Guardians may have found diamond in the rough with latest outfielder signing

All offseason, Guardians fans have been clamoring for the team’s front office to make some kind of external addition to the outfield. 

They finally did that over the weekend — albeit not in the way that most people expected. Instead of signing a B-tier veteran like Austin Hays or trading for a former All-Star like Nick Castellanos, the Guardians signed former Reds outfielder Stuart Fairchild to a minor league deal. 

But even if a deal for Fairchild doesn’t seem like as big of a deal as signing someone like Hays or Harrison Bader, Fairchild is a bit of an interesting candidate who could end up working his way into Cleveland’s outfield picture at some point during the season. 

Stuart Fairchild could end up making an impact for the Guardians in 2026

Fairchild, who was a second round draft pick by the Reds in 2017, made his MLB debut with Arizona in 2021 before returning to the Reds mid-way through 2022, where he hit .279 with five home runs in 39 games. 

He saw time as a backup in 2023 and ‘24 and hit .222 with 13 home runs and 58 RBI in 191 games, but was designated for assignment in the spring. He ended up being claimed on waivers by the Braves, where he hit .216 in 28 games while Atlanta navigated through a bevy of injuries in their outfield. 

The Braves designated him for assignment as they got healthy and traded him to the Rays, but he never played in a game for them. 

While Fairchild is a career .223 hitter, he can play all three outfield positions and, perhaps most importantly, hits right-handed, which is a huge need for the Guardians. Johnathan Rodríguez is the only right-handed hitting outfielder on the Guardians’ roster, and is one of four right-handed hitters on the 40-man roster along with David Fry, Austin Hedges and Gabriel Arias. 

Even if Fairchild’s contact-based approach is the antithesis of Rodríguez’s free-swinging power approach, it would be easy for him to slide into a Guardians’ lineup that values players who are able to put the ball in play. 

Fairchild’s also graded out as an above-average fielder in every season he’s played in and only chased at 19% of the pitches he saw last year (in a very small sample size). 

In other words, he does all the things that a fourth outfielder should do. 

Last year the Guardians got next to no production from their outfield across the full 162 game season, so adding Fairchild is the perfect low-risk kind of addition.

Chase DeLauter, George Valera and Nolan Jones seem to be entrenched in the outfield picture alongside Steven Kwan, but Fairchild could take some the at-bats that are going to be left behind thanks to the loss of Lane Thomas and the team (hopefully) moving Angel Martínez back to the infield. 

The Guardians have hit on a variety of minor league signings for pitchers in recent years, but have failed to hit on similar signings in the outfield. Fairchild could end up being the player that turns that around.