Guardians’ toughest pre-lockout decision stems from Jaison Chourio’s future

For the past five seasons, Jaison Chourio has slowly risen through the Guardians’ minor league system. Although it hasn’t been a linear journey, he’s already risen to Triple-A despite being just 21 and seems poised to make his big league debut at some point during the 2027 season. 

In fact, it’s pretty much a guarantee. As mentioned above, Chourio’s now spent five seasons in the Guardians’ minor league system, which means the Guardians are going to need to add him to their 40-man roster at some point over the next two weeks to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. 

While there’s still a lot to unpacked with what’s going to happen in this year’s Rule 5 Draft due to the impending lockout, the Guardians are still going to need to make some kind of decision about Chourio’s future soon. 

The Guardians need to add Jaison Chourio to their 40-man roster 

Although Chourio’s status got an initial boost thanks to his big brother Jackson turning into one of the National League’s best outfielders, he helped pave his own name thanks to a strong minor league performance that led to him opening the 2025 season as a consensus top-100 prospect. 

However, his stock took a bit of a hit that season due to a right shoulder strain that limited him to just 81 games split across Rookie Ball and High-A. He bounced back in 2026 and finished the year with a .274/.376/.408 slashline with nine home runs, 56 RBI and 42 steals while also making his Double-A debut. 

Which brings us to right now. Chourio is clearly one of the best hitting prospects in the Guardians' system thanks to a unique blend of contact, speed and plate discipline, but he’s likely still a year away from being able to make an everyday big league impact. That change means Chourio would need to take up a valuable spot on the Guardians’ 40-man roster while not really being an MLB option. 

While the Guardians have done that in the past (they had Jhonkensy Noel on their 40-man roster for two years before he made his MLB debut), that hasn’t really been their mode of operation as of late. 

But they may not have a choice with Chourio given he’d 100% get scooped up during the Rule 5 Draft by a rebuilding team who could stash him on their big league roster all season. 

Even though it should be easy for the Guardians to add Chourio to their 40-man roster since they have three open spots, they also have some other must-protect prospects along with the incoming non-tender deadline. And that’s to say nothing of the impending lockout that could change the fabric of MLB. 

But even if the Guardians adding Chourio to their 40-man roster won’t fix all those problems, his high ceiling would make it worth it. 

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