ESPN offers depressing prediction for how Guardians will handle free agency

The dust has cleared from the Cleveland Guardians wild ride toward the American League Central crown, which means that everyone around the team has begun to shift toward focusing on what needs to happen for them to make it back to the postseason next season. 

And while it’ll be a long offseason that will likely feature plenty of changes that we don’t see coming, there’s also plenty of easy ways for them to improve the roster. But, according to a new offseason preview from ESPN, the Guardians may not make the moves they need to make to build upon the success they found in 2025. 

It seems like the Guardians are going to be quiet in free agency again

ESPN’s new story gave an offseason preview for every team eliminated from the postseason, where Bradford Doolittle broke down how he thinks the offseason will go — and it’s about what you would expect. 

First off, Doolittle mentioned the Guardians biggest offseason priority is adding firepower on offense, while also admitting that it’s wishful thinking given the team’s inability to hit for most of the year. 

But, even if they don’t end up making a big move, they still have some budding young stars, which Doolittle pointed out. 

“It's not hard to imagine some of the Guardians we saw on the playoff roster getting better -- Kyle Manzardo, CJ Kayfus, Johnathan Rodriguez, Jhonkensy Noel. It's not hard to see Chase DeLauter becoming an AL Rookie of the Year favorite. Given his numbers at Triple-A, it's a little harder to see Travis Bazzana being part of the Opening Day mix, but it's not difficult to envision him making a leap during the 2026 season,” he wrote. 

And all of that is true. DeLauter got his first taste of MLB action in the postseason, Bazzana’s close to the big leagues and Manzardo and Kayfus seem poised to make a big leap. 

But all of that may not matter if they don’t add another bat around José Ramírez and Steven Kwan (so long as Kwan isn’t traded). One option Doolittle floated was free agent slugger Kyle Schwarber, who just slugged 56 home runs for the Phillies and is an Ohio native. 

He’s likely going to be out of the Guardians’ price range, but it’s still fun to dream about how many home runs he’d hit batting behind Ramírez. He’s also from Ohio, but it’s hard to believe that he’d take a home state discount after only making $79 million on his last contract. 

But even if the Guardians don’t make a huge swing in free agency, they still are in a good spot when it comes to next season due to their abundance of young talent on their roster. 

But, as we saw this October, sometimes the difference between winning or losing in the postseason can be a veteran hitter. Cleveland’s front office has a chance to make a swing for one this offseason — whether or not they’ll do it is anyone’s guess.