CLEVELAND - The Guardians changed the look of their roster at the trade deadline, but the results have stayed stubbornly familiar.
Cleveland dropped five of six at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks and a Mets team missing plenty of its regulars. That stretch has pushed the Guardians to losses in 11 of their last 14, and in a crowded American League, the margin is getting thin.
“We haven’t played a complete game in a little while,” manager Stephen Vogt said after the Mets completed the sweep. “It’s going to turn, and we’re going to make it turn.”
The problems showed up everywhere across this series, starting with the offense. José Ramírez and Angel Martínez returned from the injured list, but they haven’t given Cleveland the jolt it needed.
Ramírez is 9-for-44 with nine singles and six walks, and he was held out of the first two games of the series because of lingering wrist soreness. Martínez, back from a foot fracture, is 5-for-33.
Together, they’ve produced a .182/.250/.208 line in 84 plate appearances.
That’s not the kind of production that can rescue a lineup that’s been struggling for most of the season. It’s also jarring to see Ramírez sitting at a .233/.331/.388 slash line this deep into the year, especially with the Guardians needing him close to full strength.
The team’s overall offense has been in the same neighborhood as the Mets’, at least in terms of league rankings. Entering the series, New York carried a .683 OPS and ranked 28th.
Cleveland sat at .681 and 30th. After three games, the Mets had climbed to a .692 OPS and 27th, while the Guardians dropped to .680 and 29th.
Toronto, somehow, fell to the bottom of the leaderboard.
On the field, though, the gap was much bigger than the standings suggested. The Mets scored 25 runs on 35 hits in the series, and the power difference was especially stark. New York launched nine home runs to Cleveland’s one.
That lone Guardians homer came from Nathaniel Lowe, who drove a three-run shot to right field Thursday. The Mets, meanwhile, got long balls from Francisco Lindor, Bo Bichette, Carson Benge, Luis Torrens, Brett Baty and Jorge Polanco. Torrens did it twice, with two homers accounting for half of his season total.
The most frustrating part for Cleveland was that the chances were there. The Guardians had 43 at-bats with runners in scoring position over the three games, which Lowe pointed to as a positive.
They’re reaching the spots that matter. They just aren’t finishing the job.
They went 6-for-32 with runners in scoring position over the first two games, a big reason Wednesday’s 10-inning loss stung so much. On Thursday, they were a little better, going 5-for-11 in those situations. But across the series, the bigger issue remained the same: too many missed opportunities, too little damage.
No spot has been more difficult for Cleveland than the plate appearance with a runner on third and two outs. The Guardians are 5-for-46 in those situations, a .109/.226/.130 line that works out to a minus-4 OPS+, meaning 104 percent worse than league average. Their numbers in other common situations aren’t much prettier, either: 82 OPS+ with runners in scoring position, 85 with runners on base, 94 with the bases empty, 89 with the bases loaded and 89 with a runner on third and fewer than two outs.
Lowe has been one of the few bright spots. He owns a .931 career OPS at Progressive Field and has hit .951 against Cleveland in 37 career games.
Thursday’s walk, single and homer only added to that track record. Now that he’s in Cleveland, the Guardians are hoping that same damage starts working in their favor.
“I can’t put my finger on it,” Lowe said, “but hopefully the magic continues.”
There was also some strange bullpen math late in the series. Austin Hedges needed only seven pitches to get four outs Thursday, while Slade Cecconi, in his second outing in a new relief role, threw 30 pitches and didn’t record an out. Baseball, as usual, had its own sense of humor.
Hedges, who grew up in Orange County and was travel-ball teammates with Joe Musgrove, Zach Davies and Michael Lorenzen about 20 years ago, has long maintained he could handle the mound as well as anybody. Vogt is happy to hand him the ball when the Guardians need to protect their bullpen in a blowout. Statcast couldn’t quite sort out what Hedges was throwing, but the pitches - fastballs, changeups, whatever they were - averaged 70.9 mph and were 100 percent effective.
Now the attention shifts to Chicago, where the Guardians open a three-game series against the White Sox this weekend. It’s a big one, even if that goes without saying.
Cleveland is two games under .500 for the first time since the morning of Aug. 26, 2025, and the teams have already played seven times this season. Six of those games were decided by one run, and the other was decided by two.
“Obviously, we wish we were in a different position, record-wise, going into the weekend,” Vogt said, “but we get three days with the people we’re chasing.”
In Other News...
Guardians Just Lost A Familiar Infielder In A Roster Squeeze
Gabriel Arias has been a familiar part of the Guardians roster conversation since 2022, valued most for his defensive versatility even as his bat never quite found consistent footing. Clevelands decision to move on from him came as the club continued reshaping its roster around younger talent, with the organization creating space for top prospect Angel Genao on the 40-man.
Arias did not stay available for long. Once he hit waivers, another team moved quickly, underscoring how a glove-first infielder with major league experience can still carry appeal even after an uneven run at the plate. For Cleveland, it is another reminder that roster squeezes can turn into quick departures, especially when a prospect push forces a tough choice. [Read more 🡒]
Nathaniel Lowe Is Giving Cleveland Hope At A Position Still In Flux
Clevelands latest skid has only sharpened the attention on first base, where the Guardians are still trying to find something stable after a busy trade deadline and a rough stretch that has included five losses in six games. Nathaniel Lowe arrived from Cincinnati as one of five new players added at the deadline, and early on he has looked like a useful fit, giving the lineup a needed jolt at a spot that has not offered much certainty.
The timing matters because Kyle Manzardo was demoted after his production slipped this season, leaving the Guardians with even more of a long-term question there. Lowes strong start has at least given Cleveland a credible option to lean on while the organization keeps sorting out how it wants to handle the position, especially against right-handed pitching, where the future picture still feels unsettled. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Suddenly Face A Pitching Depth Test Before White Sox Series
The Guardians are heading into their White Sox series with a little less margin on the mound after adding another hit to the pitching depth chart. Cleveland had already been navigating the usual midseason grind, and now it will have to cover innings without one of the arms it had been counting on, turning to its organizational depth for a quick answer.
Franco Aleman is the next man up, back from Triple-A after spending much of the season in relief work. The right-hander has already shown he can miss bats with a fastball that brings real velocity, and his early major league line has been serviceable enough to keep him in the mix. For the Guardians, the immediate question is how long they can piece things together while waiting for the rotation picture to settle. [Read more 🡒]