The Guardians are setting up for the kind of late-September roster shuffle that can sneak up on a postseason team, and they’re doing it with a familiar bit of gamesmanship.
Last year, Cleveland quietly put Chase DeLauter on its Taxi Squad before the Wild Card Series against the Tigers, then turned heads by adding him to the postseason roster the next day. That move made him the sixth player to debut in the majors in the postseason.
Now the Guardians are taking another look at their options. On Monday, they opened a “stay hot camp” at Triple-A Columbus for players on the 40-man roster who aren’t currently on the big league club, along with a few other minor leaguers. The Athletic’s Zack Mesiel first reported the camp’s presence.
If the Guardians include every non-MLB player on the 40-man roster, the group would include right-handers Franco Aleman, Shawn Armstrong, Yorman Gómez, Colin Holderman and Austin Peterson, left-hander Logan Allen, catcher/outfielder Cooper Ingle, first baseman Kyle Manzardo, and outfielders Blake Perkins and Kahlil Watson. Andrew Walters and CJ Kayfus are also on the 40-man and in the minors, but both are out for the season with injuries.
Not every name in that camp is a real postseason candidate, but the Guardians do appear to have some legitimate depth decisions coming. Armstrong and Holderman look like the two most obvious pitchers to watch. Both were on rehab assignments before the Triple-A season wrapped up, and both could be back in the mix soon.
Armstrong logged four rehab outings before Columbus finished its season. Holderman, meanwhile, is expected to start throwing again this week after his rehab appearance on Thursday ended early because of a wrist issue.
Cleveland does have one straightforward spot to play with in Connor Brogdon. The harder part comes if the club wants to add a second pitcher. One possibility would be swapping Slade Cecconi off the postseason roster for Armstrong or Holderman and then shifting one of the starters into a bullpen role to cover the longman job, perhaps Tanner Bibee.
The position-player side is less clean. Ingle and Manzardo would bring left-handed power, but neither did enough to stay on the big league roster, which makes a postseason return hard to picture.
Watson impressed in his brief time with the Guardians, but the outfield may already be too crowded for him. Perkins, who has not yet made his Guardians debut, faces the same logjam, though he could still offer value as a late-game pinch-runner.
The Guardians would prefer not to be in a spot where a regular has to come off the roster before the postseason begins, but that sort of thing happens every October. Cleveland may not need everyone in its stay-ready group, but it probably won’t be able to get through the playoffs without tapping into that depth at least once or twice.
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Stephen Vogts postgame message fit the moment. With six games left and a trip to face the Red Sox next, he kept steering the conversation back to the same place the Guardians have tried to live all season, one day at a time, instead of chasing magic numbers or looking too far ahead. It is a simple approach, but for a team still trying to close out its stretch run, it might be the one that matters most. [Read more 🡒]