Opening Day preview guide for the Cleveland Guardians’ 2023 season
By Chad Porto
Defense
The Cleveland Guardians’ defense is going to be fantastic this year, barring any unexpected collapses or decline in range. The team has some great defenders this year, boasting four Gold Glover winners from the 2022 season alone. Shane Bieber, Andrés Gimenez, Steven Kwan and
Myles Straw all come into the 2023 season looking to repeat as Gold Glovers.
As far as position by position goes, there are some concerns, but this is mostly a solid unit. Looking at catcher, Zunino will get 100 starts at least, if he’s healthy and hitting well. In 2021, he was ranked 8th in defensive runs preserved for catchers, just a bit higher than Austin Hedges, a universally agreed upon “good defender” at his position. So Zunino, barring injuries, should be able to hold the position down. If not, Cam Gallagher has shown some real cleverness behind the plate. In 2021, Gallagher was 24th in the same category (38th in 2022). Meibrys Viloria was 34th in 2022. So the Guardians have three solid defensive catchers.
At first, no one should expect anything good defensively. Josh Bell was the worst defensive first basemen in DRP (#184) with a -3.7. Naylor wasn’t much better, pulling in a -0.7 (#169). Former Guardians infielder, Owen Miller had +1.8 (#4th).
We already know how good Andres Gimenez is, so there’s no reason to dive any deeper than that. He’s a Top 10 defender at his position, and right now maybe the best defensive second baseman in the league. As for Amed Rosario, he’s fine defensively, but he won’t win you any Gold Gloves or make your defense elite.
Defensively, Captain Guardian himself, Jose Ramirez, is a middle-of-the-road defensive starter and could pull a Gold Glove season out of his bag of tricks if he has a good enough year, but he isn’t a consistent Gold Glove-caliber player.
We already know our outfielder starters are top-notch, as Kwan and Straw won Gold Gloves last year for a reason. What Oscar Gonzalez will bring to the table is unknown. Same with utility guys Gabriel Arias and Will Brennan. Both may be great defensively or may struggle. They may just be good enough. Who knows?