2022 Cleveland Guardians

2022 Cleveland Guardians / Franchise: Cleveland Guardians / BR Team Page

Record: 92-70, Finished 1st in AL Central Division (2022 AL)

Clinched Division: September 25, 2022, At Texas Rangers

Managed by Terry Francona

Coaches: Sandy Alomar, DeMarlo Hale, Kyle Hudson, Victor Rodriguez, Mike Sarbaugh, Brian Sweeney, Joe Torres, Chris Valaika and Carl Willis

Ballpark: Progressive Field

History, Comments, Contributions

The 2022 Cleveland Guardians played their first season under their new name, having dropped the name "Indians" following more than a century of use after it had become increasingly more controversial starting in the 1990s. They were not isolated among professional teams dropping names taken from native Americans, but now seen as derogatory: the Washington Redskins of the NFL had played the previous two seasons as the "Washington Football team", before announcing their switch to "Commanders" shortly after the name Guardians was made official, and the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football league had switched to Edmonton Elks before the preceding season.

The Guardians quickly began to write their own history, as OF Steven Kwan, who made his major league debut on Opening Day, April 7th, had a tremendous start to his career, reaching base in 12 of his first 14 plate appearances. He was named the Rookie of the Month for April in the American League but was not alone in having a great start: 2B Owen Miller and 3B José Ramírez got off witha bang as well, with Ramírez being named the AL Player of the Month. In spite of losing 7 straight from April 22-28, the Guardians went 9-12 in April, then won 6 of their first 8 games in May. That streak was highlighted by a tremendous individual performance by 1B Josh Naylor on May 9th against the Chicago White Sox: he collected 8 RBIs, all from the 8th inning forward, including a game-tying grand slam in the 9th inning and a three-run homer in the top of the 11th in a 12-9 win. On May 11th, they were the first team to face a mass COVID-19 outbreak, forcing them to postpone that day's game against the White Sox: almost the entire coaching staff, starting with manager Terry Francona, had tested positive, as well as five players. When they resumed play on May 13th, pitching coach Carl Willis had to stand in as interim manager.

Awards and Honors

• All-Stars: Emmanuel Clase, Andrés Giménez and José Ramírez
• Mariano Rivera Award: Emmanuel Clase
• AL Gold Glove: Shane Bieber (P), Andrés Giménez (2B), Steven Kwan (LF) and Myles Straw (CF)
• AL Silver Slugger Award: José Ramírez (3B)
• Topps All-Star Rookie Team: Steven Kwan (OF)
• AL Manager of the Year: Terry Francona

Further Reading

• AP: "Just call them champions, young Guardians win AL Central", ESPN.com, September 25, 2022
• Mandy Bell: "Young Guardians poised for postseason history?", mlb.com, September 19, 2022. [1]
• Mandy Bell: "Young Guardians make history with AL Central title: Cleveland celebrates first division title since 2018 after sweep of Rangers", September 25, 2022. [2]
• Tom Withers (Associated Press): "New name, but Guardians have same on-field look in 2022", Yahoo! News, March 30, 2022. [3]

2022 MLB season by team