4 role players who are making a difference for the Cleveland Guardians on the field and 2 who aren't

Gabriel Arias - Early Season Difference-Maker

2024 stats: .298/.313/.468 slash line, three doubles, one triple, and one home run

Raise your hand if you were someone who reasonably (emphasis on reasonably) believed that Gabriel Arias was capable of this. Alright, now that everyone's hands are down, we can all appreciate the early-season production from Arias. 

The 24-year-old infielder has been a nice surprise early on for the Guardians, being able to show a level of poise and comfort at the plate that was absent in his previous 138 games at the major league level. This has contributed to Arias being an incredibly valuable option for Guardians manager Stephen Vogt to call upon when needed.

Even though Arias' 128 OPS+ is very encouraging, there are a couple of areas that could point toward some corrections happening in the near future. Arias is striking out 29.2% of the time, hardly an ideal rate at which to swing and miss. Additionally, Arias' batting average on balls in play (BABIP) currently sits at .406, just behind Rod Carew's single-season best of .408.This is clearly an unsustainable rate, and it is destined to come back to reality sooner rather than later. The hope is that it does not completely crater out and result in Arias reverting back to being the hitter he was in previous seasons. Settling in somewhere between where he is now and where he was before could still result in productive at-bats coming from Arias as the season progresses.