3 Things Guardians Fans Need to Know About New Prospect Kyle Manzardo

2. Manzardo Can Swing a Bat

Manzardo burst onto the scene when he absolutely dominated at the dish in High-A to start the 2022 season. Then 21-turning-22-years-old, Manzardo slashed .329/.436/.636, racking up 17 home runs, 54 runs and 55 RBI across 63 games. His walk rate (16.4%) also basically matched his strikeout rate (16.7%).

Things didn’t fall off too much when he moved up to Double-A either, slashing .323/.402/.576 across 30 games. Not too shabby for a 22-year-old.

As you'd expect, he's having a harder time with Triple-A pitching but it’s not like he’s been any kind of a slouch, either. Hitting for a triple-slash of .238/.342/.442 with 11 homers, 33 runs and 38 RBI across 73 games still shows plenty of promise, especially with his walk rate remaining strong at 13.4%.

That low average and his 20.8% strikeout rate suggest that we're probably looking at 2024 before he finds his way into the Guardians lineup (and maybe 2025 by the time we see a true breakout, but there's more than enough encouraging signs to point to him becoming a legit offensive contributor in Cleveland.