relief corps should still be pretty good.
He says that they made the playoffs last year with a rather mediocre rotation, and the unit should be much better this year.
The Guardians did lose Josh Naylor, and whether or not Carlos Santana can remain productive another year is definitely a hot debate, but there is a key development to keep in mind when analyzing the 2025 Guards: “They were slept on a year ago, too,” Lada stated, and it’s true.
Maybe it’s good that the league isn’t really paying too much attention to the Guardians.
The shock will be even bigger when they show who they are on the field.
NEXT: Analyst Predicts Guardians Pitcher Will Be Cy Young Contender
