Baseball is back. Fire up the grill (and maybe put on an extra pot of coffee if you’re trying to watch the Guardians’ Opening Day game).
The 2026 season commences this week. The Guardians, as has become tradition lately, open the regular season on the West Coast, with a 10:10 p.m. start against the Seattle Mariners on deck March 26.
It’s the final season before Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations threaten to shut the sport down in December and, potentially, into 2027. For now, it’s all systems go, with everyone trying to catch up to the Los Angeles Dodgers and their bottomless checkbook.
Here’s our complete MLB 2026 preview, with picks and predictions, beginning with the Guardians.
Guardians 2026 record, prediction: 85-77, 2nd in American League Central
It’s been said in this space before, but the Guardians with this leadership structure in place — meaning Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff in the front office and either Terry Francona or now Stephen Vogt in the dugout — have earned the benefit of the doubt year-over-year.
It has become routine for the Guardians to outperform outside expectations. The prevailing trend from the baseball world is to now view them as team that will win 90 games — somehow, someway. Even if it doesn’t make sense on paper, there’s almost an assumption that they’ll find their way to October through the most indirect, scene route. They weren’t supposed to win 90 games (and come within three wins of the World Series) in 2024, Vogt’s first season. And they weren’t supposed to pull off a historic comeback to retake the division from the Detroit Tigers, who at one point held a 15.5-game lead.
There’s also reason for at least some optimism with their 28th-ranked offense from last year. If Chase DeLauter can just stay on the field, he might be the American League Rookie of the Year, which would be Cleveland’s first since Sandy Alomar Jr. in 1990. Travis Bazzana, the No. 1 pick in 2024, is on the way (assuming he, too, stays healthy). The club thinks this could be Bo Naylor’s breakout season. Rhys Hoskins looks like he could be a shrewd late addition to a lefty-heavy lineup.
That being said, a payroll that projects to be roughly $30 million below their 2025 level (now that Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz won’t be paid while they await trial) leaves the roster a bit exposed, if injuries or developmental delays hit them hard. Because of their balance of talent and youth, they might be a club that has a wider range between their ceiling and floor than most other contending teams.
Most of the projections have the Guardians somewhere between 74-79 wins. I’ll take Cleveland to again find a way to outperform expectations — even by a pretty sizable margin — but still ultimately fall just short in the race for the AL Central and a playoff spot, due to the Tigers and a stacked AL East division that might monopolize the Wild Cards.
American League Central preview
American League East
American League West
Amercian League Wild Card teams
National League East
National League Central
National League West
National League Wild Card teams
World Series pick
American League MVP
National League MVP
American League Cy Young
National League Cy Young
American League Rookie of the Year
National League Rookie of the Year
Ryan Lewis covers the Cleveland Guardians and Cavaliers for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Guardians, MLB predictions and preview for 2026 season
Reporting by Ryan Lewis, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
