The Guardians’ October lineup will look very familiar when the American League Division Series opens at home later this weekend. Steven Kwan is expected to set the table, José Ramírez will be in the middle of it, and Cade Smith and Gavin Williams will be counted on heavily on the mound.
But Cleveland’s future doesn’t end with the names everybody already knows. Tucked deeper in the organization are a few players who have already been around the big league club in some form and could end up mattering a lot in 2027.
Ben Lively is one of them. The last time he took the mound for the Guardians, he was rolling through a brilliant nine-start stretch for the 2025 team before an elbow injury ended that run and eventually led to Tommy John surgery.
He’s back on the mound now, though, after making his return in the minors this season. Lively finished the year with a 2.56 ERA in 31 1/3 innings for Triple-A Columbus.
That comeback came after he signed a two-year minor league deal last offseason, giving him a place to rehab while also allowing Cleveland to buy low on the injury. The Guardians’ rotation looks fairly settled heading into next season, but this is Cleveland - surprises have a way of showing up. If Lively is healthy, he should at least be in the conversation for the pitching staff, whether that role is as a starter or a swingman.
His minor league work gave a glimpse of what he can still do. In one recent outing, he struck out four Louisville batters and allowed one run over 4.2 innings for Columbus, topping out at 94.7 mph. In five starts with Columbus, he logged 22.2 innings, allowed 18 hits and five earned runs, walked nine and struck out 15.
Cooper Ingle is another name worth keeping on the radar. He made his major league debut earlier this season, but the results weren’t pretty: 2-for-21, plus a game-deciding error in the outfield. Still, the rough big league line doesn’t erase what he did in Triple-A, where he finished with a .951 OPS.
Ingle’s situation is tricky because his value depends so much on where Cleveland believes he can play. He came into the year as a catcher, but every inning he spent with the Guardians came either as a designated hitter or in the outfield.
He learned the outfield on the fly just to get to the majors faster, and now the question is whether his path opens up if the Guardians trust him behind the plate. If not, he’ll have a harder time breaking through a crowded outfield picture.
Kahlil Watson is in a similar spot, though his case looks a little different. He also debuted in the majors this season, appearing in 27 games for Cleveland. The production wasn’t loud - he posted a .605 OPS - but he did provide serviceable defense and, as the source material puts it, tormented the White Sox.
At 23, Watson still has time on his side, and he backed up his case with power at Triple-A, where he hit 19 home runs this season. He spent the entire year on the outside of Cleveland’s outfield mix, but that could change if an offseason trade clears space and gives him a better lane into the big league picture.
In Other News...
Gavin Williams Just Gave Cleveland A Huge Reason To Believe
Gavin Williams spent the regular season giving Cleveland a front-line arm to lean on, and the numbers backed up what the Guardians saw every fifth day. He led the American League with 248 strikeouts, finished 14-8 with a 3.76 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP over 32 starts, and outpaced both Dylan Cease and Cam Schlittler in the strikeout race.
The encouraging part for Cleveland is that Williams did not fade as the schedule wore on. He sharpened in September, trimming his ERA and missing more bats while the Guardians were fighting for a playoff push, which only added to the sense that he was settling into the role they had been waiting for. For a club that has spent a lot of time searching for reliable rotation anchors, Williams just made the long view a little easier to picture. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Trade Deadline Looks Smarter As October Reality Hits Phillies
As Cleveland waits to make its postseason roster official, the early read on the clubs deadline work is encouraging. Nathaniel Lowe, Jo Adell and Foster Griffin are all expected to be included, giving the Guardians a chance to lean on the reinforcements they added when the market opened up.
Philadelphia offered a sharper contrast by unveiling its National League Wild Card Series roster without any of its deadline pickups, Caleb Kilian, Brooks Raley and Luis Arraez. Injuries have kept Kilian and Arraez out, while Raley was left off after a difficult stretch, a reminder that deadline deals can look good in July and much different by October. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Just Got The October Reward This Team Was Chasing
The Guardians steady push through September got the payoff it was chasing, as a 1-0 win over the Boston Red Sox locked up a postseason berth for the third straight season and delivered the American League Central title along with a first-round bye. For a club that has spent much of the year leaning into its depth and pitching, it was another reminder that the path to October can look a lot different in Cleveland than it does elsewhere.
There was also more good news in the organization pipeline, with Cooper Ingle, the clubs No. 4 prospect, earning International League MVP honors from Minor League Baseball after a strong Triple-A season. And in one of those odd side stories that comes with a long division race, fans even raised $2,500 for Kids of Denver in appreciation of Colorado Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman, whose performance helped seal the AL Central for Cleveland. [Read more 🡒]