The Cleveland Guardians are one of the most exciting teams in MLB at the moment.
The definition of exciting can be broad, but here are two attributes that contribute to that concept: talent and youth.
You may or may not like the Guardians and their organizational philosophy, but you can’t deny they are both talented and young.
A team with no talent can’t win 92 games, take its division by an 11-game margin, and win a playoff series aganist the Tampa Bay Rays.
An organization can’t luck into those things while also having enough good fortune to produce a myriad of useful major leaguers in a span of a couple of years.
Oscar Gonzalez, Andres Gimenez, Amed Rosario, Steven Kwan, Triston McKenzie, Owen Miller, Josh Naylor, and other impact players surged within the last two or three years.
Some of them were acquired via trade, others were drafted, and others products of the international market.
The organization spotted their talent, trained and coached them, and the results are evident.
Do you want more?
Because there is more.
In addition to all those names, the Guards have more on the way.
They are masters of scouting and player development, so they had seven names in Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list published on Wednesday.
“The Guardians have seven prospects on Baseball America’s new Top 100 list. Only the Orioles (8) have more. 19. SP Daniel Espino; 20. SP Gavin Williams; 68. C Bo Naylor; 72. OF George Valera; 77. SS Brayan Rocchio; 85. SP Logan Allen; 86. SP Tanner Bibee,” Guardians insider Zack Meisel tweeted.
The Guardians have seven prospects on Baseball America's new Top 100 list. Only the Orioles (8) have more.
19. SP Daniel Espino
20. SP Gavin Williams
68. C Bo Naylor
72. OF George Valera
77. SS Brayan Rocchio
85. SP Logan Allen
86. SP Tanner Bibee— Zack Meisel (@ZackMeisel) January 18, 2023
Cleveland has enough pitchers and middle infield prospects to feed a couple of MLB teams!
More importantly, they have some much-needed power on the way: Bo Naylor is, according to some, better than his brother Josh, and Valera has easy 25-homer power.
Some of these are ready to help in the majors, and others need a little more time.
They are all supremely talented, and their presence and recent development speaks volumes about the Guardians’ player development staff.
