The season is over for the Cleveland Guardians.
After winning 92 games during the regular season, securing their first AL Central title since 2018, and eliminating the Tampa Bay Rays in the Wild Card Series, the Guardians bowed out in the ALDS, falling in five games to the 99-win New York Yankees.
After the game, manager Terry Francona commented on the team’s future, saying that this season can’t just go down as a great story, but rather, be a building block for the future.
Francona also went on to say that he believes the Guardians can build off of 2022 and that it could be a starting point for a special era in Cleveland.
Terry Francona: "This needs to be a starting place for us. This can't just be a good story this year. We need to take this and go, because I think we have a chance to have something really special."
— Zack Meisel (@ZackMeisel) October 19, 2022
How The Guardians Can Build Off 2022
Preseason projections were not kind to the Guardians.
After the Chicago White Sox won the AL Central in 2021 with 93 wins and the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers had busy offseasons, the Guardians were not expected to do much in 2022.
All they did was assemble a solid young core of players to surround Shane Bieber and Jose Ramirez that helped carry them to the postseason for the fifth time in the last seven seasons.
The emergence of Steven Kwan, Triston McKenzie, Andres Gimenez, and Emmanuel Clase gave the team the boost it needed early in the season.
The Guardians battled it out with the Twins and White Sox for much of the season, but after the trade deadline, Cleveland took off and ran away with the AL Central title.
But despite losing in the ALDS, the Guardians appear to have a bright future.
This team could very easily build off of their 92-70 finish and potentially take some steps to improve this offseason.
NEXT: Guardians Ace Shares A Message On His 2022 Season