The Guardians are finally back together.
Tuesday marked the first day of full squad practices for the Cleveland Guardians in Goodyear, Arizona. As Cleveland gets ready for their first spring training games on Saturday, manager Stephen Vogt answered questions from the media. Here is some of what the reigning AL Manager of the Year had to say:
On whether he has decided which games Logan Allen and Joey Cantillo will pitch in on Saturday, and what goes into split-squad rosters:
“There's a number of things that can go into it. You know, Carl [Willis] is staying here, so who Carl wants to see versus, you know, service time or… I mean, a number of decisions. I wouldn't read into who goes where. We have not made that final decision yet, but it really is just those two are pitching on Saturday."
On what he wants to see from Travis Bazzana at camp and in the World Baseball Classic:
"I just want to watch him play. You know, we didn't get a great look at Travis or a long look at Travis last spring, so he, with a number of our players, that are in big league camp for the first time. We're just excited to see them play. To see them play more games, and like I said, that with Travis and Stuart [Fairchild] specifically, it's our job to get them ramped up, ready to play nine-inning games, you know, a couple weeks from now. So we're their workloads look a little bit differently than everybody else's.”
On Daniel Espino:
"Yeah, we're all just thrilled for Daniel. The road he's been down the last few years could not have been easy, and he's handled it like a true pro. An amazing human being, and to watch him throw a live batting practice yesterday was, I think, a joy for all of us, and we're just excited to watch him pitch again. We're not going to get ahead of ourselves with any kind of path or anything like that. Daniel needs to throw against hitters. We need to see him. We need to see him pitch. So we're going to do that, you know, appropriately for him, and, you know, intentionally, just to make sure that we can check the boxes. Of him recovering and see what he's capable of. But more than anything, we're just excited to watch Daniel pitch against hitters.”
On gaining experience with a young core last year:
"We're starting the year with the group we finished with, and that group won a lot of games, and was, you know, a much better offense than the first four months. So we're really excited for our young guys. We're excited with the group we have, and we're looking forward to getting them rolling, and we feel really good about our offense.”
On Stuart Fairchild:
"I played with Stuart for a little bit with the Diamondbacks. And so I knew him from back then. And then, you know, had lunch with him this winter. He lives in Seattle, so I was able to meet up with him. But you know, Stuart has a long track record of hitting left-handed pitching and playing very good defense in the outfield. So he adds another name and another person with some experience to this competition that we have in spring. And you know, Stuart gets to go represent his family in the WBC, and we're thrilled for him and for his family, and we'll be excited when he gets back.
On where in the outfield Fairchild will play:
"He's going to play all three spots. Like a number of our outfielders, they're going to play in all three positions. And like I said, we've got a six-to-seven-week competition going on, and it's going to be fun to watch it unfold."
On whether he remembers Fairchild’s MLB debut, in which he pinch ran for Vogt:
"I mean, that's offensive that I got pinch ran for," he laughed. "No, that's funny, I didn't remember that. But no, we have not [talked about it]. Have to touch him up on that, make him take a lap for that."
On keeping his team as healthy as possible entering 2026:
"Yeah, I mean, health is number one, right? We have to stay on the field. We need to keep players on the field, and a lot of injury is there's nothing you can do about it, but we're doing everything we can to keep everybody healthy, and we're going to be thoughtful and mindful as we're building people up. We're not going to push anyone too hard outside of Travis and Stuart, like we talked about earlier, they're on a different trajectory than everyone else, but keeping everybody healthy and keeping all of our options available is the number one priority.”
On Gavin Williams potentially emerging as an ace:
"Yeah, the three years I've known Gavin, I've never seen him this focused or determined. He had a tremendous offseason. Obviously, finished on a high note last year. The last few months, I don't think we could have drawn up a better stretch of what we got than what Gavin Williams did for us. So really thrilled to see him come in ready to go, but there is a different determination about him. He wants to be one of the best. He knows he's one of the best, and that's a really good feeling for us.”
On Bo Naylor:
"He had a phenomenal offseason. He's ready to go. Made some good adjustments with his swing path. He's looked great in his live batting practice. Again, we're just talking about practice, but I think the sky's the limit for Bo this year, and I think he's going to pick up right where he left off. I think it's a breakout year for Bo, and I'm really excited to watch.”
The Guardians take on the Cincinnati Reds at 3:05 p.m. and the Milwaukee Brewers at 3:10 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21
