The Guardians' final 2026 stats featured plenty of individual surprises 

The Guardians closed the book on their 2026 regular season yesterday with a 3-2 meaningless loss to the Royals that didn't do anythign to adjust the Guardians' postseason standing.

But just because it was meaningless doesn’t mean the stats didn’t count. In fact, the game being played meant that every Guardians’ player's regular season stats are set for the season. 

With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the biggest surprises from this year. 

The Guardians had plenty of statistical performances that we didn’t see coming 

Brayan Rocchio leading the team with 73 RBI 

In 2025, Rocchio recorded a career-high 44 RBI despite spending more than a month toiling away at Triple-A. 

He nearly doubled that production this season thanks to a magical season that came with some record-setting production from the No. 9 spot in the lineup. 

Rocchio started the year with a fantastic first two months before going through a mid-summer slump that brought back memories of how things were last season before he got demoted. 

But, in what’s becoming a yearly tradition, he finished the year with a fantastic September that could be a prelude to another fruitful ‘Rocctober.’ 

At the very least, it showed that Rocchio has what it takes to be the Guardians’ everyday shortstop. 

Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams and Parker Messick all recording 180+ innings pitched 

Not only did the Guardians trio of starters take the ball 32 times (33 in Bibee’s case), but they all recorded a new career-high in innings pitched. 

Messick’s ascent was the biggest story since he recorded just 39 2/3 big league innings last year, but his durability was arguably just as big of a story since he’d never thrown more than 133 2/3 innings in any of his big league seasons. He finished this season with 186 1/3 innings to go along with a sparkling 2.56 ERA. 

Both Bibee and Williams set career highs in innings pitched last season, but they reset that mark this year with 188 and 184 1/3 innings, respectively. 

Williams should start either Game 1 or Game 2 of this weekend’s American League Wild Card Series, but this could get a little dicier for Bibee, who struggled at the start of September but ended the month with a solid start against the Royals. 

Part of the reason why the Guardians were able to fight back to win the American League Central was because of the consistency from their starting rotation, and that tone was set by Bibee, Williams and Messick. 

Angel Martínez leading the team with 18 home runs 

Martínez may still be a work in progress, but this season showed why the Guardians are willing to ride the wave. Not only did Martínez record a team-leading home run, but it came in just 114 games (for context, he had 11 home runs in 139 games in 2025). 

His under-the-hood numbers don’t look great, but he’s put together enough powerful swings to show that it’s time to stop doubting him. 

He’s going to be a mainstay in the Guardians’ outfield for years to come. 

Colin Holderman and Erik Sabrowski combining for a 2.67 ERA 

It was tough to predict what kind of production the Guardians were going to get from Holderman and Sabrowski, but they managed to pass every test in the middle of Cleveland’s bullpen. 

Sabrowski entered the year with a 1.29 ERA in 42 career innings, but we had yet to see him work in the workload of a full season. He did all that and more this year, recording a 2.61 ERA in 48 1/3 innings, which showed both his dominance and ability to stay healthy. 

He should be one of the first pitchers Stephen Vogt calls on in the postseason. 

Holderman, on the other hand, was a cheap free agent investment thanks to a disastrous 2025 season where he had a 7.01 ERA in 25 2/3 innings with the Pirates. 

But he put all that behind him this year with a fantastic season where he worked as both a longman and single-inning weapon. He’s also under arbitration control for two more seasons, so he should be a staple in the Guardians’ bullpen next season as well. 

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