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The Guardians introduced that outfield prospect Chase DeLauter underwent surgical procedure to handle a core muscle/sports activities hernia damage. As a part of the announcement, the membership relayed that related circumstances have required gamers about eight to 12 weeks to return to play.
DeLauter, 23, is likely one of the membership’s prime prospects. The sixteenth total choose from the 2022 draft, he has 406 minor league plate appearances below his belt to date, having hit .317/.387/.517 in these for a 147 wRC+.
He isn’t but on the membership’s 40-man roster however he got here into camp as a non-roster invite. That technically put him within the competitors for an Opening Day job, although that was at all times going to be a little bit of a protracted shot. Whereas he’s had sturdy outcomes when it comes to high quality, accidents have stood in the best way of amount.
He was as soon as projected as a possible prime 10 choose within the draft however a foot damage triggered him to fall to sixteenth. Recurring foot accidents have held him again since then, with DeLauter stepping into simply 57 minor league video games in 2023 and 39 video games in 2024.
Although his numbers have been good and he does have six Triple-A video games on his observe document already, the Guardians had been probably planning to have him get extra reps in a minor league setting to begin 2025. That plan will now should be delayed, as DeLauter must be on the shelf into Might or June.
Provided that accidents have already prevented him from constructing a notable workload, it’s lower than superb that this season is beginning with one more setback. Although if DeLauter is ready to return in eight to 12 weeks, he would nonetheless have time to set a brand new profession excessive when it comes to video games performed in an expert season.
As soon as he will get wholesome and into kind, there may very well be a path to massive league taking part in time within the Cleveland outfield. Steven Kwan and Lane Thomas ought to have left and middle area spoken for, respectively, although Thomas is an impending free agent after 2025. Proper area, DeLauter’s probably future place, will probably be dealt with by some mixture of Will Brennan, Jhonkensy Noel and Johnathan Rodriguez. Each Noel and Rodriguez simply debuted within the majors final yr. Brennan has a bit extra expertise however with subpar offense and questionable protection.
In the long term, the Guards are certainly nonetheless hoping for DeLauter to take up a job in that outfield combine, although he’ll ideally present some prolonged well being in some unspecified time in the future. For now, it’s one more roadblock. Even when he doesn’t push for a serious league debut throughout the 2025 season, he’ll have to be added to the 40-man in December to be shielded from the Rule 5 draft.
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