Cleveland Guardians 2026 Spring Training Storylines to Follow

Prospects Will Steal the Show

Not only did the Guardians find a way to wind the AL Central this past year, clearly showing they’re in the middle of their latest contention window, but they’ve also got a ton of promising prospects at or near big league-ready.

We already got to see one of them Chase DeLauter, Just Baseball’s No. 20 prospect, briefly in this past year’s postseason. He made it into a pair of games and went two-for-six with a walk and a strikeout. The 24-year-old is firmly in the mix for a starting outfield spot on the Opening Day roster in either center or right field.

DeLauter, a first-round pick in 2022, hit .264 with an .852 OPS and 128 wRC+ across 42 minor league games last season. He’s a big guy and a freakish athlete that has all the makings of a future star. Unless he goes on a historic 0-fer in spring training, he should be roaming the outfield once the regular season kicks off.

Then there’s Travis Bazzana, the first-overall pick in the 2024 draft. The 23-year-old has otherworldly talent on a baseball field and is oh-so close to showing it all off at the game’s highest level. This past season, Bazzana hit nine home runs, went 12-for-14 in stolen base attempts, and had an .813 OPS across three minor league levels.

It would not be remotely surprising to see Just Baseball’s No. 46 prospect in the majors very, very soon. Before his MLB debut, we’ll at least be able to see him on Team Australia in the coming World Baseball Classic.

While his name doesn’t carry the same weight as DeLauter’s or Bazzana’s, keep an eye on Angel Genao, our No. 72 prospect, as well. After posting a 110 wRC+ in 85 minor league games in 2025, he hit .325 in 26 Dominican Winter League contests. He’s a contact-oriented player who may not crack the Opening Day roster, but has an MLB ETA of sometime in the coming campaign.

Don’t Forget Daniel Espino

One of last season’s biggest feel-good moments was when Daniel Espino, the Guardians’ first-round pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, returned to a professional mound for the first time in three years. The right-hander missed over 1,200 games thanks to a multitude of long-term injuries that took him out of action every time he got close to a return.

Two major right-shoulder surgeries kept him out of action for so long, but the entire Guardians front office was on-hand for when he made his triumphant return to a pro mound in September. This spring, he’s been getting all sorts of attention from his teammates too, as everyone wants to see what made him such a highly-touted prospect pre-injury.

Before he hit the shelf for ages, Espino was an absolute strikeout machine. He punched out nearly 15 batters per nine innings in 2021 between two minor league levels, setting down 152 batters via strikeout in just 91.2 innings of work. In an April game right before he got injured in 2022, Espino struck out 11 straight batters to start the game before finishing with 14 in total. The potential was absolutely off the charts.

You’re not going to find Espino on our latest top prospect rankings due to the sheer amount of time he’s missed, but it’s next to impossible to deny the potential. Now that he’s got health on his side, the 25-year-old has a real shot at finally making his MLB debut in the coming season, even if it’s in a multi-inning relief capacity. Whenever he takes the big league mound for the first time, there’s not going to be a dry eye in the building.

Steven Kwan’s Versatility

Spring training is the perfect time for players to experiment with their positional versatility. The lights aren’t anywhere near as bright as they are during the regular season where games actually matter. The environment brings much less pressure, and it’s the prime time to iron out the kinks.

Steven Kwan, the Guardians’ primary left fielder for the last four years, is getting a look in center field this spring. Manager Stephen Vogt recently told reporters that Kwan will get looks up the middle while the team tries to figure out its best configuration on the outfield grass.

Over the course of his career, Kwan has notched just 31 innings in center field, but there’s little reason to doubt his ability to play at least competent defense at the position. After all, he’s won a Gold Glove Award for his efforts in left field in four straight years. He’s posted no less than 10 Defensive Runs Saved in LF as a big leaguer and has had between 3 and 10 Outs Above Average per year out there as well. Point being, the man can field his position.

Center field is a much more physically demanding position, and Kwan will undoubtedly be a bit more exposed playing there than he typically would be in left. For now, there’s no real reason to think he wouldn’t be able to play at least average defense in center.

Putting Kwan in center field on occasion makes a ton of sense when looking at the Guardians’ roster. Most of their outfield-capable players are not really ready to take on center field. C.J. Kayfus, George Valera, Johnathan Rodríguez, and Nolan Jones shouldn’t see time at the position. Having Kwan on-hand as at least a backup to someone like DeLauter (with Ángel Martínez, who isn’t great out there, also available) would do nothing but help the always-versatile Guardians get some powerful corner bats more ABs.

Can Bo Naylor Take the Next Step?

Yet another former first-round pick of the Guardians (2018), Bo Naylor has been the team’s primary catcher in each of the last two campaigns. In a combined 246 games over that period, he’s hit 27 home runs and drove in 86 runs, but his batting average sits at .186 and his .638 OPS and 79 wRC+ leave a lot to be desired.

Naylor first burst onto the scene with a strong 67-game showing in 2023 in which he hit 11 home runs, posted an .809 OPS and a wRC+ that reached all the way up to 123. Since then, he’s become a much more defense-first catcher, which is fine, but the Guardians could use some more thump out of their catcher position. This is underscored even more by the fact that Hedges, the team’s backup they re-signed to a one-year pact this past offseason, can’t hit to save his life. There’s got to be someone who can provide a bat as a catcher.

The Guardians will enter 2026 hoping that Naylor can pick up where he left off in regular-season action. He hit three home runs with 16 RBI in 19 games this past September after undergoing a swing change, sporting a .290 average and 136 wRC+. That looks a whole lot more like what the team wants from him on a more consistent basis.