Which Cleveland Guardians players are ready to break out?

The Cleveland Guardians may see Josh Naylor and Hunter Gaddis ready to take the next steps.

We are one week away from the start of the Major League season. The Cleveland Guardians will likely pair down their 26-man roster any day now, and solidify who the Opening Day roster will include. For those who haven’t been keeping an eye on Spring Training, some of the names may be surprises. To be fair, even if you’ve been paying attention, there are likely to be some anyway, but the roster is mostly set regardless.

Yet, what Spring Training has done is shown us who may be ready to take the next step. This isn’t always the case, as Spring Training is just that, training. It’s aggressive practices, designed to work on fundamentals and situational play, but it can also be a glimpse at what may come next.

It shouldn’t be used as the end all be all for hype or despair, but after watching two Guardians specifically, there are two guys who may be ready to take the next steps. Those two are slugger Josh Naylor and pitcher Hunter Gaddis.

Josh Naylor and Hunter Gaddis could be huge for the Cleveland Guardians in 2023

Naylor has long been a guy the club and fandom have had high hopes for, but due to a devastating lower-leg injury in 2021, his development has been halted some. Well, fully healed and back into the swing of things (pun intended), Naylor looks like he’s about to break out in 2023.

Through 41 at-bats, Naylor has hit .341, with two home runs, and nine RIBs, while racking up an impressive OPS of .937. He’s someone with a lot of power and may in fact be able to back up Jose Ramirez and Josh Bell in the lineup at this rate.

Gaddis, who saw limited action in 2022, has been on fire all Spring Training. His second start was on March 20, where he struck out six batters in just 3 and 2/3 innings. For the entire spring training, he’s seen 13 innings of action in five games and has struck out 17 hitters so far.

The Guardians are pretty set across the starting five and the bullpen but Gaddis may make the trade of someone like Zach Plesac far more likely. Especially with how up and down Plesac has looked in spring training.