Guardians check in lower than preferred in spring training ranking

It is hardly surprising to see the Cleveland Guardians not viewed highly following their offseason. How the Guardians approached their team-building process has not been viewed favorably by many, particularly those on the national landscape. One of the more recent examples of this comes via The Athletic's Jim Bowden.

On Friday, Bowden published MLB power rankings: Dodgers, Yankees, Phillies 1-2-3 as spring training starts, season beckons (subscription required), with the usual suspects being up near the top. The spot that the Guardians were found, however, was not expected.

Coming in as the 14th-ranked team in Bowden's rankings are the Guardians. They are the second-highest-ranked team in the American League Central, with the Detroit Tigers being ranked 12th and just one spot ahead of the Kansas City Royals.

Clearly, Bowden is higher on Detroit's activity than Cleveland's. Perhaps it is the fact that the Tigers went out and acquired some well-known players to a team that made the playoffs last season, while the Guardians brought back Carlos Santana and hope to work their pitching on the likes of Luis Ortiz and Slade Cecconi, among others.

It appears that Bowden does like Cleveland's addition of Ortiz, specifically noting his acquisition as an improvement over what they had previously, he seems a lot less sure of what the Guardians could do at the plate. "But the big question for the Guardians is offense, not pitching. Do they have enough to win the AL Central again or even make the playoffs?" writes Bowden in regards to Cleveland's offense.

It is going to be difficult for Santana to match the offensive output of the now-departed Josh Naylor, and it is not like the Guardians made any other notable acquisitions to help make up for the lost production. Cleveland has been very Jose Ramirez-dependent for quite some time, and winning in that manner can only go on for so long. Eventually, others will need to be big-time producers at the plate alongside Ramirez if they are ever going to genuinely compete against and maybe even defeat the best teams in the sport.

Will the Guardians be able to get enough offense at the plate to be one of the best teams in baseball? Only time will tell, but based on the evaluations of Cleveland before the season begins, most do not think it is all that likely.