CLEVELAND — How young is the Cleveland Guardians team that will arrive in New York for Game 1 of a division series on Tuesday night? Don’t be surprised if their hitters are carded on the way to the Yankee Stadium batter’s box.
The Guardians used 17 rookies this year, equaling the club record for rookie debuts set in 1912 and matched in 1914. This year’s Guardians also set a major league record for most rookies on a division- or league-winning team, breaking the previous mark of 15, which had been held by the 2014 Detroit Tigers.
By average age, this Cleveland team is the youngest team in the majors and, in many respects, it isn’t even close. The average age of Cleveland’s batters is 25.9, more than a year younger than the next-closest team, Kansas City (27.1). The average age of Guardians pitchers is 26.3, exactly one full year younger than that of Kansas City and Pittsburgh (27.3).
In fact, both ages were younger than the average this summer in Class AAA, where batters averaged 26.5 years and pitchers 27.1.
Rarely has such an extreme investment in young players paid off so handsomely.
“The whole year has felt a little different because every time we go through something, it’s kind of for the first time,” said Terry Francona, a manager in the major leagues for 22 years. “It hasn’t held us back. But when you’re a veteran player and you go through a tough time, you have something to fall back on. These guys have kind of been doing it as they’re learning. They’ve been doing a pretty good job of it.”
Francona and his staff began laying the foundation early this spring when it became apparent that the roster was going to skew young.
“It has been exceptional to watch these guys play like veterans,” General Manager Mike Chernoff said. “They don’t play like a young team. And I attribute that all to Tito,” he said, referring to Francona. “Tito sets the standard.”
Francona made it a point to talk to the veteran slugger José Ramírez and shortstop Amed Rosario at the beginning of the year, Chernoff said, “and he told them: ‘If I’m going to hold all these young guys to this standard, I need you to hold yourself to that standard first and run out every ball and back up bases.’ José almost walked out of the office because that’s just how he plays. He just said, ‘Tito, I got it.’
“From that day on, those guys set the example and everybody just follows it.”
Right fielder Oscar Gonzalez’s walk-up music is the theme to “SpongeBob SquarePants.” Not once in a while. Every time. Gonzalez, the hero of Saturday’s game when he swatted a walk-off homer in the 15th inning, has a baby face to go along with his choice of music, which he says he uses because children love the song and baseball is a children’s game. To hear Progressive Field’s near-capacity crowd of 34,971 yell the “SpongeBob” chorus Saturday was sublime.
The team’s leadoff man, Steven Kwan, started a team chess club early this season. Then he finished the summer hitting .298, the highest batting average for a Cleveland rookie since Larry Doby in 1948. Kwan also collected the most hits (168) by a Cleveland rookie since Hal Trosky in 1934 (206).
Second baseman Andrés Giménez became the youngest Cleveland player to start an All-Star Game since Bob Feller in 1941 (22 years 248 days old). Then, Giménez, who turned 24 on Sept. 4, proved it was no fluke by ranking behind only the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani in Baseball Reference’s version of wins above replacement this season.
The All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase became the youngest player in club history to record a postseason save in Friday’s playoff opener against Tampa Bay at 24 years 203 days old.
The designated hitter Saturday, Will Brennan, made his major league debut Sept. 21 after leading minor league baseball with 166 hits this summer.
The Guardians did envision the youth part of this team last winter even if they couldn’t have imagined the surprising success.
“We knew we wanted to create opportunity for young players,” Chernoff said. “We felt that was where our team was. We had 80 wins last year, and we had a lot of talent in the system.”
So as they moved forward, the staff faced some challenging decisions.
“Do you supplement the team with a one-year free agent here and make a trade at the deadline?” Chernoff said. “Or do you let the young players play and see how it turns out? We opted for the latter, and you’ve seen some guys have real breakout seasons, whether it’s Steven Kwan, Giménez, Emmanuel Clase, they’ve really stepped forward and done exceptional jobs.”
Chernoff and Chris Antonetti, the team’s president for baseball operations, together with top special assistants like Steve Lubratich, Dave Malpass and Tom Wiedenbauer and assorted scouts, don’t mine only for talent, but also for players who will contribute to the culture of the team.
“We’re not just focused on developing baseball skills, we’re focused on developing good people who make good decisions out on the field and who can eventually be leaders,” Chernoff said.
Largely because they’ve adjusted their game to their roster, the Guardians play an aggressive, throwback style of baseball. They hit the second-fewest home runs in the majors this year but ranked third in steals with 119. They put the ball in play, leading the majors with an 80.8 percent contact rate, while striking out fewer times than any other team. They take extra bases and hit-and-run as well as anyone. They will bunt as necessary. They celebrate the sacrifice fly.
And they smile all the while. Kwan, Cleveland’s fifth-round pick out of Oregon State in 2018, said in some ways it reminded him of college ball.
“It might be a little cheesy, but first off it’s how we pull for each other,” Kwan said. “When I was in the minors, I heard major league ball can be really selfish, that you have to look out for yourself because it’s a business first, then baseball. But here it doesn’t feel like that. We really pull for each other. We want each one of us to succeed.”
As he did at the beginning of the season, Francona gathered the team for a talk just before the playoffs started, too.
“We said, like the season where there’s ups and downs and ebbs and flows, there will be that in a short series,” Francona said after the 1-0 clincher over the Rays on Saturday. “So just keep grinding. Keep playing. And they did a really good job of that. Because there was a lot of frustration on both sides. Nobody was scoring.”
In fact, before sweeping the Rays in their wild-card series, the Guardians had a total of just 42 games of postseason experience combined on their roster. And 25 were by Ramírez, the team’s slugging third baseman.
The total could have been higher, but it dropped significantly when the club designated reliever Bryan Shaw for assignment during the last week of the season. Shaw had 753 appearances over his career, including 519 with Cleveland, which ranks third in club history. He also made 15 postseason appearances for Cleveland from 2013 to 2017.
“Guys were joking around, looking for Bryan Shaw, trying to figure out, like, what are we supposed to do if we win or if we lose?” starter Cal Quantrill said. “Like, no one’s ever done it before.”
Seriously, Quantrill added, what he’s noticing this month is the energy.
“It’s hard for me to imagine another team with this kind of energy this late in the season,” he said. “Showing up, show-up time. They keep telling us when the training room opens and guys keep showing up here before they’re allowed to.”
Just as they continued showing up in the wins column this year when they weren’t supposed to.
“It’s a very different energy in that clubhouse,” starter Shane Bieber said. “It’s a very loving and competitive energy, I think. As long as we continue that, we pull for each other, trust in each other, that tends to put us over the top and into advantageous situations.”
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