The Cleveland Guardians are viewed as a bottom-half team in MLB heading into the 2026 season.
The Cleveland Guardians managed to win the American League Central in 2025 and punched their ticket to the playoffs with an objectively flawed roster. The pitching, both the rotation and bullpen, did wonders down the stretch, carrying the lineup to 88 regular-season wins.
However, all of that is in the past; it’s time for the Guardians to look ahead to 2026 and focus on how they stack up against the rest of the division, American League, and baseball as a whole.
MLB.com released its first edition of the 2026 power rankings on Friday, and Cleveland came in at No. 21 on the list.
“It has been a little forgotten that it’s the Guardians, in fact, who are the defending AL Central champions. (A Wild Card Series loss will do that.) The Guardians are running it back this year, and hopefully they won’t need a historic comeback to win the division this time, wrote analyst Will Leitch.
For reference, according to the power rankings, Cleveland is ranked third in the Central, with the Kansas City Royals (No. 16) and Detroit Tigers (No. 12) ahead of them. The Minnesota Twins (No. 24) and Chicago White Sox (No. 26) are still viewed as behind the Guardians.
Is being ranked as a bottom-ten team in baseball, fresh off winning back-to-back division titles, while no other teams in the Central have made meaningful upgrades, a little harsh? Perhaps, but there’s still a clear issue with Cleveland’s roster that the Guardians have yet to fix: the lineup.
In the analysts’ defense, it’s hard to view a team that finished with the second-worst OPS (.669) and the third-fewest runs scored (643) in MLB as a legitimate postseason contender right now, no matter how good Cleveland’s pitching staff is.
The young trio of Chase DeLauter, George Valera, and C.J. Kayfus, and the eventual debuts of Travis Bazzana and Juan Brito should improve the offense. However, how quickly they can actually help Cleveland’s offensive numbers remains to be seen.
Until then, the Guardians being ranked as the 21st-best team in MLB is probably about the right spot for the roster, given what we know about the team.
Category: General Sports
