How do the Cleveland Guardians compare to everyone else on Opening Day?

Opening Day is here, and the Cleveland Guardians are gearing up for what should be another exciting season of baseball. They enter this season fresh off an American League Central division title and a trip to the ALCS. As fun as last season was, that is behind them, and it is now time to focus on what they may accomplish this season. Part of that includes assessing how the Guardians stack up to the rest of the teams in Major League Baseball.

In an Opening Day edition of power rankings, Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter views the Cleveland Guardians to be a relatively middle-of-the-pack ballclub. Reuter has the Guardians ranked 14th, markedly better than the disrespectful placement on a list appearing elsewhere. 

Cleveland's placement is the second-highest of American League Central teams, one behind the Detroit Tigers and three ahead of the Kansas City Royals. This seems pretty appropriate for a team coming off a division title that did not do all that much in the offseason to close the gap between themselves and the teams who participated in the World Series.

Trading Josh Naylor and Andres Gimenez while acquiring Luis Ortiz and signing Carlos Santana to a free agent contract for a third go-around in Cleveland is not what anyone would refer to as going all-in on winning a championship this season. These moves may pay off in the long run, the Guardians usually do quite well in that department, but this was more about maintaining a certain level of competitiveness while creating more roster construction flexibility.

The Guardians being ranked where they are should come as no surprise to anyone. Not only due to the above-mentioned transactions, but that Cleveland has failed to win 80 games or more in non-abbreviated seasons just once since 2011, and there's a reason for that. The way they have operated has prevented any type of competitive collapse and has even allowed them to remain somewhat under the radar on the national landscape. This should be considered just another instance of them being overlooked and an opportunity to prove those who do not believe they will be competitive this year wrong.