The Cleveland Guardians are sitting tight while the 2026 MLB postseason gets rolling Tuesday, and that pause comes with a reward: a first-round bye after winning the AL Central. That gives them time to reset their rotation while the rest of the field starts the grind.
Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report thinks that setup could carry Cleveland deep into October. In his postseason preview, he picked the Guardians to move past the Division Series and wrote, “The White Sox’s magical run- two seasons after losing 121 games-will end at the hands of the Cleveland Guardians, the team that swiped the division from under them in September.
Cleveland is back in the postseason for the third time in as many years under Stephen Vogt. With Kwan and excellent pitching, the Guardians will advance to the ALCS for the second time in three years.
Guardians in four,” Kelly wrote.
Kelly did note concern about Jose Ramirez’s mediocre September, but his overall read was still clear: Cleveland’s pitching gives it the edge. He has the Chicago White Sox beating the Houston Astros in the AL Wild Card round before falling to the Guardians in the Division Series.
The reasoning starts on the mound. Kelly pointed to Chicago’s rotation as the weak link and argued that Cleveland’s pitching staff can tilt a series against a dangerous lineup. The Guardians, he wrote, have the rotation and bullpen depth to survive that kind of matchup.
Cleveland’s offense has also come alive late. The team finished the regular season with one of the American League’s better second-half attacks, with Ramirez beginning to swing it better, Steven Kwan setting the tone at the top, rookies Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana producing, and Angel Martinez making noise with his blend of power and speed in recent weeks.
Kelly also highlighted Parker Messick and Gavin Williams as a tough opening punch in the rotation, adding that Chicago could end up seeing them in four of a possible five ALDS games.
He didn’t stop there, either. Kelly has the Tampa Bay Rays eliminating the Guardians in six games in the AL Championship Series. Even with that prediction, the bigger picture for Cleveland remains encouraging: a chance at its first World Series trip since 2016 and its first title since 1948.
In Other News...
Guardians Could Face A Game 1 Lineup Squeeze In ALDS
The White Sox did not follow a standard postseason script in their Wild Card Series against the Astros, leaning on bullpen games and openers before Sean Burke handled four innings in Game 2. That kind of pitching flexibility has become part of their identity in October, and it is expected to carry over into their best-of-five ALDS matchup with the Guardians.
For Cleveland, the wrinkle is less about who starts on the mound than how Chicago chooses to deploy Davis Martin. White Sox manager Will Venable is weighing whether to use him as a conventional starter or ahead of an opener, and that decision could ripple through the Guardians Game 1 planning, especially when it comes to lineup construction and platoon choices. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians First Base Decision Just Got More Interesting For October
Nathaniel Lowe arrived in Cleveland before the trade deadline and quickly gave the Guardians a steadier look at first base over 43 games, even if the bat did not quite match the production he had shown with Cincinnati. His offense dipped by traditional measures, but Stephen Vogt has kept pointing to the same qualities that matter in a clubhouse gearing up for the stretch run: a professional approach, veteran presence and enough lineup stability to help the Guardians keep moving.
The October wrinkle is what makes Lowes role worth watching now. He has driven in 27 runs and offered the kind of dependable presence a playoff team can lean on, yet the lower batting average and wRC+ leave the first-base picture a little more complicated than it looked when he first arrived. As the postseason gets closer, the Guardians still have to decide how much they want that steadiness to define the position if a bigger offensive spark becomes available. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Draw A Dangerous White Sox Team At The Worst Time
The Guardians and White Sox spent the 2026 regular season seeing plenty of each other, meeting 13 times before Cleveland wrapped up the division on the penultimate day. Now the rivals are right back together in the ALDS, and this time the setting shifts to Progressive Field, where the Guardians will try to turn home-field advantage into an early edge in a matchup that already carries plenty of familiarity.
Chicago arrives with real momentum after sweeping the Astros in the Wild Card Series, a run that included Chase Meidroths three-run homer in a decisive moment. For Cleveland, that makes the timing of this draw a little less than ideal, because the White Sox are not just a division foe the Guardians know well - theyre a club that has just shown it can carry that confidence deep into October. [Read more 🡒]