Chase DeLauter’s Silver Slugger finalist nod affirms it's now or never for Guardians extension

It took Chase DeLauter all of three regular season games to assert his dominance on the diamond. While the first game of the season technically weren’t DeLauter’s big league debut since he appeared in the postseason the year before, he showed why he earned that big league call-up with a multi-homer against the Mariners… that was followed by a game with another homer… that was followed by a game with another homer. 

Even though DeLauter wasn’t able to keep up that insane homer pace throughout the season, he was a steady part of the Guardians’ lineup all season. And that strong production helped him become a Louisville Silver Slugger finalist this year in the outfield alongside Wilyer Abreu, Randy Arozarena, Cody Bellinger, Jac Caglianone, Riley Greene, Tristan Peters, Chandler Simpson and Mike Trout. 

While there’s going to be plenty of time to discuss whether DeLauter deserves to win the award, the mere fact that he was a finalist means it’s time for the Guardians to try to ink DeLauter to a contract extension. 

Chase DeLauter's a Silver Slugger finalist

The Guardians have shown a willingness to ink young players to contracts early in their career in recent years when they signed Myles Straw in 2022, Andrés Giménez and Trevor Stephan in 2023 and Tanner Bibee in 2024. While those contracts range from meh to outright disasters, they allowed the Guardians to jump the line on each player's contracts while buying out their arbitration seasons at a bit of a discount. 

Cleveland’s front office is seeing how expensive the arbitration process can be can (see what’s happening with Steven Kwan, Cade Smith and Jo Adell), and DeLauter’s rookie season showed that none of his three swings through arbitration are going to be cheap (so long as the process exists after the lockout). 

DeLauter’s always going to come with some injury concern given he just played 138 games in the minor leagues from 2023 to ‘25, but he played in 133 games with the Guardians last season and was able to stay on the field outside of an injury he sustained running into an outfield wall. 

Earlier this offseason our Michael Smith suggested DeLauter would get a nine-year, $135 million contract extension that would pay him $15 million a season, which would make sense for both sides. While the Guardians don’t normally sign players to contracts of that length, it would give them an opportunity to lock DeLauter up for the long-term without needing to pay him a ton every season (it would have a less AAV than Giménez’s deal). 

Signing DeLauter would be riskier, but it’s still a better idea than having to pay him a lot in arbitration before losing him for nothing. This year’s Silver Slugger nomination could be the first of many for DeLauter, and the Guardians have a great opportunity to make sure all those other ones come with him under contract. 

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