Guardians’ early spring training success starting to open eyes across league 

Let's get this out of the way first: Spring training results don’t matter. While it’s fun to have standings to look at and stats to go over, spring training is more about getting players built up than having success on the field.

But sometimes spring success is still worth paying attention to. Case in point, this year’s iteration of the Cleveland Guardians, which went 4-0 to open the spring before losing to the Dodgers on Tuesday. 

That start was so eye-opening that FanSided’s Chris Landers’ decided to include it in his roundup of the first action of spring training, writing:

“Look, I'm as disgusted by Cleveland's ownership situation as anyone. This team has skated by for years as one of the cheapest in North American sports, and another offseason passed without them adding any meaningful talent or spending any meaningful money.

And yet: This team won the AL Central last year, and they might be even better in 2026? The biggest reason why is DeLauter, a top-100 prospect who had his ascension delayed by injury but finally debuted during last year's Wild Card loss to the Tigers. He tallied two hits in his spring debut on Saturday, looking every bit like the prince who was promised.”

Guardians’ hot start to spring has captured some attention across MLB landscape 

Again, it can’t be overstated how little spring training standings matter. Do you remember which American League had the best Cactus League record in the past two seasons? Probably not (the Giants and Dodgers, respectively). 

But it can’t be denied that the start to the Guardians’ spring has featured some standout performances from key players on the roster. Six Guardians players have recorded three hits (DeLauter being one of them) and Travis Bazzana slugged a 423-foot home run yesterday. 

Even if spring results don’t matter in the long run, getting off to a hot start is still better than struggling. 

Now the biggest thing for the Guardians for the rest of spring will just be staying healthy. While Cleveland has a fair number of roster battles going on, the worst possible outcome would be for one of those battles to end because a roster mainstay suffers a serious enough injury that requires some kind of roster move. 

The Guardians have been on the right side of the spring training injury bubble in the past couple years, but all it takes is one. 

There are still 27 games left this spring (including the Spring Breakout on March 19), so there are going to be plenty of opportunities for the team to continue to build on their strong start to the spring.