New kids, old tricks guide Guardians to Central crown

From the moment his team arrived at Spring Training, Guardians manager Terry Francona was emphatic about getting one simple message across to his players.

Everyone knew this was going to be an extremely young team. Aside from bringing back reliever Bryan Shaw and inking backup catcher Luke Maile to a one-year deal, Cleveland was silent when it came to offseason moves. That left the 2022 season up to the next wave of internal talent, meaning the average age of the roster was going to plummet. And with youth comes inexperience.

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Francona wanted to make sure everyone in the clubhouse knew that age was not going to be used as an excuse. Instead, he wanted to set the tone, convincing everyone that if they simply played the game the right way, success would follow.

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“We’re going to have to be a team that when we get a hit, we can’t be digging ourselves,” Francona said during Spring Training. “We got to be in position where if they overthrow the cutoff man, we move up 90 feet. That’s how we’re going to have to play. And as long as we realize that, it’ll give us a better chance.”

While these little things have always been important in racking up wins, it’s not the main approach that’s taken by teams in today’s game. Analytics seem to focus on the extreme impact of exit velocity, hard hits and home runs. There’s less attention drawn to the influence of putting the ball in play, capitalizing on errors or making sure that every runner who reaches first base goes all the way to third on a single.

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It’s not a flashy concept, and in order for it to work, every player needed to buy in. Francona knew there was only so much he could do by preaching. It was essential for the team to have an example to follow, and the Guardians skipper explained to his star third baseman, José Ramírez, that it all started with him.

Ramírez was in the middle of working through a contract extension with Cleveland. The organization adores his passion for the game and has relied on his bat for the last few seasons. While his offensive production was still going to be key for the Guardians to have success this year, Francona explained to him that there would be no reason for any of the younger players to buy into the concept if they didn’t see Ramírez doing it -- a conversation that only needed to be had once.

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“We were coming into the year knowing we need this guy,” catcher Austin Hedges said, “and what he did to show that he wants to be here for the long haul, the way he leads by example, the way he plays every day, it makes everybody better. So many guys on our team are better players because they try to play like José.”

As Ramírez fully embraced this old-school approach to the game, everyone else followed suit.

Coming into Wednesday, the Guardians had gone first to third on a single 111 times, which is the most in the Majors. The club is exceptional at making contact, owning the lowest whiff rate of all 30 clubs, besting Houston by 2.1%. That difference is sizeable, considering the gap between the No. 2 Astros and the No. 14 team on that list is the same: 2.1%.

And when it comes to speed, Cleveland boasts three players in the top 12 of the leaderboard for bolts, which are sprints of faster than 30 feet per second (Amed Rosario, Myles Straw and Andrés Giménez).

“It’s definitely a lot of fun,” left fielder Steven Kwan said. “You can see the other team being back on their heels a lot of times. Just putting the pressure on, hopefully they crack and we can get a little lead with that.”

The Guardians have mastered the idea of “small ball.” It’s the reason that nearly 30% of their wins this season were one-run victories and 39 of their 92 wins were in comeback fashion. Cleveland owned the most sacrifice flies in the American League and the fewest number of strikeouts in the Majors.

“I think we did a good job embracing that identity,” Guardians hitting coach Chris Valaika said. “Knowing the team, the makeup of this roster that we had from Day 1, that’s what we strive to be, to have that identity of making contact, controlling the strike zone, putting the ball in play, continuing to put pressure on teams.”

Against the White Sox on Sept. 22, Giménez executed a two-out safety squeeze, and against the Twins on Sept. 16, the Guardians scored a run from second base on a wild pitch. These are the scrappy plays that have led to Cleveland clinching the AL Central title.

An approach that wasn’t supposed to be flashy has created one of the most exciting and engaging teams to watch in MLB this season.

“I think that’s our secret,” first baseman Josh Naylor said. “Just playing the game the right way, playing hard. We got a phenomenal manager, an amazing staff that helps us out daily and motivates us. I think that’s our key to success, is having those guys there who have been around great teams and had success early and they just bring it to us.”