News and Notes: Injured Guardians Making Progress

The Guardians provided updates on their injured players, with Bieber and McKenzie long tossing and working their way toward throwing bullpens, Josh Naylor starting to swing, and David Fry at about 85% coming back from a hamstring strain. Cal Quantrill was throttled in his last rehab appearance, but his velocity was apparently good and he feels like he’s at the start of Spring Training. Seeing all of these familiar faces back would make for a happier ending to a disappointing season.

The Guardians also exchanged Zack Collins for old friend Eric Haase who had been recently designated for assignment by the Tigers. The Tigers opted to add Carson Kelly over keeping Haase, which surprised some of their fans, but makes sense in terms of player ceiling. The thirty year-old Haase has a career 84 wRC+ but has not been a particularly good defensive catcher. Oddly enough, in 2023, he has been above average in Defensive Runs Saved and Framing Runs but it’s been his worse year yet at the plate. I’d assume he’s just around until Fry and Gallagher return, but we will see.

The Guardians Arizona Complex League team got rained out, but I was following the box score and saw Kyle Manzardo was 2 for 3 with a double before the rain came. Hopefully, he finds his way to Columbus before long.

In other Guardians-related news, the 2023 American League Central is historically bad.

The Guardians open a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers are a good team, the Guardians are not. We will see how this goes, but let’s hope for the best.

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