3 Guardians players who definitely won't be back in 2026 

On Thursday, the Cleveland Guardians 2025 season ended with a whimper in the form of a 6-3 loss to the Tigers in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. While they made it to the postseason on the back of some strong pitching, timely hitting and a fair sprinkle of pixie dust, it’s clear that they’re going to need to make some changes if they want to turn into a serious contender. 

Here are three Guardians who could end up elsewhere as Cleveland reshapes its roster for next season. 

These three Guardians should be back next year 

OF Lane Thomas 

Including Thomas on this list feels like cheating since he’s one of the Guardians’ few impending free agents, but the Guardians tipped their hand this postseason by including Chase DeLauter on their postseason roster. While there may be room for Thomas on the roster as a fourth outfielder (which is the role that he may have to settle for in free agency regardless), the Guardians should let him walk in free agency and shift toward a youth movement. 

Thomas etched his name in Guardians lore last year with his majestic home run off Tarik Skubal (ahh, the good old days), but his time with the Guardians was largely uninspiring. 

He hit .189 across 92 games with the Guardians and struggled with a variety of injuries that limited him to just 39 games this year. The Guardians have a plethora of outfield options in DeLauter, George Valera, Angel Martínez and Petey Halpin, and they’d be better off leaving the outfield in their hands as opposed to running it back with Thomas. 

OF Jhonkensy Noel

Christmas is canceled in Cleveland. While Noel also mashed a franchise-altering home run last postseason against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series, he also struggled through a rough year that saw him spend most of the year in Triple-A. 

He earned a September call-up and hit four home runs before the end of the season, but he also committed a big error in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series and hit just .162 in the regular season. 

Noel has light tower power, but has clear deficiencies on defense and some of the worst chase and whiff rates in baseball. While he’s only played in 136 games in MLB, he’s out of minor league options which means he won't have any flexibility going into next season. He's either going to be on the big league roster or he's going to be playing elsewhere.

Even though we’ve seen Cleveland carry lame duck players on their roster in April due to their lack of options (cough, Jake Bauers, cough), Noel seems destined to end up elsewhere in the offseason. 

INF Gabriel Arias 

Last offseason the Guardians surprised all of baseball when they traded Andrés Giménez to the Toronto Blue Jays just two years after inking him to a seven-year contract. While Arias doesn’t come with the big contract that Giménez has, the Guardians are going to need to make some kind of decision about their plethora of middle infield options.

Brayan Rocchio has vastly underperformed thus far in his MLB career, but he looked like a different player in the second half of this year and has looked like Babe Ruth in the postseason. 

Daniel Schneemann put together his second straight season with an OPS+ under 100, but he was one of baseball’s best utility infielders (8 Outs Above Average). Arias has all the tools in the world (94th percentile in arm strength; 70th percentile in exit velocity) but he hasn’t been able to put it all together. 

He’s not eligible for arbitration until after next season, but the Guardians have Juan Brito and Travis Bazzana waiting in the wings in the minors. While there’s always a  chance that Arias ends up succeeding elsewhere, getting rid of him could be some addition by subtraction.