Guards' shortstop situation comes into focus
Mandy Bell
@MandyBell02This 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.
Our Around the Horn series continues.
Over the next few weeks leading up to Spring Training, we¡¯ll go position by position to break down each area of the Guardians¡¯ roster. We¡¯ve knocked out catcher, first base and second base. Let¡¯s move on to shortstop:
Projected starter: Brayan Rocchio
The decision to trade Andr¨¦s Gim¨¦nez was telling.
It showed that the Guardians don¡¯t believe Gim¨¦nez was going to be the same player he was in his 2022 All-Star season. It showed that they don¡¯t think his glove was enough to outweigh his offensive struggles for the price they would eventually be paying for him. But it also showed their tremendous belief in Rocchio.
Rocchio stands as the lone obvious candidate to play shortstop in 2025. Sure, there are others who could see some time there, but with second base completely open, shortstop is going to fall into the hands of Rocchio once again.
It¡¯s not like we entered the offseason thinking that Rocchio lost his job at shortstop. But there was always a question of whether this team would decide to shake things up at any given time. This is because of Rocchio¡¯s lack of consistency since he has been in the Majors. He played in 143 games last year and hit .206 with a .614 OPS (76 OPS+). But in small windows, he demonstrated why he was a top prospect in the past.
The playoffs are a great example as to why there are still reasons to believe Rocchio can develop into a really solid player. In his first taste of postseason baseball, he recorded at least one hit in each of his first eight games. In 10 total playoff games last year, he went 11-for-33 (.333) with two doubles, a home run and a .906 OPS.
The Guardians know the potential is there.
The backups: Gabriel Arias, Daniel Schneemann, Tyler Freeman
These options are dependent upon who wins the starting job at second base. Arias is the best suited of these options to handle shortstop, considering he spent most of his time there the past few seasons. However, all three of these infielders have proven they can move all over the diamond, including shortstop. If Arias starts at second base, Schneemann and Freeman can both fill in at shortstop, if needed.
Question to answer: Can Rocchio be the guy?
There was always a fallback plan. Everyone was anticipating that one day Gim¨¦nez would be moved to shortstop to clear a path for Cleveland¡¯s top prospect, Travis Bazzana. We even thought it could happen earlier with Juan Brito. Regardless, if Rocchio wasn¡¯t the answer at shortstop, there was always Gim¨¦nez, who spends his offseasons taking ground balls at short, who could shift over. If he¡¯s a Platinum Glover at second, it seems safe to assume he could be a decent shortstop. But Gim¨¦nez is gone. Suddenly, there¡¯s no backup plan.
Rocchio can make an unbelievable, highlight-reel-worthy play one second but rush through a routine ground ball that results in an error the next. He can string together a week¡¯s worth of being a real threat in the batter¡¯s box but then go ice cold for the next few weeks. Everyone has seen the best of Rocchio in flashes. But the question that he needs to answer in 2025 is whether he can bring that consistency every day to earn this starting role.