After impressive spring, Manzardo reassigned to Minors

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- There’s no need to beat around the bush. Let’s address the elephant in the room.

Cleveland's No. 2 prospect, first baseman Kyle Manzardo, was reassigned to Minor League camp on Monday morning. As much as fans hoped they could use their positive vibes to will his way onto the Opening Day roster, it was not in the cards for him this year. This does not mean that he won't play a significant role in 2024. It just means he’ll begin the year in Triple-A Columbus before his inevitable callup to the Majors occurs.

So, why not start him now?

The case to have Manzardo on this team right now is strong. He’s already had 405 plate appearances at the Triple-A level (split between the Cleveland and Tampa Bay organizations in 2023), so he’s not tremendously inexperienced.

He’s shown that his maturity is off the charts with the level of professionalism he takes into his at-bats -- even against big league pitching in Cactus League play. Spring stats don’t tell the whole story, but he still hit .381 with a .934 OPS, two walks and seven strikeouts in 13 games during camp. It would make a tremendous amount of sense to carry him on the roster now.

Here’s where we get to the problem.

Rule 5 Draft pick Deyvison De Los Santos is creating a logjam ahead of him. Yes, service time is always going to play a factor, and even if De Los Santos wasn’t with this organization, the front office would still have to consider whether it’s worth keeping Manzardo in the Minors for a little bit longer because of that. We aren’t completely ignoring that. But De Los Santos is here, creating more questions than just service time.

The Guardians can start Manzardo in Triple-A Columbus without much paperwork. If De Los Santos doesn’t make the team, he needs to be placed on outright waivers and then would need to be offered back to the D-backs before he’d be able to enter Cleveland’s Minor League system due to his Rule 5 status. The likelihood of him clearing all of that and staying with the Guardians is low.

So the Guardians need to make a decision: Do they want to keep De Los Santos or not?

He’s only 20 years old and has never played above Double-A. Like most prospects his age, he’d be better suited for his debut in two or three years. His power potential is intriguing, especially for a team that’s craving that type of pop. It could be a perfect bat to add into the 2026 or ‘27 lineup. The Guardians just have to figure out how to carry him on the 26-man roster for all of ‘24 to get there.

De Los Santos and Manzardo play the same position. If Cleveland decides to give De Los Santos a shot, he and Manzardo would be splitting playing time behind Josh Naylor at first. If Manzardo is going to spend more time on the bench than in games for the organization to learn about De Los Santos, it makes more sense for him to play every day in Triple-A Columbus until the roster gets sorted out.

Maybe the Guardians learn that De Los Santos can play the outfield. Maybe he shows that he shouldn’t be carried all season long. But the De Los Santos situation needs to be figured out before Manzardo is in the mix.

If De Los Santos ends up not making the Opening Day roster, it’d be easier to get Manzardo at-bats. But the Guardians will still have to use the DH spot to sort through their outfield at the beginning of the season.

Myles Straw, Estevan Florial, Will Brennan, Ramón Laureano and Tyler Freeman could all be fighting for two spots. The Guardians need to get them all at-bats to determine what the best lineup will be moving forward. This, too, means Manzardo would be sitting more often than the team would like at the beginning of the season.

It’s not the news fans wanted. It’s not the news Manzardo would’ve wanted. But the Guardians know how special he can be. The wait will just be a little longer to see it.

“He really dove into the defense and baserunning. We all know he can hit and we saw flashes of that this spring,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “His balance, pitch selection was really, really good this spring. I’m very impressed by Kyle. I thought he had a really good camp. He just needs to go get at-bats.”