Analyst Shares Optimistic Take On Guardians Start

April 2, 2026

By Andres Chavez

The Cleveland Guardians woke up on Thursday tied for first place with the Kansas City Royals, even though they are listed second by winning percentage. They are 4-3 after a rough opening schedule, with consecutive series on the West Coast against the Seattle Mariners and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

These opponents are no slouches: the Mariners are the reigning AL West champions and won 90 games last year, and the Dodgers need no introduction after taking home each of the last two World Series.

The Guardians split the first four games with the M’s and then won the series 2-1 over the Dodgers, beating Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the process. Things weren’t always perfect, but the first seven games have shown that Cleveland will be a highly competitive squad.

Ken Carman and Spencer German discussed the Guardians’ opening road trip and came away feeling optimistic about where the organization currently stands.

“If you were looking for a start to the season that gave you some confidence of what this year can be, I think this was it. You’re seeing these great performances, and [Gavin] Williams feels like the guy who can stabilize things if he can be that ace-style pitcher. It does feel like, to me, you saw the true potential of this team with Chase DeLauter in the lineup,” German said.

DeLauter’s emergence has been one of the storylines of Cleveland’s opening week. He hit four home runs and is sporting a 219 wRC+, and even though he had to leave a game this week after fouling a ball off his foot, he is expected to return this weekend to keep mashing.

He has been everything the Guardians thought he could be and more, and could be in a good position to hit at least 25 home runs if health is on his side.

Among pitchers, Gavin Williams and Parker Messick have been the most valuable performers in the first week of play. The latter tossed seven scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts on Wednesday to give the Guardians a series win in LA, and the latter was brilliant in his lone start with six scoreless frames on Monday.

The bullpen has been solid aside from a couple of Cade Smith hiccups, and the rest of the staff has played as expected. If Jose Ramirez and the offense can pick it up, this team could be going places.

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CLEVELAND GUARDIANS

Guardians share extreme, vulgar threats from bettors. 'It's a cesspool'

Ryan Lewis
Akron Beacon Journal
April 2, 2026, 6:01 a.m. ET

In early April 2024, Nolan Jones was in a Chicago hotel room after a brutally rough first few games to start the season for him. It was a low point, and it was about to get much, much worse.

Jones, then an outfielder with the Colorado Rockies, had committed four errors in the first five games, including two earlier that day, resulting in a loss. Wondering what was going so wrong with him in left field, he decided to call his wife and talks things over.

That's when the messages began rolling in.

Jones began to receive a steady stream of anonymous calls and texts. The nameless, faceless people on the other end of these messages told Jones they were going to kill him. They said they were going to kill his wife and his entire family. They said he should just kill himself.

Unbeknownst to him, Jones' personal phone number had been posted on social media a few minutes prior. It led to a flood of hate and threats to him and his family.

"When you fail at the biggest stage, at the Major League level, you can't expect not to hear about it, but I think sports betting has made it worse as far as social media, letters in the mail, threatening families and such," said Jones, who rejoined the Guardians organization last season and is with the team's Triple-A affiliate in Columbus. "It's not always butterflies and roses like some people may think."

Jones is among the players in the Guardians organization who say they have been subjected to threats by angry sports bettors.

Guardians, pro athletes deal with messages after Ohio legalizes sports betting

Professional athletes have always had to deal with angry messages from sports fans in some form. But the added access to sports gambling that came with legalization has led to a sharp increase in fury from angry bettors who just lost money and are seeking an outlet for that frustration.

Social media often offers that pathway. But sometimes, as happened with Jones, a personal phone number or, worse, private address is discovered and the threats hit even closer to home.

Ohio legalized sports gambling on Jan. 1, 2023. Many states had already made that leap. Several others have followed since.

Consequently, elite athletes at all levels are increasingly facing harassment and threats from angry bettors.

An NCAA study released last year, for example, found 21% of Division I men’s tennis players and 17% of DI men’s basketball players have received negative or threatening messages from someone who bet on their competition.

Dr. Kevin H. Yang, a psychiatry resident physician at the University of California, San Diego, who has studied the impacts of sports betting, told the online health platform Helio the rise of sports gambling is impacting athletes.

“Players across multiple sports have reported receiving death threats and hostile messages on social media when their performance affects betting outcomes,” Yang told Helio. “This concerning trend highlights how real-time betting can have unintended consequences beyond gambling addiction itself.”

Negative feedback online existed before legalized sports betting. It was always somewhat accessible as an outlet for anger, like a stovetop burner sitting on low. The legalization — and therefore the easy access to gamble for many, many more people than before — cranked up the heat and turned it on high.

For Jones, it all became real in an instant as he received threatening messages toward his family while he was stuck in a hotel room in Chicago. Calls were immediately made for security purposes, and the immediate threat was resolved. But a frightening moment like that will leave a scar of sorts.

"I'm the first person to beat myself up and know that I had a bad game," Jones said. "I'll be the first one to tell ya, the first one to admit it, the first one to know I had a bad game and the one who loses the most sleep over it. But if I'm worried about what everyone is saying and how much money they lost on me that day, it can become a heavy burden to carry."

It's a widespread concern among pro athletes and coaches.

Almost everyone in every clubhouse, if they've been in the major leagues long enough, has either experienced some form of anger from sports bettors through threatening or hateful messages on social media. Or if they haven't, it's largely because they simply don't check their messages at all.

Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers made national headlines last year when he and his family received graphic death threats online after a rocky start in which he gave up seven runs in the first inning. USA TODAY reported the threats later were traced to an intoxicated sports bettor overseas who blamed McCullers for losing money.

Most sports gamblers are just looking to bet a few bucks on a game and have fun with it.

This is the darker side of sports betting.

Tanner Bibee,says threats and personal attacks on social media by angry sports bettors "can put some guys over the edge."

"I feel like a lot of guys joke about it, but it's a serious thing, especially when someone's dealing with mental stuff," said Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee.

"A lot of us normalize it because everyone gets it a lot, but I feel like it's not something that should be normalized.

"Say you had a bad outing and some guy is struggling mentally and you get all these messages saying to go kill yourself, it can put some guys over the edge. It sucks, but it's the reality of it."

Many players try to not pay much attention to it, or try to simply understand that the messages aren't actually about them.

"I just kind of understand the situation as it's nothing personal against me," said Guardians starting pitcher Slade Cecconi, who's received messages from people suggesting he hurt himself. "You know, some people are in a bad spot in their life, and that's the avenue they turn to take it out on. And, you know, I just hope they find a way out of it."

Slade Cecconi, in the dugout during a 2025 game, says he's received message from people suggesting he hurt himself. "I just kind of understand the situation as it's nothing personal against me," he says. "You know, some people are in a bad spot in their life, and that's the avenue they turn to take it out on."

Guardians deal with anger from sports gamblers on social media

Fellow Guardians starting pitcher Gavin Williams, who noted he gets hundreds of messages a month, added, "I kind of laugh at it. I think it's funny. People, I call them keyboard warriors. Sometimes I want to message back but I hold myself from doing that."

Not all of the harassment is just digital, though.

While some players acknowledge that sports betting in general has all brought more attention to the league, sports betting being legalized in more areas than only Las Vegas has also led to bettors yelling to players, as gamblers shout out what they need with their prop bets. It's particularly a problem in the NBA, where fans are right behind the benches.

In baseball, outfielders and pitchers who are warming up in bullpens right next to seats hear about what bets have been made on them.

Williams noted he'll have fans yelling out what prop bets they made on him while he's warming up in the bullpen before his outings. The catchers hear it, too.

"It's a scary situation right now, and [the in-game yelling] is annoying," Guardians catcher Austin Hedges said. "You'll have three guys telling them exactly how many strikeouts they want to get or how much money they bet on it. And it's just like, it's a pretty annoying thing to hear because I know [the pitcher] hears it. And, like, yeah, I want him to strike out a bunch of dudes, it would be ideal so we could win, but it's still a distraction."

Steven Kwan celebrates his solo home run against the Marlins last season. Kwan says some sports bettors react with racist or vulgar attacks on social media when they blame a player for losing money.

Some of these social media messages are violent or threatening. Others are abhorrently racist, such as some Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan said he has received. That element isn't necessarily new, but now combined with the frustration of losing money on bets, it's only getting worse.

Kwan has a term for how he views the entire situation.

"It's a cesspool," Kwan said. "I'm sure I'm repeating what [other players] said, it's like, 'You suck, you lost me money, go back to wherever.' It gets extremely racist. It gets extremely vulgar. Luckily my wife is private on everything, but I know it's just a cesspool of stuff. It's crazy."

And there's a reason Kwan rarely checks messages, at least until the season is finished.

"After the season's over, it's like, oh, I wonder what bull---- is in my DMs," Kwan said. "Everybody's brave behind a screen. Once you get in person, everybody shuts down. I guess I try to empathize with them. You feel like you can win so much money, and they have to put their anger somewhere, but it's just so bad for the game."

It's all becoming an essential — and unfortunate — part of training when a prospect becomes a major leaguer.

"So many of these kids live on their phones, so how are you going to tell these kids that when you get to the big leagues now, stop using social media?" Kwan asked. "And, yeah, it comes with the responsibility and we signed up for this, but people didn't deal with this 10 years ago, five years ago even."

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Terry Pluto has the real story about why ‘Super Joe’ Charboneau had a too-short Major League career

Updated: Apr. 04, 2026, 9:24 a.m.|Published: Apr. 04, 2026, 5:02 a.m.

By Terry's Talkin' podcast, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Terry Pluto wants to kill a myth right now: Joe Charboneau didn’t party himself out of Major League Baseball.

The cleveland.com columnist — who actually gave Charboneau the “Super Joe” nickname — shared some history on the Cleveland baseball legend on the latest edition of the Terry’s Talkin’ podcast.

Charboneau has been on fans’ minds this week after Guardians rookie Chase DeLauter hit four home runs in his first three regular-season MLB games, and went on to be named American League Player of the Week for the first week of the 2026 season.

The legend of Super Joe is the stuff of Cleveland sports folklore. He supposedly fought bare-fisted in boxcars, drank beer through his nose with a straw, and pulled his own tooth with fishing line.

Whether all those tales are true doesn’t really matter — what matters is that when Charboneau exploded onto the scene with the Indians in 1980, he was absolutely legitimate as a hitter.

Pluto was there for all of it. He covered the 1980 home opener, Charboneau’s first game in Cleveland, where Super Joe went 3-for-3 with a double and a homer. The Indians won 8-1 over Toronto, Rick Waits threw a complete game, and Cleveland finally had something exciting to talk about.

“That day was really important to me because I covered the Orioles a year before in ’79, but then I was hired 1980 to do the Tribe,” Pluto recalled on the podcast. “And you know, I grew up watching that, and now I was the guy covering the opener. And that was, that was really special.”

Charboneau went on to win American League Rookie of the Year in 1980. But then, the wheels came off.

Here’s where Pluto said he wants to correct the false narrative that’s out there.

Yes, baseball players in that era drank — a lot. But that’s not what ended Super Joe’s career.

“I just wanted to say this about Joe because a lot of stuff is out there. I’ve heard, ‘Well, you know, he just partied himself out of the league’ and all that,” Pluto said.

“What killed Joe’s career is in the spring of ’81, after his rookie year, he slides into second base and he did not get up right. He’s hurt. And it turned out he had suffered a significant back injury.”

Multiple back surgeries followed. Charboneau played only 77 games after his Rookie of the Year season. The guy who hit .350 and .352 in consecutive years — one year in Class A and one in the notoriously difficult-for-hitters AA Southern League — never got a chance to show what he could have been.

Pluto’s convinced that with modern medical treatment, Charboneau would have continued to mash.

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Stephen Vogt Sends Clear Message To Slade Cecconi Ahead Of Sunday’s Game

April 5, 2026

By Jimmy Swartz

Stephen Vogt is not asking Slade Cecconi to be perfect. He is asking him to be himself.

Ahead of Cecconi’s next start on Sunday, the Guardians manager delivered a simple and direct message to his young right-hander. After a start in Seattle where the velocity was down and the feel was not quite there, Vogt is not pushing the panic button. He is pushing something else entirely.

Vogt said he wants to see Cecconi just be Slade on the mound on Sunday.

“His velo was down a little bit in Seattle and he didn’t have great feel, but still he threw the ball pretty well,” Vogt said. “I’m looking for him to go out and just be himself.”

Cecconi has shown enough at this level to earn the benefit of the doubt. One uneven outing in Seattle does not erase what the Guardians believe he is capable of, and Vogt’s tone makes clear that the organization is not looking for a mechanical overhaul heading into the weekend. They are looking for the version of Cecconi that competes, attacks hitters, and does not try to be something he is not.

Young pitchers who get into their own head after a rough outing often compound the problem by gripping the ball tighter and nibbling at the zone. Vogt is essentially giving Cecconi permission to exhale. Go out there, trust your stuff, and let it happen.

The Guardians are 5-3 on the young season and have gotten strong pitching performances from Joey Cantillo and others in the rotation. The expectation now is that Cecconi steps into that same standard on Sunday and reminds everyone why Cleveland believed in him enough to hand him a spot in the first place.

Vogt has seen enough of his roster to know what each guy needs. For Cecconi, the answer is not more instruction.

It is more confidence.

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New Injury Update on Guardians’ George Valera, Hunter Gaddis

Tommy Wild

Partner

Where do Cleveland Guardians' Hunter Gaddis and George Valera stand in their rehab?

As good a start as the Cleveland Guardians have gotten off to this season, the roster is still incomplete, with multiple players who probably should have been on the Opening Day roster still rehabbing their way back from injuries.

The two notable players who started the regular season on the injured list were George Valera and Hunter Gaddis.

Stephen Vogt gave an update on both players before Saturday’s game, and there’s some good and bad news about where each player is.

Hunter Gaddis (Forearm Strain)

Let’s start with the good news; it looks like Hunter Gaddis is getting closer to being activated off the IL. He was actually on the field playing catch before Saturday’s game was postponed due to the weather.

Gaddis has now pitched in three rehab assignments at Triple-A, and Vogt said he continued to progress and check the boxes of his recovery. The reliever continues to “build up, but he's feeling good, and that's all we care about right now,” said Cleveland’s skipper.

Gaddis has given up four earned runs in 2.1 innings of work in the Minors, but the team isn’t concerned about the results, but rather that he continues to ramp up while staying healthy. Remember, he pitched in only one Spring Training, which was at the end of February.

“Obviously, you want to see good results, that's the best of both worlds, but especially for Gaddy, just for him to go out and pitch and feel good and get built up, that's what our number one goal is,” continued Vogt.

With the Guardians happy with Gaddis’ build-up and how he’s feeling, hopefully that means it won’t be too much longer before Cleveland has its setup man back.

George Valera (Calf Strain)

While it appears Gaddis could be on his way back soon, it’s still going to be some time before George Valera is back with the Guardians big-league roster.

Valera has been seeing action in Triple-A as a part of a rehab assignment, and has looked pretty good in those games, too, but Vogt said the outfielder just isn’t ready to play consecutive days yet.

“I think we want to see George get built up to play in five, six days a week because that would be his role.” continued the Guardians manager. “Going to be very cautious to make sure that he can do that, so it's gonna be a little more time with George.”

Cleveland is wise to be cautious with Valera, since he has a history of lower-body injuries, but that means it could be some time before he’s a realistic option for the Guardians this season.

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Guardians

Joey Cantillo’s growth on display in Guardians’ 4-1 home opener win

Updated: Apr. 04, 2026, 9:50 a.m.|Published: Apr. 04, 2026, 6:00 a.m.

By Joe Noga, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Even without his best pitch a week ago in Seattle, Joey Cantillo never wavered.

The changeup didn’t feel right, didn’t get the swings he expected, didn’t behave the way it usually does. But instead of shelving it against the Cubs, Cantillo leaned into it and displayed the kind of growth he’s been determined to show this season.

“That was definitely a focal point,” Cantillo said. “Like, ‘Hey, let’s throw it regardless of how the first couple end up. It’s a pitch we’ve got to throw. It doesn’t matter.’ … You’ve got to keep throwing it and make the adjustment with it.”

That trust paid off Friday.

Taking the ball in Cleveland’s home opener at Progressive Field, Cantillo looked every bit like a pitcher learning and growing in real time. It’s not just the left-hander’s arsenal, but his approach that’s evolving. And that helped lead the Guardians to a 4-1 win over the Cubs.

Making just his first home start of the season in front of a packed house, Cantillo struck out six over 5 1/3 innings, finishing two outs shy of a quality start. The lone blemish came in the third inning, when a miscommunication between Gabriel Arias and José Ramírez allowed a pop fly to drop, setting up an RBI double by Miguel Amaya.

Otherwise, Cantillo was in control.

He retired eight consecutive hitters at one point and continued a remarkable run of consistency, allowing two earned runs or fewer for the ninth straight start. It marks the longest such streak by a Cleveland pitcher since Corey Kluber strung together 13 straight from August 2017 to April 2018. He also has not allowed a home run in 11 of his last 15 outings.

More importantly, he did it by trusting all of the weapons at his disposal.

After struggling to locate his changeup in Seattle, Cantillo made a point to keep it in the mix Friday, using it as both a reset button and a put-away pitch.

“We did a better job of that today of just mixing them in more and going to it for some swing-and-miss when we needed to,” Cantillo said. “That’s just something that is going to keep getting better, and I’ve just always got to trust it and throw it.”

That kind of conviction is exactly what manager Stephen Vogt has pointed to as Cantillo continues to mature.

“He was outstanding,” Vogt said. “Joey really did a nice job of not getting too deep into counts and he made pitches when he had to. He was getting weak contact. Joey competed and I thought it was without his best stuff. So that’s kind of some growth there from Joey, too. He was very, very good without his best stuff. He gave us a great chance to win.”

For Cantillo, the stage itself added another layer.

He has pitched in big moments before, including a disastrous start in New York during the American League Championship Series in 2024. But there was something different about walking out for a home opener, hearing the crowd, feeling the energy build with every pitch.

“It was awesome,” he said. “The stadium was electric like we thought it would be… you couldn’t have asked for a better first start at home and I’m happy we got the win.”

The combination of trusting his stuff, adjusting on the fly, and embracing the moment is what’s defining Cantillo’s early season. The results speak for themselves, but the growth underneath them might matter even more.

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Guardians

4 Guardians moments that mattered from Friday’s home opener win vs. Cubs

Updated: Apr. 04, 2026, 9:56 a.m.|Published: Apr. 04, 2026, 5:00 a.m.

By Joe Noga, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Guardians had plenty to be happy about when the dust settled following Friday’s 4-1 home opening win against the Cubs.

The offense came alive behind rookie sensation Chase DeLauter’s fifth home run in a three-RBI effort, Joey Cantillo was locked in on the mound for 5 1/3 innings and the defense came up with big plays at key moments.

Here is a look back at four moments that mattered during a memorable opening day at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

Rain, but no delay — this time

When the Cubs are playing at Progressive Field and rain begins to fall, one can hardly blame Cleveland fans for feeling a bit blue – or downright sick to their stomachs.

Light rain started to fall in the second inning with Cleveland batting on Friday, and many wondered if the game was going to be stopped. It was a stark reminder of the 17-minute delay prior to the 10th inning in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series that allowed Chicago to regroup, rally the troops and break a 6-6 tie to capture their first title in 108 years.

But the skies held off on Friday, and the game continued long enough for the Guardians to pull out a win, providing a measure of satisfaction for fans who lived through the nightmare of seeing the Cubs celebrate at the center of that very diamond on a warm November night nearly 10 years ago.

Gabriel Arias redemption tour

Miscommunication between Gabriel Arias and José Ramírez on a pop fly to shallow left field in the third inning led to a gimme double for Pete Crow-Armstrong and the only Chicago run of the game when Miguel Amaya doubled down the third base line one batter later.

But Arias came through with one of the biggest swings of the game when he homered to right field off Hunter Harvey in the seventh, putting the Guardians in front by a run.

Manager Stephen Vogt praised Arias for rebounding from the earlier miscue and noted that his teammates picked him up as soon as he returned to the dugout. The dropped pop between Ramírez and Arias was forgotten almost immediately.

“They were both kind of calling at the same time and then they both kind of backed off at the same time,” Vogt said. “Those things happen. They shouldn’t, but they do.”

Arias admitted that mistakes like that sometimes happen, but took responsibility in the moment.

“I feel like I called it off a little bit too early when I wasn’t really under it,” Arias said via Guardians interpreter Agustin Rivero. “Those errors happen in the game and I take accountability, but those are things that happen in the game.”

Vogt said he was impressed with Arias’ at-bat in the fifth when he drew a walk against Colin Rea to set up Chase DeLauter’s game-tying RBI single to left off Hoby Milner. The home run in the seventh was just pure strength.

“We know Gabby’s got that kind of power and it’s been a slow start for him, but last two games he’s looked a lot better offensively,” Vogt said.

Daniel Schneemann’s sensational grab

Connor Brogdon was ahead in the count to Chicago’s Matt Shaw with one out in the seventh inning. But Shaw got on top of a 94 mph fastball from Brogdon that was up in the strike zone and out over the plate, driving it deep to the right center field alley as Daniel Schneemann raced over with his glove extended.

Schneemann, who has already started at three different positions for Cleveland this season, reached out and made a leaping catch before slamming into the wall to take extra bases away from Shaw and preserve a 1-1 tie.

Vogt called Schneemann an “incredible athlete” and said the Guardians have faith he can make plays wherever they put him on the field.

“That’s a tough catch,” Vogt said. “It was really windy up high. The ball was moving kind of weird. And for him to stick with that and make that play, it’s huge.”

Schneemann credited his coaches for having him ready every time he takes the field, no matter what position he is playing.

“It says a lot about JT (Maguire) and how he prepares us to play out there,” Schneemann said. “Big props to him for getting me prepared.”

Chase DeLauter nearly crushed Steven Kwan with a chest bump at home plate

You can hardly blame DeLauter for getting a little excited after hitting his first Progressive Field home run in the seventh. But before he had a chance to get to the dugout and once again don the Guardians’ medieval knight helmet in celebration, he very nearly obliterated one of Cleveland’s most valuable assets.

DeLauter collided with teammate Steven Kwan, who had just crossed home plate ahead of him following DeLauter’s two-run blast.

The awkward interaction left Kwan with a stunned look on his face as his batting helmet was knocked from his head. DeLauter said it was the combined result of confusion and exuberance on his part.

“Yeah, that one was my fault,” DeLauter said when asked about the celebration. “He went in for high five. I went in for a hug and it was a bad combination there. So, we’ll get it figured out for sure.”

Guardians fans hope the two have many more chances to celebrate home runs – awkwardly or otherwise – before the season is finished.

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