Prospect Guardians fleeced from Cubs highlighted as team’s top breakout prospect

While so much of the discourse around the Guardians this offseason has been based around the moves they haven’t made, they’ve made plenty of moves in recent years that have been clear wins. 

Perhaps none of those are beginning to age better than their trade last offseason that netted them outfield prospect Alfonsin Rosario from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for reliever Eli Morgan. 

It looked like a win at the time given Morgan’s history of arm injuries and it’s gotten better by the day considering the Cubs cut Morgan this offseason after one disastrous year while Rosario is currently ranked as the Guardians’ No. 12 prospect by MLB Pipeline. 

The Pipeline team gave even more love to Rosario last week when they named the 21-year-old as the Guardians' top breakout prospect for the 2025 season. 

Alfonsin Rosario is one of the Guardians' top prospects

It’s easy to see why Rosario was the Guardians’ selection for the honor given how his 2025 season went. 

After putting together a solid 2024 campaign at Single-A for the Cubs, Rosario hit .251 across 115 games in High-A and Double-A for the Guardians with 21 home runs and 64 RBI. And perhaps most importantly, he cut his strikeout rate down from 32% in 2024 to 27% in 2025 despite going up two minor league levels. 

Rosario still has the kind of power that made him stand out to the Guardians as a trade return, but he’s cutting down on the strikeouts that have been a huge bugaboo for him throughout his career. 

All of this sets up a future where Rosario could slide into the Guardians’ outfield picture potentially as early as 2027. As mentioned above, he finished the year at Double-A, where he posted a .303 on-base percentage in 33 games. 

Even though Guardians outfielders combined for a wRC+ of 79 last season (the second-worst mark in baseball), their lone outfield addition so far this offseason has been Stuart Fairchild, who the Guardians signed as a minor league free agent after a rough 2025. 

The Guardians outfield situation could be worse thanks to Steven Kwan being a mainstay in left field, but he gets closer to free agency with every passing day. 

Even though the Guardians have plenty of intriguing internal options to man center field and right field (we need to see as much of Chase DeLauter and George Valera as possible), Rosario stands out as one of the top internal options for the future alongside Khalil Watson, who was just added to the 40-man roster. 

The Guardians have been on a never-ending quest to find a way to get power out of their outfield, and Roasrio stands out as one the top internal options to fix that problem.