This story was excerpted from Mandy Bell’s Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

It’s the month with the biggest to-do list in the regular season.

The Guardians entered the weekend with a 99.9% chance of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs. And no, a rocky game against the Dodgers on Saturday night does not derail those chances.

So, what needs to be on Cleveland’s checklist in September? Let’s break it down.

Clinch a playoff berth

This is step number one. The Guardians could be celebrating a clinch as early as this weekend at Progressive Field. What seemed like a longshot when Spring Training started has become all but a guarantee.

Sort out the rotation

Who gets the ball after Tanner Bibee? There’s no secret that starting pitching in crucial in the postseason. We know Bibee has proven he can be trusted as the ace of this staff, but the Guardians will need to lock down who can get the ball in Games 2 and 3 of a series. Is Matthew Boyd legit? Can Alex Cobb stay healthy enough to be reliable? Is Gavin Williams a risk, given his up-and-down results this season? Does Ben Lively have too many innings under his belt to remain consistent?

All these questions have to be sorted out before the calendar flips to October.

Get the sparkplug back at the top of the order

The Guardians can be successful without Steven Kwan hitting .400. They’ve demonstrated that since the middle of June, when Kwan’s bat started to go quiet. However, life is much easier for this Cleveland offense if the sparkplug is back at the top of the order.

In his first 49 games, Kwan hit .390 with an OPS over 1.000. In his next 67 games, he hit .210 with an OPS under .600. In six September games, Kwan has logged just one hit, going 1-for-23 since the month started.

Josh Naylor’s bat has been better of late. José Ramírez can always deliver in the clutch moments, no matter what his recent at-bats have shown. Andrés Giménez -- who has gotten more time in the two-hole -- has started to look more like the 2022 version of himself. If the Guardians can also get an early-season Kwan to mix in with these other three bats at the top of the lineup, that will be a big boost in October.

Find ways to rest the bullpen

Well, Saturday didn’t help that cause, considering Williams exited in the first inning, however, there’s still time to try to get a breather for as many of the regular bullpen arms as possible.

Entering the weekend, there were 10 pitchers across the Majors who appeared in at least 64 games this season. Four of those (yes 40%) were Guardians. Hunter Gaddis had 67 appearances, Cade Smith had 66, Emmanuel Clase had 65 and Tim Herrin had 64 (and made it 65 when he pitched Saturday evening). The Giants were the only other team to have more than one pitcher in that Top 10.

This group has been the collective MVP of the season for the Guardians. That needs to remain throughout October, but it will certainly be harder if any of them are out of gas by the time playoffs roll around.