Lane Thomas is getting hot at the right time for the Cleveland Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians are pushing to win the American League Central division, and with their current lead over the Kanas City Royals and Minnesota Twins, it seems like it will only be a matter of time before that comes to fruition. In order for them to achieve their goal they are going to need contributions from some of their non-star players, and they have been getting exactly that from Lane Thomas.

Thomas is slashing .367/.392/.653 over his last 15 games (12 starts), with five doubles, three home runs, and 15 runs driven in during that span. This has been a welcome sight for the Guardians, as Thomas has notably struggled since being acquired from the Washington Nationals before the trade deadline.

In his first 24 games with the Guardians, Thomas put up a .137/.229/.192 slash line with just 10 hits in 83 plate appearances. Of those 10 hits, only four went for extra bases, all doubles. This was not the offensive contributions that Cleveland thought they were getting when they agreed to acquire Thomas from Washington.

Now, no one was expecting Thomas to be a middle-of-the-order type bat who was a primary source of offensive production, considering his .253/.331/.407 slash line before being dealt was not necessarily anything that was going to move the needle in that department. However, the thought was that he could raise the offensive floor of the Guardians and help lengthen the lineup, two areas in which he struggled to help out in until recently.

While Thomas' uptick at the plate has been a welcome sight, it is best to very cautious about the sustainability of this recent performance. Thomas has struck out 17 times compared to walking just once in this span. Despite the unappealing 17-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, Thomas has still been able to produce, but unfortunately, this can be an indicator of future regression for players fitting his offensive profile.

Unless Thomas can find a way to improve in this area or somehow magically manage to continue his offensive production, there will come a time that sees his luck change a bit. Hopefully, Thomas can avoid an all-out offensive collapse and land somewhere in the middle between where his time in Cleveland began and his recent track record. If he is able to do that, it would certainly help keep the Guardians' offense performing at a level that should help them into and through the postseason.