The American League’s Most Potent Offense So Far? The Cleveland Guardians, Of Course

During the offseason the Cleveland Guardians took a lot of heat for not making any additions to what was expected to be one of the most lightweight lineups in the American League.

Nobody in Cleveland is complaining now.

The team won four of its first six games of the season, all on the road, and did so by posting some uncharacteristically big numbers. The Guardians have scored 10 or more runs in three of their four victories, one of which was a 17-3 romp in Kansas City.

Offensively, the Guardians, at the start of play Thursday, led the American League in virtually everything there is to lead the league in: batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, OPS+, hits, runs, runs per game, triples, and RBI.

Among the league’s individual leaders, three of the top four hitters in the league are Guardians. Three of the top six in on-base percentage are Guardians, as are three of the top six in slugging percentage. OPS? Three of the top four are Guardians.

In runs scored, Guardians Myles Straw, Owen Miller, and Steven Kwan rank 1-2-3 in the league, respectively. Three of the top five leaders in total bases are Guardians. And four of the top five leaders in hits are Guardians.

Guardians rookie left fielder Kwan, who at one point earlier this week was hitting .800, leads the majors in times on base (19). Kwan’s teammates Jose Ramirez and Straw are second and third in the AL in that category.

None of this, of course, makes sense.

A team that was one of the worst offensive teams in the American League last year – Cleveland got no-hit twice in the span of 16 days a year ago – then, during the offseason, made no trades or free agent signings to bolster its lineup, has suddenly become an offensive juggernaut.

Well, for their first six games, anyway.

But even the games-played column produces further head-scratching numbers. In their first two games of the season Cleveland scored a total of one run in 19 innings. But in the next four games they out-scored their opponents 44-18.

“Our guys have really done a good job of coming out and competing,” said manager Terry Francona. “We can’t just roll the bats and balls out there and think we’re good. We’ve got to get after it every day.”

Six of Cleveland’s nine starters are hitting .360 or better: Kwan (.526), first baseman Miller (.524), third baseman Ramirez (.480), shortstop Amed Rosario (.457), second baseman Ernie Clement (.364), and Straw (.360).

“A lot of our guys are having really good at bats. It’s a good environment when you have a team mindset instead of an individual mindset during your at bats,” said Miller.

Cleveland’s offensive explosion has come against the Kansas City Royals and Cincinnati Reds. So it’s obviously a small sample size against middling opponents. The quality of Cleveland’s opponents is going to increase significantly in the coming days as the Guardians’ next 10 games will be against the Giants, White Sox and Yankees.

The Guardians are also extremely young. All of their position players are 29 or younger. Six of them – Straw, Kwan, Miller, Clement, right fielder Oscar Mercado, and infielder Andres Gimenez – have played either one or no full seasons as a regular at the big-league level.

Cleveland’s pitching staff, which was expected to have to carry the load this year has been overshadowed by the hitters in the first week of the season. But the pitchers have more than held their own as well. Guardians pitchers have the fourth-best ERA (3.08) in the league. They have the third-best strikeouts-to-walk ratio in the league, and they’ve allowed the second fewest hits and the fewest walks in the league.

The Guardians will make their debut in Cleveland as the Guardians Friday night, with their home opener against the Giants at Progressive Field. The game is a sellout, which didn’t seem likely at the start of the season. But Cleveland’s offensive rampage, authored by a group of young hitters, has changed the narrative locally.

Fans who were disgruntled by the team’s do-nothing offseason have been swept up by the enthusiasm generated by not just a fast start but a start propelled an appealing, and very young group of hitters who have come out swinging.