CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Guardians may have seen their season end sooner than they hoped, but with a young roster that has shown so much promise, the sky may be the limit as the team starts looking to the future.
Manager Terry Francona has preached to the team the importance of enjoying what they accomplished this season—making the postseason and winning a Wild Card series against the Rays before playing strong in the ALDS against the New York Yankees—while not letting this be the end of an incredible story.
"I think they took a lot of pride in playing the game correctly. And for that, me and the coaches, Chris [Antonetti], Cherny [Mike Chernoff], we were really proud of them. We didn't hit the ball out of the ballpark very much, so for us to win, we had to get on base, create some havoc, while also trying to be intelligent, catch the ball defensively and pitch," Francona said. "But I pointed out to them the other day that this needs to be a jumping off point for us, not a feel good story. And we need to take this and get better. And with this group, it won't surprise me if they take that to heart."
With guys like Oscar González, Triston McKenzie and Steven Kwan all coming into their own this year, the Guradians have plenty to be excited about.
For president Chris Antonetti, that excitement starts with what they accomplished on the field and extends to where they see their talent going from here.
"It is really exciting as we look forward. The experiences that our players gained this year by going through a lot of things for the first time, many of which started with a major league debut and ended with with playing postseason games in Yankee Stadium—there are a lot of experiences along the way that each of those players could benefit from now. The important thing is, as Tito said, that we build from here and that there's not a sense of complacency with individuals, with the team, with the organization, and that we continue to work to improve, to get better," Antonetti said. "I know Tito, myself, our front office, our coaching staff are really excited and we've already laid the foundation with a number of players to take advantage of the time we have in the offseason to accelerate their development."
Part of getting better for the Guardians means growing their game. Francona believes that power at the plate, which is something that Guardians didn't have the most of this year, can be developed within the players in the organization organically, noting that contact in the big leagues should always come first, then you can work in power. With a team that won games all year by playing small ball and making contact and being smart on the bases, learning power could soon follow.
But even so, Antonetti knows part of his job is seeing what other talent they can bring in. The work in that regard has already started, he said.
"We have a young, healthy, deep and mature farm system that hopefully can help us contribute at the major league level, gives us the opportunity to examine trades and we have some financial flexibility," Antonetti said. "So you put all of those things together and it gives us a great opportunity as we head into the offseason to build what we believe will be a really competitive team next year."
And as for the guys who became stars this season, particularly Kwan, the Guardians see them continuing to grow at a pace that should excite the fans and make them hopeful for an even better 2023 season.
"I'm not sure we've seen Kwans' ceiling, as exciting as that is. Same with Giménez. I mean, they've all proven that they can be really good everyday Major League players, but we still think there's some growth," Francona said. "Stephen Kwan is a leader in the making. This kid does everything he checks all the—you want to put him in your pocket to take him home."
And that sentiment goes for the remainder of the roster, who have all learned very valuable lessons this year that should help them in their development for years to come.
"They're great kids. They compete. They want to get better. They allow us to coach and we think they're going to get better," Francona said.
Camryn Justice is a reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on Twitter @camijustice.
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