The Cleveland Guardians’ postseason begins with a quiet but telling shift in how manager Stephen Vogt wants to deploy one of the club’s midseason additions.
Before Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Chicago White Sox, Vogt moved Jo Adell out of the outfield and into the designated-hitter spot, where he will bat fourth, via Underdog MLB.
The Guardians earned the series with a late surge, winning eight of their final ten games to finish 85-77 and claim the AL Central. In a thin American League, that record was enough for a first-round bye.
They open the Division Series at 1 p.m. ET Saturday at Progressive Field, with right-hander Parker Messick starting against the White Sox.
Adell’s new assignment is the clearest change from the lineup Cleveland used down the stretch. After the Guardians acquired him from the Los Angeles Angels at the trade deadline, he started at designated hitter only nine times in 48 games. Vogt otherwise treated him as an everyday outfielder.
On Saturday that role goes elsewhere: Angel Martinez is in left, Steven Kwan is in center, and Chase DeLauter is in right. The rest of the order has José Ramírez at third base and batting second, David Fry at first, Travis Bazzana at second, Austin Hedges catching, and Brayan Rocchio at shortstop.
The move is less about Adell’s bat disappearing than about how Vogt wants the defense arranged for a short series. Adell has been a useful piece of Cleveland’s second-half climb.
In 180 at-bats with the Guardians, he hit .244, with 24 runs, 44 hits, seven home runs and 32 RBIs. Across the full season, split between Los Angeles and Cleveland, he played 159 games, hit .240, collected 145 hits, and finished with 23 home runs and 94 RBIs, a .401 slugging percentage and a .700 OPS.
Those numbers do not scream middle-of-the-order force, but they explain why Vogt is keeping him in the cleanup spot rather than sitting him.
Adell still supplies power in a lineup built around Ramírez, and designated hitter lets Cleveland keep that power without asking him to cover an outfield corner.
Martinez and DeLauter give Vogt a different look defensively, while Kwan remains the center fielder who sets the table at the top of the order.
Saturday’s decision is only for Game 1. Vogt has not locked Adell into the designated-hitter role for the rest of the series, and the Guardians have shown they will reshuffle if matchups or late-inning defense demand it.
What the announcement does make clear is that Cleveland is treating the White Sox series as a tactical problem, not a continuation of the regular-season alignment.
After a bye and a closing run that secured the division, the Guardians are opening October with Adell’s bat in the middle and a reshaped outfield behind him.
