Newest update on David Fry's 2026 role should be music to Guardians fan’s ears 

Last year was clearly not David Fry at his best. 

After earning a surprising All-Star nod for the Guardians in 2024, Fry was behind the eight ball for all of the 2025 campaign due to offseason Tommy John surgery that kept him off the field until the start of June and limited to the designated hitter spot once he got on it. 

But Fry should be healthy at the start of 2026 (even after getting hit square in the face by a Tarik Skubal fastball), and should get back to moving all around the diamond, which will go a long way toward helping the Guardians’ offense improve after its lackluster 2025 season. 

David Fry seems healthy and ready to contribute to the Guardians in 2026 

On Friday, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt held court with the team’s beat over Zoom and was asked about Fry’s status for 2026, where he said that Fry will “concentrate on catching through most of spring training,” per Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes. 

While Vogt added that Fey will start playing other positions toward the end of spring, having him behind the plate is the best case scenario for a Guardians team that needs a healthy season from him. 

Fry underwent nasal surgery due to the injuries sustained by Sukbal's fastball, but it seems like his recovery from that won't dip into the spring.

As mentioned above, Fry didn’t return to the diamond until last June, and he ended up hitting just .171 across 66 games while only being able to play at designated hitter. While he managed to hit eight home runs, he had an on-base percentage of just .229 and hamstrung the Guardians’ lineup a bit with his lack of positional flexibility. 

But it looks like that will be a thing of the past in 2026, which will help both the catching situation and the lineup as a whole. 

The Guardians have a left-handed heavy lineup, and Fry is one of three right-handed hitters on the 40-man roster alongside Austin Hedges and Johnathan Rodríguez. 

Fry has played every position but second base, shortstop and center field in his career and made a name for himself as a valuable bench bat and matchup piece for Vogt. 

The 2024 season was Fry at the height of his powers and he was named an All-Star for the first time in his career on the back of a first half where he hit .279 while playing all over the diamond, and he etched his name into Guardians lore with a huge walk-off home run against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. 

Even though his rough 2025 showing took some of the shine away from that stellar year, he seems poised to be an impact player for the Guardians in 2026.