Guardians Injuries: Updates on José Ramírez, Hunter Gaddis, George Valera

While the Cleveland Guardians haven’t had any players on their roster suffer any serious injuries so far this spring, they haven’t been immune to players suffering bumps and bruises that have impacted their spring training. 

Here are some updates on injured Guardians players as we slowly move closer to Opening Day. 

The Guardians have mostly avoided the injury bug this spring

3B José Ramírez

Exhale. 

After injuring his shoulder sliding into third base over the weekend, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said on Monday that the star third baseman is “day-to-day” and should be fine in a few days. 

That’s great news for both Ramírez and the Guardians since missing any time would be a huge blow toward Cleveland’s chances of making it to the postseason and would also rob Ramírez of a chance to have a full season to continue to build his Hall of Fame résumé.

Regardless of how healthy Ramírez is, that should be the last time we see him play in a spring training game.

OF George Valera 

Valera suffered a mild calf strain last week that isn't believed to be serious, and he’s resumed hitting and running. He isn’t throwing, however, which shows how much caution the Guardians are taking with the oft-injured outfielder. 

Not only did show some much-needed pop in his month-long cameo with the Guardians last season, but he also had played well this spring prior to getting hurt, which made it seem like he was in a good spot for an Opening Day roster spot. 

If Valera is healthy enough to make the Opening Day roster, he could be in the lineup in a corner outfield spot (potentially alongside Chase DeLauter so long as Steven Kwan’s in center). 

The Guardians seem set to slow-play things with Valera given his injury history, so he may not get many at-bats for the rest of the spring. 

RHP Hunter Gaddis 

Gaddis hasn’t appeared in a spring training game since his electric debut thanks to a shoulder injury, but he’s already thrown multiple bullpens and is set to throw another one later this week. 

Gaddis has appeared in the second-most games in MLB since the start of 2024 (151), so any kind of injury with him is always going to set off alarm bells. 

But it seems like he dodged something serious given the fact that he’s back to throwing bullpens. While it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him start the season on the injured list just so he can have more time to get healthy, he shouldn’t be out too long. 

If Gaddis is forced to miss any time, new relievers Shawn Armstrong and Colin Holderman will likely move into his set-up role, while Rule 5 pick Peyton Pallette would also move up a rung or two in the bullpen hierarchy.