Kyle Manzardo Had Great Numbers, But Was A Numbers Casualty

There are all kinds of cliches out there, especially when it comes to numbers.

“Numbers don’t lie”, “you can manipulate numbers to say what you want”, and of course, the numbers on the back of the baseball card. But sometimes, even when you have these numbers .381/.458/.476 you are still a casualty of a different number like 26. Let me explain.

The slash line above was the spring training numbers for a very talented young prospect for the Cleveland Guardians named Kyle Manzardo. He is actually the #2 prospect in the Guardians organization. He plays first base, he bats left and throws right. He is 23 years of age, and got that above stat line in just 29 spring training plate appearances.

This poor kid has been a Cougar (College in Washington State), a Pickle (Portland in the West Coast League), a Stinger (Wilmar of the Northwoods League). Then he was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2021 MLB player draft by the Tampa Bay Rays and the poor guy was forced to be a Hot Rod (Bowling Green Hot Rods High A in the Tampa organization) and a biscuit in the Double-A Southern League. Having to be all those things alone should get you a major league contract!

Then on July 21st 2023, he was traded from the Rays to the Guardians where he became a Clipper in Columbus Ohio. Manzardo was the return for Aaron Civale. The 6 foot 205 pound native of Idaho has always hit at every stop of his journey, but despite his consistently impressive offensive numbers he ended up being a victim of another number.

The decision not to have Kyle share time with Josh Naylor at first base and DH means that another player will get to do that. That player will more than likely be Deyvison De Los Santos. His spring training slash line was, not including yesterday’s start at DH against the Royals was .257/.257/.371. Last year he was a Sod Poodle (i swear I am not making these names up) at AA Amarillo in the Diamondback’s organization. There he hit .254/.297/.431 with 20 home runs in 481 plate appearances. But none of those numbers were the ones that stung (see what I did there) Manzardo.

The number that got Kyle was 26. As in the 26 man roster. You see the Guardians took Deyvison in the Rule 5 Draft. When the Guardians did that they paid $100,000 to the Diamondbacks. Rule 5 Draft picks are assigned directly to the drafting club’s 26-man roster and must be placed on outright waivers in order to be removed from the 26-man roster in the same season. Should the player clear waivers, he must be offered back to his previous team for $50,000 and can be outrighted to the Minors only if his original club does not wish to reacquire him. But, I guarantee you the Diamondbacks would take him back in a minute. In fact, I can tell you that Arizona was afraid if they left him unprotected in the Rule 5 Draft, he would get claimed, but they couldn’t protect everyone, and the Guardians snatched him up.

Now, De Los Santos is by far a polished hitter.

“Chris Valaika and the hitting team really dove in with him over the last five days and made some slight adjustments,” said manager Stephen Vogt. “He had five at-bats on the backfield the other day and really saw and started to get more and more comfortable with the slight adjustments he’s making. That’s a really good sign.” 

Used from an article by Tommy Wild

However, in the seven days following those recent swing adjustments Devy (his nickname to his Guardian counterparts) has hit .385/.385/.692 with an OPS of 1.077 including a double and a home run.

“He’s responding really well to the coaching and has bought into what we’ve asked him to do. He has owned it, he has asked for it. Anytime you can partner with the player and you get them to want that as well. I like what I’m seeing and. He came from another organization at 20 years old, is just getting comfortable with everybody here and for him to put the trust into the hitting group, and vice versa, I think we’re headed in the right direction.”

Guardians Manager Steven Vogt

Much like the Diamondbacks could not protect all their players and left Deyvison exposed to the Rule 5 Draft, the Guardians can’t keep everyone on the 26 man roster. The Guardians like what they saw in Manzardo as well, they just can’t take the chance of losing De Los Santos. There are much worse things than having a AAA farm system full of talent.

Baseball is truly a numbers game, and sometimes just having good ones, is not good enough.

-Ballentine

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