Guardians legend pinpoints the moment that ruined 2025 season before it began

Albert Belle knows a thing or two about what it takes to succeed in Cleveland. While Belle’s fantastic career didn’t end with a Hall of Fame nod, he still put together quite a résumé during his eight years in Cleveland, and is regarded as one of the best hitters in team history. 

He also has a take on why this year’s Guardians team has struggled so much a season after making the American League Championship Series.

Guardians legend pinpoints the moment that ruined 2025 season before it began

On Monday, Belle did a radio hit with ESPN Cleveland and spoke about this year’s Cleveland team and he didn’t mince his words. 

“He found his little niche and the Guardians were complaining about his weight and defense but that was going to come in time,” Belle said in the interview. “That was the start of the snowball effect. (The Guardians) wanted to pay Shane Bieber to be a cheerleader and rehab and gave him $14 but didn’t want to give Naylor $12 million so I feel that was the start of the downfall.” 

As Belle mentioned, Naylor seems to have found a new gear this year, as he entered Wednesday hitting .304 with 10 home runs and 53 RBI. He’s also tallied 18 doubles, 10 steals and has only stuck out 42 times. He has a wRC+ of 130, which is the eighth-best mark in baseball among first baseman. 

Naylor is one year away from reaching free agency and is making $10.9 million this year in his final year of arbitration, so it seems like Cleveland’s front office determined they weren’t going to ink him a contract after the year and decided to trade him away as opposed to losing him for nothing. 

And while that would make more sense had the Guardians turned the position over to Kyle Manzardo, they instead inked franchise legend Carlos Santana to a one-year, $12 million contract. Santana’s been fine this year, but it’s becoming more and more clear that his presence on the roster is hurting Manzardo's development.

Trading Naylor away also opened up a huge hole in the middle of Cleveland’s lineup that they haven’t been able to fill. Manzardo, Steven Kwan and José Ramírez are the only players on Cleveland’s roster with an OPS+ above 100, while Naylor has posted an OPS+ of 139 for Arizona. 

The full story of this move has yet to be written, however. Naylor’s still a subpar defender (-2 Outs Above Average) and is set to be a free agent after the season. There’s also a chance he could finish the season elsewhere if the Diamondbacks keep falling behind in the National League West. Meanwhile, the Guardians have gotten a solid season from Cecconi (who has six more years of team control left) and still have Manzardo, who is also under control for six more seasons).

But that doesn’t change the fact that the Guardians’ offense has had a notable lack of punch this year, which is due in large part to the lack of Naylor.