Part of a series of articles previewing the defensive performance of all 30 MLB teams by asking the question … are they good? We give an overview of team strengths, weaknesses, and other things to know, using Defensive Runs Saved and other stats as the basis for our evaluation. To see the full series, click here.

2025 Team Defensive Runs Saved Rank: T-7th

Team Strengths

Steven Kwan is the best defensive left fielder in baseball. He’s won three Fielding Bible Awards in four years. His 22 Runs Saved in 2025 were 10 more than any other left fielder and his 29 Good Fielding Plays were the most of any outfielder. He had an MLB-best and career-high 7 Outfield Arm Runs Saved and 10 assists without a cutoff man. He’s gotten to the point where he plays the ball off the high left field wall very well and it’s made him harder to run against.

Most Defensive Runs Saved – Last 4 Seasons – Left Field

Backup catcher Austin Hedges has made the most of his role on the team. Every year he comes a little closer to being the fourth catcher to reach 100 Runs Saved since the stat was first tracked in 2003.

He had 9 last season and on a per-pitch basis he was one of the best pitch framers in the game. He also did a very good job controlling the running game, relatively speaking, catching 14-of-44 would-be basestealers.

The Guardians other strength is that they have a bunch of players who are either average or a little above it, who won’t hurt the defense.  José Ramírez is a good example. He’s had five straight seasons with non-negative Runs Saved at third base but never had more than 8 Runs Saved.

Daniel Schneeman, who may start the season in the minors, is a good utility man and another good example of that. He has 4 career Runs Saved in right field, 4 in center field, and 3 at second base.

Team Weaknesses

Three players who didn’t have a good season last year per Defensive Runs Saved are first baseman Kyle Manzardo, second baseman Brayan Rocchio, and center fielder/second baseman Angel Martínez.

Manzardo didn’t rate well at either fielder or throw handling and finished with -7 Runs Saved at first base. Rocchio had -3 Runs Saved at both shortstop and second base. Martinez had -8 Runs in cener field, where he’s been supplanted by Chase DeLauter.

Other Things To Know

We’re not sure what to make of Bo Naylor heading into 2026. Naylor stood out for his pitch framing in 2024 but those numbers came down considerably in 2025, though he did improve at pitch blocking. In sum, he went from 11 Runs Saved to 1, which isn’t good.

We have a 93-game minor league sample on Travis Bazzana as a second baseman and he does pretty well in it, with 7 Runs Saved. We don’t have as large of a sample on DeLauter in center field, though FanGraphs is a little down on him. He’s a 40 on their 20-80 scale.

Are the Guardians A Good Defensive Team?

It’s hard to pick against the Guardians given that they’ve finished in the Top 10 in Runs Saved three times in the last four years. I’d expect them to be close to the Top 10 if not within it by year’s end.