2026 Draft - Part 3 - Impact of Trading Away Our Very High Comp A Pick

Some Thoughts For A Tuesday:

Protecting Teams From Themselves  

Part of my plan for changes to the next collective bargaining agreement is to disallow trading of draft choices completely for teams that receive competitive balance picks and before round 11 for the rest of the teams. 

Simply put, the reason for teams getting competitive balance picks is that these teams are resource-limited and are being incentivized to build from within through the draft process. 

Competitive balance picks, besides adding a highly-ranked player to a team's farm system, also come with a hefty addition to a team's draft bonus pool.  In this case the Guardians' draft bonus pool will be $3.2 million smaller as a result of this trade, significantly impacting their ability to draft and sign players to overslot bonuses in this draft.  

The trade between Cleveland and San Francisco is a shining example of why teams given this gift of an extra draft pick and enhanced bonus pool should not be allowed to spend it on anything except for what it was intended: to draft and sign talented amateur players.

Combined with Cleveland's trade in January to 'sell' international bonus pool space to the Mets, Cleveland has avoided spending close to $5 million on amateur player acquisition this year.  This is a bad, cheap look for Cleveland's ownership who have now found yet another way to be cheap and not spend money on this franchise.

BTW, for people who say Cleveland is never cheap on the draft, MOST teams are not cheap on the draft and their process in previous years is in line with what is done by most teams.  It ain't anything special.

Movement at the Middle of The First Round

My premise for the Guardians in the upcoming draft was that they needed to add top tier college pitching in most of their picks.  They were aced out of every quality college SP last year who fit their profile, making it 3 consecutive drafts without any college pitchers who weren't soft tossers.  In fact, they haven't drafted a quality college starting pitcher since 2022 where they got Messick and Campbell.  The latter is a great example of where a quality, hard-throwing college SP can have significant value even if he hasn't pitched for 3 years.  The hype around the acquisition of Kal Stephen and his high rank in Cleveland's system is another example of the value of hard-throwing top shelf college pitchers, even though Stephen's performance so far with the Guardians has been underwhelming.

So, in a draft filled with college position players with holes in their game and all the typical question marks and risk with drafting high school hitters and pitchers in the first round, I was looking at snagging quality college arm at #19.  My first couple of posts targeted Hunter Dietz as a guy the Guardians could overdraft to start them off on what I hoped would be a college pitcher centric 2026 draft.  Well, Dietz has pitched so well this year (6-0 vs the top #1 starting pitchers in the SEC) that a guy ranked as low as 60-70 this spring may have raised his stock so much that he could be gone before the Guardians can draft him.

With the lack of quality college starting pitchers available in this draft and the Guardians giving away their second 1st round pick to San Francisco, this draft is trending for the Guardians toward being a combination of high upside/very low floor guys and more LHH contact hitters with good OB skills but meh upside.  The 2025 was bad for the Guardians because they made the wrong picks.  The 2026 draft could be bad because they might not be able to draft what they really need, quality, hard-throwing college starting pitchers.  

In addition to Dietz's rise, other college starting pitchers with first round talent are performing well and are rising because every team now knows that if you want quality college starting pitching in this draft you better be willing to overdraft guys or be left with a draft without college pitchers with big upside.  

That is hugely bad for the Guardians who have one of thinnest farm systems in regards to upper level starting pitcher prospects.

The Impact of No Competitive Balance Pick

Besides the bonus pool impact I talked about above, the other major impact in the loss of the 29th overall pick is how that impacts the Guardians draft strategy and other early picks.  My plan for them was college SP, HS bat, college SP, college SP/RP, college SP/RP. has likely gone out the window as we don't have a pick to gamble with.

Without that Comp A pick, taking a HS bat early in this draft is just too big of a risk.  With essentially 2 picks in the top 94 picks, taking a gamble on a guy like Landon Thome has now gone out the window and the Guardians will likely fall back on their fatal flaw: making head-scratching picks to show everyone they are the smartest guys in the room. 

We simply cannot afford another disaster of a draft like 2025 or (excluding Bazzana) a slow developing class like 2024.  But this is what the loss of that one pick has done, in addition to basically making the 3rd day of the draft really boring for the Guardians as they just try to finish their draft with a bunch of college organizational players who will sign for slot who they feel they can develop into something more but almost always can't.

Saturday Thoughts: MORONIC TRADE!!!

 This morning the Guardians announced that they traded for two-time GG winning catcher Patrick Bailey.

This will have to go down, on the surface, as one of the DUMBEST trades in Guardians history.

The background is this:

1. The Guardians have said repeatedly how valuable Austin Hedges is to this team.  They signed him for $4 million this off-season, a large financial investment for a resource-limited team.  

2. They have THREE catchers on the their ML roster of which Hedges has value but Naylor is a weak ML backup at this point and Fry is, as a catcher, somewhere on the spectrum between emergency only catcher and starts once in a blue moon catcher.  Hedges is having a career offensive year but Naylor has been terrible on offense.

3. In the minors we have Cooper Ingle who the FO says is not ready defensively but looks like a future all-star offensively, They spent a high draft pick on overdrafting Ingle hoping they could turn him into a ML catcher and more than just a slap hitter.  I have watched him for years and right now I think he is somewhere between Fry and Naylor defensively and would be the best offensive catcher in on the team, by far, if they call him up now.

4. Behind Ingle the Guardians have Cody Huff (AAA), a good ML backup-type who can also play a little 1B and Jacob Cozart (AA), another drafted colloverege, defense-first catcher who has yet to hit much in the low minors.

In summary, the Guardians were set with serviceable bodies all the way down to AA.  Not exactly a position of need.

The trade:

The Guardians received Patrick Bailey, a defense-first (aforementioned two time GG catcher) , switch hittng catcher who is hitting .146 this year.

The Guardians traded 

1. Matt Wilkinson, a soft-tossing and seemingly pudgy LHP who was dominating at AA.  In truth, the only way Wilkinson could be a #3 starter in the majors is if he does a Messick and adds 4-5 mph on his fastball and, since he hasn't made any progress in that regard in 2+ years in the organization, I doubt if he can.  That being said, his current arsenal and competitiveness makes his floor AAAA and his likely outcome as a swingman or #5 SP.  

2. A first round pick (#29 overall) in the upcoming draft.

ANALYSIS

This is likely one of the dumbest (and there have been quite a few) trades this FO has made in the last 10 years.  Here are the reasons:

1. Bailey helps our defense but catching was not exactly a black hole on defense in Cleveland or our minor league system.

2. The trade cost us A FIRST ROUND PICK.  This was the highest possible pick that could be traded. It should be noted that trading this pick saved cheapass Dolan likely $3.2+ million doesn't have to spend on a draft pick.  It also seriously damages our flexibility in trying to sign draft picks for overslot value in the upcoming draft.  This is why teams should not be allowed to trade draft picks.

3. This trade does not help our anemic offense at all.  Bailey is hitting .146 in 2026 with a career OPS of .611.  

4. Basically this trade kills any trade value Bo Naylor has.  Not that he has much, but this will prompt conversations with other GMs that go like "Hey, I can take Naylor off your hands for a bag of balls".

5. These leaves no place for Ingle.  Obviously the Guardians value defense at catcher over offense but Ingle can hit.  You COULD say that this makes Ingle an intriguing trade chip but if the GUARDIANS are saying OUT LOUD that Ingle is a long way from being a ML defensive catcher, it is pretty obvious we would be selling low on him right now. So...

6. Bailey catches around 120 games a year.  This leaves very little time for Hedges to impact the game so while we gain on Bailey's defense we lose on Hedges' ability to impact our team.

7. It is not a secret that I waited until point #7 to mention the other piece to the trade, Matt Wilkinson.    Already stated my opinion on Tugboat above and I would have been fine with it being a Wilkinson/Alfonsin Rosario package as the potential is there.  The loss of Wilkinson does not move the needle for me on this trade but his current value and future projection is not chopped liver.  He is a good prospect if not a top 30 prospect for the Guardians. We can spit on his ability based on peripherals but you CANNOT spit on his results and guys with results, like Messick, always have the chance to be coached up.  Guys like Oscar Gonzalez and Anthony Gose, who have inherent skills, cannot always be coached up to have performance.

8. Finally, and I preface this as a possible red herring, the Guardians traded away the chance to spend MILLIONS of dollars to sign international prospects in January and now have traded away the chance to spend over $3 million to sign the #29 pick in the upcoming draft.  So, it could be intuited that the Guardians would rather NOT spend money on signing prospects.  This is why teams should NOT be able to trade prospects before the 11th round so owners can't find creative ways to avoid investing in their team.

So, there it is. One of the least impactful, cheapass, dumbass trades in recent memory by the Guardians.  This trade will do very little to help the Guardians get to or advance n the playoffs now or in the future and it has already damaged the long-term future of the team with loss of draft picks and blocking prospects in the minors. 

The Bazzana Era Begins!

 Some might say it is a move of desperation

Some may say it is about time.

But today begins the Traivis Bazzana era in Cleveland...ready or not!

So what do I expect from Bazzana:

1. Given that he is currently slashing .287/,422/.511/.933 in Columbus, I expect he will slash .260/.340/.440/.780 in Cleveland

2. I expect his K rate to go up 20% and his walk rate to go down 20%. I expect his whiff rate to go up 10% and his chase rate to go up 10%

3. I expect his defense to be halfway between Schneeman and Brito at second base

4. In my most difficult expectation, I expect that if we starts slow his production is likely to crater as he will lose confidence more quickly than the average player although he is more likely to rebound than Brito, JRod, etc. as he will quickly learn that he doesn't have to be successful all the time if surrounded by good players, compared to Australia, college and the minors where he HAD to be the best.

I hope he is the spark we need.  This is quite the gamble by the Guardians as they lose a year of pre-arb control and he can't get them a PPI draft pick, although he may cost them a full year of control like Bibee did in his rookie year.

Finally, I expect this to be an overwhelmingly positive addition to the Guardians 2026 effgort.

2026 Draft - Part 2 - Rounds 2-5 and some late round possibilities

In this second post of this series, I am providing a very early look at guys who I think the Guardians could draft and who I think will be there when they get to all these spots in the first 5 rounds. I have already shifted off my #29 pick and I provide options for their picks in the first 5 rounds.  Again, this is very preliminary and I will have to see these guys play 'live', if possible.  

Update on picks in Round 1

Slot #19 (1st Round)

Saw Hunter Dietz pitch again vs Missouri and he gave up HR-HBP-HR to lead off the game and finished it off with 7 scoreless innings (including the rest of the 1st inning). He showed great flexibility in changing his whole arsenal around after those first 3 batters and looked pretty dominant, albeit against a rebuilding Mizzou lineup.  Still on Dietz as our pick at slot #19

Now Dietz is still my pick here.  However, in recent developments Baseball America has Georgia Tech OFer Drew Burress (#5 prospect on MLB Pipeline) sliding to us at slot 19 and USA Today in their latest mock has Logan Reddeman, RHP UCLA, (#18 on ESPN) slightly falling to us at #19.  I have not seen Reddeman pitch yet and I have not looked at Burress bc I didn't think he would fall to us.  That being said, scouting reports on Reddeman intrigue me and I would be OK with him if Dietz was already taken. Burress would be a great get, being a likely CFer with RH Bazzana-like offensive skills and makeup.  I could easily imagine Bazzana-DeLauter-Burress for years along with Jose, Schnee and Angel.  Still, Groucho Marx once said "I would never want to be part of a club that would have me as a member" so if the #5 prospect in the draft falls to #19 just based on his perceived limitations, do I really want to gamble on him a year after gambling on LaViolette?  For me, its still Dietz with Reddeman in contention if he is still available.

Slot #29 (Comp A)

I am going to move off college pitchers here (unless Dietz falls and I take Reddeman at 19) and hope that a sentimental favorite will still be here. Landon Thome is rated in the 40s and is, of course, Jim Thome's son.  I might have to flip flop Thome and whoever I was planning to take at 29. I obviously have not seen the younger Thome play but once you get in the 40s range HS hitters are less sure things than a top 10 HS hitter would be.  The only thing you really have to go on is pedigree, tools and baseball IQ, all of which Thome apparently has. HS hitters are a risk but I will go with Thome unless I go with Reddeman first and Dietz is still available.  

Possible Picks In Rounds 2-5

Slot #59 (2nd round)

I still like Tegan Kuhn and am sliding him down to this slot because I think he will be there if I go with Thome or Dietz at 29. Ideally, I would get Reddeman, Thome and Dietz but I don't think that is possible so if I only get 2 of the 3 because the 3rd one is gone at this pick, Kuhns is my guy here.

Slot #95 (3rd round)

Continuing my run on overdrafted college pitchers, I saw Missouri's #1 starter, Josh McDevitt RHP Missouri (not listed in the top 200 of most draft prospect lists), pitch against Dietz and #24 Arkansas, including #29 overall draft prospect Ryder Helfrick.  McDevitt loaded the bases on walks in the worst but struck out the side on the way to 6 scoreless innings with a career high 11 Ks.  Despite that first inning he is a strikethrower who uses the FB 70+% which touched 95 along with a slider and an occasional curveball and changeup.  The term 'reliever risk' is thrown around as a derogatory term but in this case I look at this kid and see Cade Smith part deux.  I see him getting up to 97/98 in a relief role if he can't stick at starter, So, after opening with 3 college starting pitchers I am hedging my bets knowing that I have a pretty good chance of getting a leverage RP in McDevitt.

Slot #123 (4th round)

Now we are getting to the range where the Guardans (and me) would be looking for projectable arms and not all of these picks will make sense to us fans as they aren't top 100 ranked guys. That being said, my pick here is Cameron Johnson, LHP, Oklahoma, big bodied guy pitching in a pretty good program.  The stats looked intriguing (only 3 HRs allowed in 84 innings in college/summer ball), he throws 95-97 with the secondary stuff lagging behind, almost all types being get-me-over variety.  I watched him pitch against #11Auburn and he threw 110 pitches of which 100 were fastballs, mostly 95-98.  He had six 3-2 counts so his command needs work as when he missed, it was with intention on backfoot sliders. On those 3-2 counts he got 4 outs and gave up a single and a walk. He is 6'6", 250 pounds and resembles, to me, CC Sabathia early in his career.  In addition to the 110 pitches in the game I saw, he threw 116 earlier in a game against Alabama so that may be a plus (durability and ability to compete when he is tired) or a red flag (overuse injury waiting to happen?).  He was clearly gassed the last inning against Auburn.  Note that even with his size and velocity he is currently not a big strikeout guy, likely because of the lack of secondary stuff.  Warning: this is an extreme overdraft but my recent experience with the draft is that guys who you think should be comfortably available in a particular round are gone 10-20 picks earlier.   

Slot #155 (5th round)

Continuing with college arms, I am picking Tyler Rabe, RHP, Ole Miss with the 5th round pick.  Rabe, 6'5", 200 lbs (some room to add strength) has a great combination of a fastball that sits 97-99 and has only walked SEVEN batters in 56.2 innings at#17 ranked Ole Miss.  He has struck out 47 in 40.1 IP in 2026 against 5 walks. He has given up some loud contact this year (39 hits and 7 HRs so far this season).  When I saw him pitch yesterday against a stacked lineup in #5 ranked Georgia, he had what I would refer to as ineffective secondary stuff early due to poor command and his fastball looked hittable as it looked a little straight, resulting in a HR to dead center. He tired in his 6th inning, resulting in diminished fastball velocity but much better use and command of his off-speed stuff.  He had given up 2 runs in 6 IP on 6 hits at that point, a quality start.  He was allowed to pitch to one batter in the 7th, who doubled, and who the relief pitcher allowed to score. My impression was, in Cleveland's pitching lab, when looking at his FB velocity and his low walk rate, as a 5th round pick from a program that plays advanced competition , this appears a slam dunk pick to me if he is still on the board at that time.  

Late Round Sleepers of the Day

As will be the case with all these posts. Today's pick is: Dylan Johnson,  C, RHH, College of Charleston.  A classic 3rd day pick for the Guardians, I like his bat, his batting eye. His stats  are very comparable to those of Cooper Ingle except that Johnson has been a full-time catcher.  This is the year of the catcher (especially college catchers) in the 2026 MLB draft so a guy like Johnson may fall to the 3rd day where the Guardians like to pluck their college catchers from. 

I am putting in another plug for Judd Utemark,  a RHH UTIL, Ole Miss.  He was on my 3rd day watch list for the 2025 draft due to his position versatility (he was the tallest secondbaseman in DI last year while also having started games at 1B, 3B and all 3 OF spots with some talk about him even being the starting SS this year).  He has a long swing but shows a decent contact rate and eye at the plate.  When I saw him on Sunday his bat speed and foot speed impressed me as he hit a 2-strike, 108 mph ground ball to the SS that was turned into a DP on a great turn at 2B and they STILL only beat Utemark, a RHH, by an eyelash at 1B. Utemark was among the NCAA D1 leaders with 22 HRs in 2025 and already has 17 in his senior year in 2026.  Definitely fits Cleveland's versatility profile and, as a RHH, he balances out the handedness profile of Cleveland's OF/1B power hitting prospects. As a college senior I could see him sneaking into the end of day 2 or early in day 3 of the draft.  I could even see them trying to redo their David Fry conversion and try adding catcher to his versatility.

Summary/Disclaimer

As I said in my previous post, these are very early projections of who will be available, how I think the Guardians should structure this draft (mostly college pitchers) and who is pitching well right now.  I haven't had a chance to see all of these guys yet and it is clear from my description the guys I have seen and not seen yet.

More to come in future weeks.  Stay tuned.

Thoughts for a Monday: Angst Over The Season So Far and Our Complicated Roster Crunch

I Thought Watching Baseball Was Supposed To Be Relaxing!

In 2020 the Browns were playing away against Pittsburgh in the wild card round. As I am sure you all remember, the Browns scored first, and then again. We're a few minutes into the game and we're up 14-0 and I remember saying to myself 'This is not enough, we need a bigger lead'. Well, as fate had it, the Browns found away to run that lead to 28-0 before the Steelers scored.  The final score of the game, 48-37, showed it was two games: The opening quarter plus was 28-0 Browns.  The remainder of the game was 37-10 Pittsburgh, a score that was within what some 'experts' were saying the entire game would look like.

So, forgive me if I angst over losing Tuesday to St. Louis after having a 4-1 lead on a terrible error by Brito AND losing on Friday after holding a 4-0 lead entering the 8th inning on a complete collapse by the bullpen in the 8th.  We are 13-10 and that is at the top of what I could have, with a straight face, predicted our record would be when I looked at the schedule before the season. So I should be happy, right? Well, I remember that Steelers game, I remember the Tigers in 2025 and I remember 2024 when we built a big lead which allowed the team to relax down the stretch and hold that lead.  

Bad loses early are just the same in the standings as one run loses where the team played well and  I also remember the saying that teams are guaranteed to win 60 and lose 60, with the other 42 determining the success of their season.

Still, I HATE early season bad losses as you can't get those games back.  13-10 is good but 15-8 at this point would be outstanding.

Roster Crunch Stuff

Juan Brito needs to go.  David Fry needs to be sent to Columbus.  Matt Festa and Connor Brogdon need to be off the roster.  Travis Bazzana and/or Milan Tolentino need to be called up TODAY. Walters, Espino and Aleman need to be called up to bolster the bullpen and the AAAA guys Festa and Brogdon need to be sent to Columbus. Cooper Ingle needs to be called up and Bo Naylor sent down for a reset

All those things sound nice at this moment, right?  

Unfortunately, things are not that simple. Here are some reasons why:

- Our 40 man roster is full

- We have no one (thankfully) to put on the 60-day IL to create a roster spot.

- The only obvious guys to DFA are Colin Holderman and Codi Heuer, but the former would be owed his entire salary.  Both are bullpen depth.

- The rest of the 40-man is full of prospects and guys in the majors.  There is no fluff

So, while sending Brito down and bringing up Tolentino or Bazzana sounds good, we would have to DFA someone to do it as neither Tolentino or Bazzana are on the 40-man and would have to be added to be called up.  Ditto for Ingle if he was called up and Naylor was sent down. Plus adding Ingle would give us FOUR ML level catchers on our 40-man which is probably not a good use of 40-man roster spaces.

While sending down Festa and/or Brogdon sounds good, neither has an option left meaning we would have to DFA them to take them off the major league roster, likely lessening our bullpen depth available to call up from Columbus in case of an emergency.

Plus Brito and Fry are RH bats and our minors are, by design I think, filled with mostly LHH.  So sending these guys out would make our active roster even MORE LH.

So switching the roster around sounds good, especially to me as a prospect geek.  But essentially almost all of our off-season plans would be trashed with the season less than one month into this season.  And right after we lost prospects to bring in these AAAA pitchers we are now jettisoning (still ticked off we lost JRod and Nikhazy for Holderman and Brogdon). 

So, while people think these are good roster moves, probably it is not a good look if you blow up a roster built on some stupid, off-season free agent decisions. It also is not a good look to send down more young guys after we promised to give those guys enough runway to prove themselves, something we have already went back on (Kayfus demotion).

2026 Draft - Part 1 - Early Season Impressions

 OK, it's time to start thinking about the draft.  This year I plan to organize my thoughts by highlighting guys I think will be available at each of the Guardians draft slots.

Let's first talk about the dates.  The first night of the draft will be July 11th and will include all picks (38) before the second round.  The Guardians will pick twice, at #19 (regular 1st round pick) and #29 (Comp Round A pick). The second day of the draft (July 12th) will be rounds 2-10, the rounds that have bonus slot values above the minimum.  These rounds, along with round 1, determine how much money teams likely will have to spend to offer overslot bonuses on 3rd day picks. The 3rd day of the draft, (July 13th) will include rounds 11-20, similar to what 2024 included but different than 2025, which was only a 2 day draft.  Round 11 becomes a key moment in the draft as many teams will know how much money they have left to spend, what stud prospects are still available and what it will cost to sign them, if they want to be signed.  This was not the case in 2025 where they shortened the draft to 2 days, which created issues for teams trying to budget for late round flyers who would require overslot bonuses to sign. 

From the Guardians perspective (no pun intended) the draft looks pretty open.  There seems to be a lot of strength at the very top, say the top 5 picks will have superstar potential and then, after that, it looks like it could be teams liking who they like.  By that I mean that this year's rankings may go out the window at draft time with a lot of lower ranked players being selected higher than normal.  While that, of course, happens every year, I think this year will be extreme with maybe only 15 top 38 ranked players being selected on day 1, with the other 23 selections being ranked anywhere from 10 to 40 places below where they are selected.  

So, what do I think the Guardians should do? In 2021 the Guardians selected mainly college pitchers. Whether that was by design or just how the draft worked I, that I don't know. Position players they selected (Koxx and Fox) and high school pitchers (Ventimiglia) have not done well.  Of the 18 college pitchers they selected, 15 of them are still in our system, most at AAA and AA.  Most probably won't make the majors or at least won't have long major league careers but the point is not that.  It is that the Guardians did a great job of drafting and developing the college pitchers they selected, starting with Williams and Bibee and maybe, eventually, including Aleman and even, eventually, Aleman, Davenport )inured now), Denholm, Webb, Dion and maybe Abney and other middle relievers. 

The 2021 draft worked so well to infuse quality pitching prospects into their system and the system seems, in 2026, to be thin in terms of pitching prospects as the emphasis in 2022 to 2025 was to infuse position player prospects.  I think this year the Guardians should have another college pitcher draft.  They might have done this last year but essentially every college pitcher that was on their radar for the first 4 rounds was gone before they selected in that round.  They would have had to overdraft college pitchers with middling stuff and chose to go a different direction, over drafting questionable college position players and HS pitchers early, leading to my grade of C- for their draft.

They need to correct that this time around. This might require some overdrafting and going for more solid prospects rather than brass ring guys, saving money for HS flyers and maybe some college sophomores in later rounds.  However, with the approach of slightly overdrafting college pitchers who will almost assuredly be available, I think they stand a better chance of getting the players they put the most scouting hours into.

So let's dive in, looking at round 1 today, as a bonus, give my first mention of a potential 3rd day pick..

Round 1 (slot 19) - Hunter Dietz. LHP, Arkansas

Right now Dietz is rated 35th by MLP Pipeline, 25th by ESPN and 85th by Perfect Game. He is a classic Friday night starter at a good college, with good stuff and projectability. I see him as a Bieber-type of pitcher in the right organization.  He does have an injury history and hasn't thrown much before this year so I don't think he will jump high enough in teams rating to be gone by pick 19, even if he continues to pitch well the rest of this season.  His fastball sat 95 MPH when I saw him this spring and his breaking stuff looked sharp.  

Round 1 CB-A (slot #29) - RHP Tegan Kuhns

This is where it gets dicey as teams may see the value of Kuhns, a draft-eligible sophomore, based on his improvement this year.  He has a history of control problems but, so far this year, Kuhns, currently ranked 43 by MLB Pipeline, 24th by Perfect Game and 77th by ESPN, has only walked 10 and struck out 64 in 51 innings.  I think the combination of leverage from his sophomore status and lingering questions about his control might make him available at that spot.

My backups, should Kuhns be taken, would be LHP Cole Carlon, or LHP Shane Sdao, although I think Sdao is likely to be available in the 3rd or even 4th round, given how his season is going.

SUMMARY - These two pitchers would fill a need within the organization as far as quality college arms who can come fast.  Neither are sexy or the type of brass ring picks that fans like.  However, after looking at last year's draft, it is clear to me that we should aim low and heavily scout guys we are comfortable will be there and I think these two guys will be.

Third Day Pick Possibility - Mark Quatrani C Notre Dame

As a preamble, I identified Boston Smith, a catcher from Dayton, as a potential 3rd day pick for the Guardians last year and Washington actually selected him on the second day (6th round) and then traded him this winter to Tampa Bay.  So, I have at least a little history of success in identifying hidden gems among senior college catchers.

I have seen Quatrani twice this spring. He is a senior transfer from Cornell and Notre Dame's primary catcher.  He is currently hitting .343 with 11 HR 15 BB and 30 K in 134 AB with his swing and miss being exposed by hard stuff inside.  However, I saw him hit a 460 foot homerun vs North Caroline and all that is enough for me to make him my 11th or 12th round picks.  I think he stands a good chance to be significantly better than Boston Smith (a 6th orund pick in 2025) and Bennett Thompson (our 13th round pick in 2024).  The Guardians put a lot of emphasis on good game calling and catching skills in their 3rd day college catchers as organizational catchers appear to be crucial to them in developing their pitching prospects.  Still, you get a catcher who can hit AND hit for power who will be available on day 3, you should jump on him as your 2026 3rd day college catcher.

So, this is my first foray into the 2026 draft as it applies to the Guardians.  Over the next three months I will be posting other articles about the draft.  

Minor League Previews: Columbus Clippers

 It's opening night in the minor leagues and the Columbus Clippers will have good enough weather in Des Moines (not always a given in March) to play the Iowa Cubs.  In fact, weather this entire 3 game series will trend upward.  

So, let's take a look at the opening day roster for the Clippers:

Hitters - In short, they currently have 11 hitters on their roster. I think this number may increase over the weekend but right now, with 3 of those 11 being catchers, I think you'll see everyone play a lot and the catchers who are not catching that day may play 1B or DH. A probable lineup looks like:

C - Ingle

1B - Brito

2B - Bazzana

SS - Tolentino

3B - Frias

LF - Halpin

CF - Watson

RF - Fairchild

DH - Jones

Bench: Huff, Nunez

There is no AAAA filler in this lineup outside of Fairchild and even he is interesting. The lineup begins and ends with Bazzana but I could see that Bazzana and maybe 6 other guys among the hitters could play in the major leagues this year.  However, as long as this hitter list remains this thin, these guys will get a lot of runway, so to speak which is exciting since the fewer AAAA guys the better for me

Pitchers - Unlike the hitters, there is an excess of pitchers with that number likely being thinned by injury.

The Bazzana of the pitchers is clearly Daniel Espino as he is the pitcher to watch here.  The rotation will likely be guys who were SP at either Columbus or Akron last year, with Logan Allen (if he isn't called up replace Tanner Bibee), Webb, Dion, Yorman Gomez, Tommy Mace and even Rorik Maltrud being candidates.  Given how pitchers get hurt, guys like Webb, Gomez and Dion might see major league time this year.  Among the relievers there are some interesting names, many of whom had cameos in ML spring training this year and, while not considered top prospects, might see ML time this year as fungible assets.  That is, guys who we wouldn't be afraid to lose if we had to DFA them to clear a ML roster spot.  If just 1-2 of those relievers leap forward this year it will be a big boost to the ML bullpen depth during the season.

Summary

All-in-all, this will be a very interesting set of hitters to watch during the year and, knowing how injuries happen a lot to pitchers, which guys will step forward if a need is felt on the ML team. If you are looking at W-L record, this team could go either way as there are lots of pitchers with a lot of experience and a lot of hitters who might shine.   That combination could, possibly, be a real winning one at AAA.