Guardians Absolutely Slammed With Disrespectful Ranking

The Cleveland Guardians won the AL Central division title and made it all the way to the ALCS last season, so you would think there would be considerable optimism surrounding the team heading into the 2025 MLB campaign, right?

Well, don't tell that to The Athletic, which just slammed the Guardians in their most recent set of power rankings with the regular season beginning in Tokyo this week.

Cleveland was ranked 21st and was given just a 29.7 percent chance of making the playoffs, which comes as quite a surprise given how impressive the Guardians looked for most of 2024.

However, Grant Brisbee of The Athletic is simply not buying that it's sustainable, especially after losing a couple of key pieces during the offseason.

"The Guardians rode timely hitting and a suffocating bullpen to an ALCS appearance last fall, so putting them below every AL Central team except the White Sox is a low blow. But if the Cleveland front office really cared about our preseason power rankings, they’d have swung bigger this winter," Brisbee wrote. "Instead, it was out with Josh Naylor and Andrés Giménez, in with Carlos Santana and Luis Ortiz, and that was about it. It’s not a bad roster, and David Fry and Shane Bieber will join when their elbows allow, but question marks abound."

There is no question that Cleveland has a lot of major question marks. Its starting rotation remains a mystery, and its offense doesn't exactly look all that appealing, especially after losing Naylor, who smashed 31 home runs last season.

And you know what? The Guardians finishing in fourth place in the division is actually within reason given that there really isn't much separating them from the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins. But they probably deserve more respect after such a deep run last year.

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