Brayan Rocchio continues to look like a franchise cornerstone for Guardians 

The Guardians’ weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles was Brayan Rocchio at his best. 

He took the extra base. He provided stellar defense. He made Progressive Field’s outfield walls look small. 

At this time last year, Rocchio was off to a sluggish start that eventually cost him his spot on the Guardians’ big league roster. 

But that hasn’t been the case this year, as he’s been a weapon of mass production at the bottom of the Guardians’ lineup and is quickly becoming one of the most important players on Cleveland’s roster. 

Guardians' Brayan Rocchio was on fire against the Orioles over the weekend 

Rocchio got things started on Thursday with a great hustle double in the fifth inning that helped the Guardians’ add an all-important insurance run. 

With Orioles’ starter Shane Baz settling in after allowing a run early, Rocchio hit a ball to Baltimore second baseman Jeremiah Jackson that looked like an inning ending groundout. 

But Jackson took an odd angle to the ball and ended up deflecting it to shallow right field. And, by the time he got to the ball, Rocchio was sliding into second base with a double. 

He came home to score two pitches later on Kwan’s RBI single. 

After sitting out Friday’s loss, he was back in the lineup mashing on Saturday via a three-run, go-ahead home run off Dean Kremer that just snuck over the 10-foot wall in left field. 

In the past two seasons, Rocchio always seemed to hold onto those swings until the end of the season when ‘Rocctober’ rolled around. But that doesn’t seem to be the case, especially after he added a 3-for-4 day against Baltimore on Sunday.

While Rocchio’s production would be great no matter where he was hitting in the lineup, all of it has come from the No. 9 spot in the lineup, making him a bit of a unique weapon. He’s almost like a second table-setter ahead of leadoff extraordinaire Steven Kwan.

He’s clearly comfortable at that spot in the order (he said the No. 9 spot in the lineup was his “home” after Saturday’s game), and keeping him there seems like a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it," especially since he leads the Guardians with 14 RBI.

The Guardians’ lineup is in a bit of an interesting spot in that it has some clear overachievers (Austin Hedges and Daniel Schneemann, to name a few), but it also has some slumping regulars in Kyle Manzardo and Bo Naylor. 

Rocchio finding his groove can be both a short-term and long-term win for the Guardians. Short-term: it provides them with some much-needed offense while the slumping players settle in. 

But the long-term implications are much-more fun, as every big swing from him provides more and more reinforcement that he should be a part of the team’s middle-infield picture for a long, long time.

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