How the Guardians prospect pipeline can help them build on strong finish to 2025

Every year, the Guardians’ offseason seems to follow the same path. They make a mid-tier addition or two through free agency while also banking on a variety of young players to make a jump. 

That theme should play out again this year since the Guardians have a variety of young outfielders who seem poised to earn playing time in spring training. 

And, after a season where the Guardians had the second-worst offense in baseball by measure of OPS, that kind of change is welcome. 

The Cleveland Guardians have a plethora of promising young players 

As we outlined yesterday, it’s been a long time since the Guardians had an outfielder hit 20 home runs, but they have a variety of young outfielders who could end that streak in Chase DeLauter and George Valera. 

They both have legit power that should translate to the major leagues, and should generate a ton of power in the batter’s box — so long as they’re able to stay healthy. 

The biggest reason they hadn’t broken into the major leagues prior to the end of 2025 was due to injuries, which is still a realistic fear with them. But, at this point, it’s a risk worth taking given how much the Guardians outfield struggled. 

Would you rather have Nolan Jones and Johnathan Rodríguez in right field or a prospect like Valera who has some upside? 

The Guardians also have some promising middle infield prospects who are knocking on the big league door in Travis Bazzana and Juan Brito. 

Bazzana has torn through the minor leagues since the Guardians took him with the No. 1 pick in 2024, and even generated some buzz as a potential major league call-up at the end of 2025. While Bazzana isn’t on the 40-man roster, the Guardians could add him at some point in the offseason as they restructure their roster or early next season ahead of a potential promotion. 

Meanwhile, the Guardians expect to gain an extra option year on Brito after he missed most of 2025 with injuries. He was in contention for an Opening Day roster spot last spring, and should be in the mix again this year, albeit with a little more flexibility. 

The Guardians ended the season with Gabriel Arias, Brayan Rocchio and Daniel Schneemann splitting a majority of the time in the middle infield, but they’re going to need to make some kind of decision about all of their respective futures. 

They all hold some value, but they still got a majority of playing time on an offense that was one of baseball’s worst. Bazzana and Brito both carry a bit more intrigue and have strong minor league track records. 

Lastly, the Guardians’ pitching factory was in full swing this year thanks to strong second half performances from a variety of young pitchers.

And while the pitching pipeline doesn’t have the same kind of reinforcements as the position player side (in part because they were all called up this season), there’s still some minor league pitchers to keep an eye on. 

The biggest one is Khal Stephen, who the Guardians got at the trade deadline in return for Shane Bieber. Although Stephen only pitched 11 1/3 innings with the Guardians after the trade deadline, he finished the year with a 2.53 ERA across 103 innings. 

He currently ranks as the Guardians’ No. 6 prospect per MLB Pipeline, and should benefit from an offseason spent in Cleveland's pitching factory. 

Another Guardians pitching prospect on the cusp of breaking through is Daniel Espino, who didn’t pitch in the minors for 1,250 days due to a variety of injuries before making his return to the mound in the Arizona Fall League this year. 

While the Guardians have more roster uncertainty that you would expect from a team that pulled off one of the best comebacks in major league history, the amount of promising prospects coming down the pipeline is still exciting.