Cleveland Guardians offseason puts their playoff streak in serious jeopardy

The Cleveland Guardians have been to the playoffs in three of the last four seasons and have won the AL Central division title in each of the past two years.

However, the Guardians haven't done a lot to improve their team this offseason, which could lead to a bit of a regression. Bleacher Report writer Zachary D. Rymer listed the teams with the five worst offseasons and the Guardians popped up on the list at No. 3.

"To be fair, the Guardians don't normally throw their weight around during the winter. They indeed only have so much weight with which to do so, as this is notoriously a small-market, small-payroll franchise. This time should be different, however, and not simply because the Guardians have an AL Central title to defend heading into 2026," Rymer wrote.

"They also have a $24 million gap between what they spent in 2025 and what they project to spend in 2026. That's real money. Real enough, even, to buy the slugger their offense badly needs alongside José Ramírez. That they have done basically nothing so far is hard to excuse, especially given that the wolves are very much at the door in Detroit and Kansas City."

Cleveland Guardians catcher Bo Naylor reacts after a strike during the second inning. | Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Guardians could struggle in 2026 season

Signs of the Guardians slipping began to show last season when they entered the final month of the season under .500. However, a brilliant run in September allowed them to surpass the Detroit Tigers in the standings to claim a postseason berth and win the division.

All of that didn't matter when the Tigers beat the Guardians in the Wild Card series, but Cleveland would like to be back in the postseason once again. Unfortunately for the Guardians, the analytics are not working in their favor.

"The Guardians project for only 34.3 WAR in 2026, which puts them in the bottom 10 of MLB and ahead of only the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central. Which means that, yes, even the Minnesota Twins have more talent on paper," Rymer wrote.

The Guardians haven't always been great in terms of preseason projections, so this is not the time to panic.

However, the lack of activity in the offseason does lead to the potential of the team not performing up to par, especially if other teams in the division are making the necessary moves to get back towards the top to chase the Guardians for first place.