The Guardians’ path in the American League Wild Card race just got a little more interesting, and Aaron Judge is suddenly part of the equation.
Cleveland is in the middle of a pivotal series against the Orioles, a matchup with real postseason weight attached to it. Baltimore isn’t breathing down the Guardians’ neck the way the Blue Jays are, but Monday’s game showed the Orioles have enough talent to stay in the mix over the last two weeks of the season, even with their roster taking a hit after losing Luis Robert Jr. to injury.
That makes the next two games in this series huge for Cleveland. If the Guardians can take care of business, they could knock Baltimore out of the playoff picture. If not, the Orioles could still be hanging around when they meet the Yankees in their final series of the year.
And that’s where Judge enters the picture. The Yankees activated him from the injured list yesterday after he missed a little more than three months with a right rib stress fracture, and that return could wind up helping Cleveland in an indirect way.
New York has managed to keep its head above water without him, going 45-39 during his absence, and enters play today with a nine-game cushion over the Guardians for the American League’s final Wild Card spot. The Yankees are also just one game ahead of the Red Sox for the top spot and sit four games behind the Rays in the AL East, with those teams set to meet in New York’s penultimate series of the year.
So the Yankees still have plenty to chase, and that matters. By the time they face Baltimore in the final weekend of the season, New York will probably have clinched a postseason berth, but there should still be something on the line in that series.
For Cleveland, though, the simplest answer is still the best one: beat the Orioles now and remove the uncertainty. The Guardians got a break Monday when the Blue Jays lost on a walk-off to the Athletics, but the Rangers and Orioles both gained ground with wins, while the White Sox stretched their AL Central lead by sitting idle.
Cleveland did itself no favors by dropping the opener to Baltimore, but the series isn’t over yet. The Guardians still have two chances to push the Orioles aside, and if Baltimore somehow survives that, Judge’s return gives the Yankees a three-time MVP back in the lineup for a final weekend that could end up mattering a lot in Cleveland.
In Other News...
Guardians Trade Fans Hated Suddenly Looks A Little Different
Earlier this year, the Guardians moved on from Nolan Jones in a deal that seemed to close the book on his place in Clevelands future. Tyler Freeman went the other way to the Rockies as part of that swap, giving the Guardians a new piece while also underscoring just how quickly the front office was willing to shift directions on a player who had once been part of the organizations longer-term picture.
Now Freemans path has taken another turn, and it does not point toward a clean rebound. He was outrighted off Colorados roster and sent to Triple-A Albuquerque after a stretch that fell short of expectations, a move that makes his road back to the majors look far more complicated. It also suggests the Guardians may eventually see the trade framed less as a simple exchange of pieces and more as one side trying to move on before the market for either player changed again. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Suddenly Face A Bigger Progressive Field Question
Progressive Field has been the Guardians home since 1994, and the ballpark has already gone through recent renovations to keep pace with a changing game and a changing city. Even so, it still sits as MLBs 10th-oldest stadium, a reminder that even a well-kept park can start to feel like yesterdays solution when the rest of the league keeps talking about what comes next.
That bigger-picture conversation is where the temperature starts to rise. Analyst Zachary D. Rymer recently floated Cleveland as a possible future candidate for a new stadium, a notion that would have seemed far-fetched not long ago but now fits into a league where only two new parks have opened in the past two decades. For the Guardians, the question is less about what Progressive Field is today than how long it can remain the right answer in a sport where new venues are still a rarity. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Suddenly Have A Chase DeLauter Concern They Cant Ignore
Chase DeLauters recent stretch on the sideline has started to look less like a routine breather and more like something the Guardians have to monitor closely. The outfielder is out of the starting lineup against the Orioles because of a wrist sprain suffered on a swing in a previous game, and manager Stephen Vogt has already framed the situation as day-to-day while putting DeLauters health first.
For a Cleveland club that has leaned on DeLauter as one of its key bats this season, the timing matters. He has now missed four straight games, and while the hope is obviously that the injury settles quickly, wrist issues can linger in ways that make even the next appearance worth watching. [Read more 🡒]