Guardians prospect's lack of 'opportunity' may no longer be an obstacle

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1. Guardians

• Published: May. 05, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

Guardians prospect Kyle Manzardo could soon get the call to join Cleveland's major league roster.Getty Images

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Guardians No. 2 prospect Kyle Manzardo is inching closer to his major league debut, and Cleveland's top baseball executive hinted Sunday that at least one obstacle on the lefty slugger's path to the big leagues could soon be cleared.

President of baseball operations Chris Antonetti told reporters that the club is awaiting results of an MRI on left fielder Steven Kwan's hamstring. Kwan, who leads the American League in batting average, hits and runs, exited Saturday's win against Los Angeles in the second inning. If he needs to spend time on the injured list, Antonetti floated Manzardo's name as an option to take his place on the roster.

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Manzardo has been on fire at Triple-A Columbus, where he has four home runs in his last seven games and is batting .303 with a 1.017 OPS and 20 RBI in 109 at-bats. He was not in the lineup for Columbus on Sunday as the Clippers faced Toledo at Huntington Park.

Antonetti said Manzardo has made great progress during his time in Triple-A on areas that the organization identified for him at the end of spring training.

"He's been good against left hand pitching, and his approach against lefties has improved," Antonetti said. "He's worked really hard on his defense, both his footwork around the bag and his throwing and he continues to put up and manage really at-bats."

The final obstacle, Antonetti said, was finding opportunities for consistent at-bats at the major league level for a move to make sense. With Kwan potentially headed to the injured list, that may no longer be the case.

"To date, we just haven't had those bats," Antonetti said. "Now that circumstance might change. We'll have to work through Kyle and other options there and figure out who the best option may be based upon where we might have the at-bats up here."

Ranked the organization's No. 2 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, Manzardo hit .381 with a .934 OPS and a pair of RBI in 13 big league spring training games. He posted a .272 average with a .905 OPS to go along with six home runs and 19 RBI in 22 games during an All-Star stint in the Arizona Fall League.

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