ESPN's new lineup rankings will have Guardians fans fuming again over quiet offseason

All offseason the biggest storyline around the Cleveland Guardians was that of their inaction. 

While they added some relievers to their big league roster, the Guardians’ front office stayed  away from adding any position players on big league contracts. 

But that theme took a bit of a backseat as of late thanks to the signing of Rhys Hoskins along with the fact that spring training finally started. 

But a new listicle from ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle added some extra attention to the Guardians’ offseason inaction, as he recently ranked all 30 team’s potential Opening Day lineups. And perhaps unsurprisingly, Doolittle had the Guardians ranked near the bottom of his list. 

ESPN’s latest lineup bring extra attention to Guardians ‘offseason inaction 

Doolittle had the Guardians’ lineup ranked as the No. 26 lineup in baseball ahead of only the White Sox, Marlins, Nationals and Rockies. 

Doolittle’s projected Guardians lineup was as follows: 

1. Steven Kwan
2. Gabriel Arias
3. Jose Ramirez
4. Kyle Manzardo
5. Rhys Hoskins
6. George Valera
7. Chase DeLauter
8. Bo Naylor
9. Brayan Rocchio

And that’s a pretty good guess for how the Guardians’ lineup could look on Opening Day, to be fair. The biggest question mark for that lineup as of now would be DeLauter, who just had his first injury scare of spring training. 

If DeLauter can’t go for spring training then Stuart Fairchild, Nolan Jones or Daniel Schneemann stand out as the top options to fill his spot in the lineup. 

The biggest reason the Guardians would be able to have Valera and DeLauter in their Opening Day lineup is due to the fact that the Guardians are considering shifting Steven Kwan to center field after he started his career as a left fielder.

But even though the Guardians deserve some kind of praise for thinking outside the box with Kwan’s defensive positioning, it’s still a bit confusing given they could have solved that problem in the offseason by adding some kind of external bat into the picture.  

And, as Doolittle mentioned in his write-up, the Guardians are entering the season with a variety of platoon options, with the biggest one being between Manzardo and Hoskins at first base and Valera and the rest of the outfield group in whatever corner outfield spot he’s playing in. 

While it’s exciting to see the Guardians give young players like Valera and DeLauter a chance to be on the roster all season, there’s still something to be said for adding some kind of veteran reinforcement so those young players are being set up for failure.