Cleveland Guardians players who are in town for Guards Fest will participate in community events on Friday. From 1 p.m. – 2 p.m., Steven Kwan and Triston McKenzie will hold a True2U in-person visit with the Valley View Boys’ Leadership Academy in Cleveland.

Spring Training seems so far away, but in reality, it's just a couple of months until the Guardians take the field for the first time in 2023. That said, Cleveland has begun to invite more players to come down with the team in March. They invited a pair of pitchers to camp about a week and a half ago and invited a few more players on Wednesday. Cam Gallagher Cam Gallagher was drafted in the second round of the 2011 MLB Draft. He served as a backup catcher for the Kansas City Royals since 2017 and has a career batting average of .240 with an OBP of .267. It's no surprise the Guardians would want to bring in another catcher with some questions still remaining at that position. The organization is very high on Bo Naylor, but it's impossible to know exactly what they have until he gets consistent reps. They also signed Mike Zunino to a one-year deal but he is coming off a 2022 season full of injuries. It's never bad to have depth at the catcher position and Gallagher could fulfill that. Michael Kelly A team can never have too much pitching and Cleveland has a history of finding diamonds in the rough in this department. Could Michael Kelly turn out to be the next name on this list? Kelly pitched in four games for the Phillies in 2022 posting an ERA of 2.25. In that short time, he did have four strikeouts. Touki Toussaint Another pitcher that the Guardians invited to Spring Training is righty Touki Toussaint. He's pitched in the Big Leagues since 2018. Four of those seasons were with the Braves and last season he spent the year with the Angeles. Toussaint has a career ERA of 5.34 which doesn't immediately jump out as impressive. However, he is coming off 2022 where he had his lowest career opponent average of .176. Romain Quinn The Guardians have an incredibly deep outfield, however, it's also still very young. Bringing in a veteran such as Romain Quinn to help guide players through Spring Training and into the regular season can never hurt. Perhaps he could even fight for a roster spot too. Quinn played in 21 games for the Rays last season and slashed .262/.340/.405 with an OPS of .745.

My first full-time job in journalism was at The Vindicator in Youngstown, a city where I once saw a man at the grocery store buying just two things: a ball of mozzarella cheese and a package of "Just For Men" gel.

The Green Bay Packers took on the Tennessee Titans on Thursday Night Football, where their struggles continued in a 27-17 loss . The broadcast for the game featured an interesting alternate cast featuring LeBron James’ show, " The Shop ". Some comments he made regarding the Packers and Aaron Rodgers have gone viral for all the wrong reasons. James and his crew discussed Green Bay’s struggles thus far this season, and criticized the Packers for their unwillingness to surround Rodgers with talent offensively.

Heading to Progressive Field? There's a change to the ballpark's bag policy that you need to know. The Cleveland Guardians announced Wednesday that small bags will once again be permitted inside Progressive Field during the 2022 season. "Due to fan feedback, Progressive Field is returning to the bag policy it implemented during the 2019 season," the Cleveland Guardians said in a statement.

At the onset of the White Sox' managerial search process, GM Rick Hahn said, "having that history with the White Sox is not necessarily a characteristic that we're looking for this time." Of course, that excluded bench coach Miguel Cairo, who earned a look for the job after his performance as acting manager during Tony La Russa's health-related absence. The Sox also interviewed former manager Ozzie Guillén. Source

If you’ve been holding out on calling the Guardians "in a funk" you can probably stop now. Just call it what it is — they’re bad right now. One game, one big inning, could turn that around in an instant. But until it does, they are a rough team to watch at the plate every night. This 3-0 loss to the Orioles is their fifth in their last seven games, and it’s the third time they have been shut out in their last four contests. Tonight was especially grim because they managed just two hits off of rookie starter Kyle Bradish and ... nothing else. That was it. A few walks were sprinkled about, but the Guardians offense was mowed down in 1-2-3 fashion four times and did not look competitive at any point. The hardest hit ball from the Guardians came from Amed Rosario — a 100.4 mph groundout. Maybe there are a few games that I’ve intentionally blanked out of my memory, but I can’t remember the last time the 2022 Guardians felt so defeated for the entire game.

Trying to hang on to their slim lead in the American League Central, the Cleveland Guardians lost two starting pitchers to injury on Friday. Both Zach Plesac (broken hand) and Aaron Civale (forearm inflammation) were placed on the 15-day injured list before Cleveland, which leads Minnesota by just one game, opened a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners. It's hardly ideal for a young team in the middle of a pennant race. Plesac was supposed to start Friday's opener, but the right-hander was scratched about four hours before the scheduled first pitch. Rookie Cody Morris will make his major league debut against the Mariners.

Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona admitted that "physically, it's getting hard" to remain an active participant in the dugout, and he is expected to reach a resolution with the organization about his future soon. The 63-year-old Francona missed time in 2020 and 2021 with multiple physical issues that required multiple surgeries. "I want to enjoy what I'm doing. It's getting harder to do that, just because physically it's harder. I just want to be careful. And at the same time, I want to be fair to the team," Francona told Ken Rosenthal. Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti indicated the team will have Francona as long as he wants to manage, though they will not pressure him into returning.

There's a change to the ballpark's bag policy that you need to know. The Cleveland Guardians announced Wednesday that small bags will once again be permitted inside Progressive Field during the 2022 season. "Due to fan feedback, Progressive Field is returning to the bag policy it implemented during the 2019 season," the Cleveland Guardians said in a statement.