The Guardians opened the 2025 season with a nine-game road trip that ended with a disappointing 3-6 record.
Ideastream Public Media’s sports commentator Terry Pluto said during the trip the Guardians led the majors with nine errors and their starting pitchers struggled.
“Their starters have an ERA of 6.7," Pluto said. "That's the second worst in the American League. In other words, they're giving up almost seven runs per nine innings."
It’s a stark contrast to last season when they started at 8-2 under first-year manager Stephen Vogt. The team was never under .500, winning the American League Central Division.
“I think there are more expectations on Stephen Vogt this year than there were last year because when the season opened last year, the Guardians were coming off a year in 2023 where they lost more games than they won," Pluto said. "People were just kind of (thinking), ‘Well, let's just see what happens.’ Well, now it's like, ‘Well heck, the guy was manager of the year. They won a round in the playoffs. They should be good again,’” Pluto said.
Pluto said Vogt didn’t face much adversity when he took over for Terry Francona.
“We never really got to look at how does (Vogt) handle it when things go bad?," Pluto said. "There was a little bit in August (of 2024) where the boat was in some rocky seas, but overall, I would say, the commander of the ship there never had to deal with a hurricane.”
The Guardians made some offseason moves that were unpopular with the fan base, notably trading Andrés Giménez and Josh Naylor.
Pluto said Gabriel Arias, who’s taken over at second base for Gold Glove-winner Giménez, has been shaky to start, committing one error. Giménez, meanwhile, has started the season hitting three home runs for Toronto.
Pluto said some of the positives to start the season include first baseman Kyle Manzardo, who has hit three home runs, and third baseman Jose Ramírez, who’s hit four homers. Ramírez, however, has also committed three errors.
Pluto believes there will come a time when Stephen Vogt needs to get tougher with his players.
“His style of managing is (that) he's a very modern manager in terms of, a lot of positive feedback to the players (and) to the media," Pluto said. "He rarely says anything negative about his players.
“So, I think it's one of those things where he's going to have to, at some point, say, ‘Look guys, I understand there are periods in a season where you just don't hit,'" Pluto said. "'And I even understand that sometimes a pitcher is having a hard time physically or whatever, but we cannot lead the major league in errors, and we can't do things like fail to cover a second base and a steal situation as some of the other things have popped up because that's just dumb baseball and it's inexcusable.’ And I'll be waiting for him to say that especially if this stuff continues."
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