Early season performance of Kyle Manzardo is reason for optimism in Cleveland

When the Cleveland Guardians made the decision to trade first baseman Josh Naylor to the Arizona Diamondbacks this past offseason, the message was loud and clear. They were placing their faith in Kyle Manzardo and hoping they would be rewarded for doing so. So far, it looks like they made the right bet, as Manzardo's performance at the plate has resulted in receiving plenty of praise.

The Athletic's Jim Bowden identified the early season production of Manzardo as Cleveland's entry in Reasons for all 30 MLB teams to be optimistic, pessimistic based on early season returns (subscription reqeuired). "The Guardians may have found their next star player and power bat in Kyle Manzardo, who has already belted seven homers and driven in 17 runs, which is much-needed production after they traded Josh Naylor to Arizona in the offseason" wrote Bowden, as he notes that Manzardo could be Cleveland's next big time impact bat.

Manzardo has already exceeded last season's home run and RBI totals (5 and 18) in 31 fewer games, while his early season OPS+ is 60 points higher (158-98). It is clear that he has taken the next step in his development as a professional hitter, and the power output he is producing right now has resulted in a .901 OPS. This is exactly what the Guardians were hoping Manzardo would be able to provide at the plate after trading Naylor to Arizona, and it will be interesting to see how the two players compare once the season is over.

The only real areas that Manzardo should work on are improving his batting average and decreasing his strikeout frequency. Manzardo is batting .219 right now, and with the small sample size of games played so far, that could improve rather quickly with a solid weekend at the plate, so it is not really the biggest concern at the moment. When it comes to strikeouts, Manzardo's 22 is tied for the team-high with Gabriel Arias, and getting as far away from leading the team in the category would be for the best.

If the Guardians are going to match or exceed their results from last season, they are going to need Manzardo to continue being a power threat at the plate. This will take pressure off of the other key bats in the lineup to perform every single night and should result in the team playing better collectively as a whole. If that does indeed happen, there is no limit to what this team can achieve this season.