Guardians on doorstep of ALCS thanks to strong team bond

This story was excerpted from Mandy Bell’s Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Hours upon hours have been spent, collectively, over the past eight months, searching for the answer to one simple question: Why are the Guardians winning this year?

It’s a simple question that doesn’t have a clear answer. This is essentially the same lineup that the 2023 Guardians had with the addition of more rookies, Austin Hedges (who’s here more for his defense and leadership than his bat) and Lane Thomas, who didn’t join the crew until they were well in first place at the Trade Deadline. Yet, the offense saw much more success in ’24.

The starting rotation had glaring holes for the first time in recent memory, and there was little depth when guys struggled or got hurt. Yet the Guardians manifested the best bullpen in baseball with rookies, starters-turned-relievers and a couple of veterans.

It all brings us back to the same question: How?

There have been a few answers when players are asked this. Some credit José Ramírez. Some say Hedges’ leadership. It certainly didn’t hurt that pitching coach Carl Willis hung around to make sure a first-time manager had some experience beside him.

But the most common answer was camaraderie.

It sounds cliché. It even sounds cheesy most of the time. At the beginning of the season, it’s an answer that could induce more eye rolls than head nods. But as each month went by, it became clearer and clearer that the bond this group has is unlike anything any of them have experienced before.

Matthew Boyd, who will get the ball in Game 5 on Saturday, noticed it the second he joined this roster in August. Thomas, who joined them at the end of July, still comments about how quickly his new teammates made him feel like a brother. Hedges has pulled some of the young pitchers, like Andrew Walters and Erik Sabrowski, aside to let them know that this isn’t how teams always are. The veterans want to make sure the rookies soak in this environment and forever strive to recreate it on any team that they play on in the future.

The Guardians’ season could’ve ended on Thursday. When Steven Kwan was asked about how the team will handle the pressure of a potential elimination game leading up to it, he didn’t say that they needed to win. He didn’t say that they were looking to continue to prove doubters wrong by advancing to the next round with their backs against the wall.

He said: “Obviously, playing for another day to hang out with everybody and just be next to all your boys. I think that’s going to be the biggest driving factor.”

When games end, players don’t pack up and run to their cars. Pitchers are gathered around the card table. Position players are challenging each other to a Nerf basketball game on a mini hoop. No one ever seems to want to go home.

The Guardians had to make difficult decisions when making their ALDS roster. Pedro Avila was left off even though he had been an unsung hero at times for this team, pitching in any role he was asked. And yet, this entire postseason, he’s been the first player out of the dugout to smack hands with a pitcher coming off the mound to hype him up.

It may not be the most in-depth answer. It may not even sound believable. But the Guardians have bought into the concept that loving one another can allow them to accomplish anything this season. It led to them clinching a postseason berth when no one else thought it was likely. It led to an AL Central division title.

And now, each time manager Stephen Vogt watches Avila stand at the top step of the dugout, cheering his teammates on, he’s confident that it will be enough to get Cleveland back to the ALCS for the first time since 2016.

“It speaks to how close that group in the clubhouse is,” Vogt said. “They put their teammates ahead of themselves. ... They just want to win.”