Or give me death
The Guardians just lost another winnable game to the Reds and I’m upset.
Do you have a guess of what the wRC+ is of Guardians centerfielders and right-fielders in 2025?
First clue, they rank 29th in MLB in this category. Ahead of only the Rockies.
Second clue, it is 1 wRC+ ahead of Austin Hedges’ career wRC+.
It’s 52. Half of league average production.
I appreciate that the Guardians tried to address this by acquiring Nolan Jones. I even like the idea of giving Jhonkensy Noel a chance to build on his 2024. And I know Lane Thomas has been hurt. But enough is enough, man. Noel is lost. Jones cannot hit a fastball to save his life. Will Brennan is still Will Brennan.
After tonight, CJ Kayfus will have 72 innings in right field at Columbus. That’s probably not enough to be 100% comfortable there in the big leagues. His 15.4% swinging strike rate is a little worrisome.
I don’t care. Call him up tomorrow and send Brennan back down.
Kayfus has a 165 wRC+ since the beginning of last season with a 23/13 K/BB%. He has a 187 wRC+ at Columbus (he’s also 3-4 tonight with a double). Get this man in Cleveland and let him see if he can be at least what ZiPS says he can be… a league average hitter which would be double what we have seen so far from Guardians’ hitters.
If the Guardians are too poor to sign a Teoscar Hernandez or the like, they need to be aggressive about fixing this gaping hole on the team. Replace Brennan with Kayfus tomorrow, let Kayfus and Noel (or Johnathan Rodriguez) platoon in RF and let Jones and Angel Martinez split time in CF until Lane Thomas is healthy to add into that mix. But stop pretending this is working because it’s not and there is a potential solution out there as we wait to see if Chase DeLauter and/or George Valera can stay healthy for five seconds, long enough to get called up.
Kayfus, save us.