BEAVER TOWNSHIP – With spring training a little over a month away, Cleveland Guardians radio broadcaster Jim Rosenhaus is already gearing up for his 20th season of calling all the play-by-play action.

According to Rosenhaus, the excitement of last year’s Central Division race, a run which saw the Guardians go 17-2 from September 5-24 to overtake the Detroit Tigers for their second consecutive division title under manager Steven Vogt, was a special unfolding.

“It really was amazing.” Rosenhaus told the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s meeting at Avion Banquet Center. “It was actually 15½ games back at the low point behind the Tigers for first place and obviously a little smaller than that to make the playoffs, so for them to come all the way back and win the division was historical. No one had ever come back from that many games behind to win a division or a pennant before there were divisions so it was special. Sometimes, when you are in that type of race and you are watching it every day, you don’t realize what is going on, then one day you look up and if they win a game, they move into a first place tie. If they win another one, they are in the division lead and it makes you wonder just how they did that.

“They played exceptional baseball and certainly needed some help from the Tigers, but even if Detroit had played poorly, unless Cleveland plays really well it would not have happened. It was really neat, so credit Steven Vogt first for kind of what he instilled in this team. There were certain players in there that wouldn’t let the team quit. They just kept playing every day and it worked out great.”

The Guardians return a solid nucleus in ’26 but still have some areas that they must shore up if they expect to ‘three-repeat’ as division champions, then make a deep playoff run.

“I think they really like what they have starting pitching-wise,” Rosenhaus said. “I don’t know if it was a surprise, but it was a huge difference from 2024 where they really had to rely on the bullpen. Last year, their starting pitchers threw more innings than any starting staff in baseball. That was huge because they had really leaned on the bullpen the year before and you can’t do that in back to back years. The starters made terrific gains with improvements from Gavin Williams and Logan Allen. Tanner Bibee improved from the start of the season, Slade Cecconi had the best year of his career and they are all back. They give Cleveland depth in an area where every team in baseball is looking for starting pitching depth.

“They like the bullpen where Cade Smith is back and he will be closing games. They made some moves this off-season to augment that bullpen a little bit but the area that they are trying to improve, no question, is offensively. They need to score more runs if they can and it’s probably going to have to come from within. A couple of the key names to keep an eye on is the return to health of David Fry, who was coming off Tommy John surgery last year so that hampered him in the first half. Then, he had an awful injury at the end of the year when he was hit in the face with a fastball but he is fully recovered and doing his regular off-season routine so that is great news. Keep an eye on Chase DeLauter and George Valera in the outfield, two young guys who have had injury issues for a long time but got healthy at the end of last season, played and were contributors in the postseason so hopefully they can stay healthy and be real pluses to that line-up because they need some help offensively.

“Also, there’s Jose Ramirez. As long as you have your best player in Jose Ramirez, somehow, someway your team is probably going to win more games than people think they should and I think that’s been the secret sauce for this team, just having him and what he means to this ball club. He has been invaluable the past couple seasons, is hilarious, a true competitor and fun to be around for sure.”

Rosenhaus said Vogt is the two-time reigning American League Manager of the Year for a reason.

“Communication is definitely his strength,” he said. “It’s amazing in that he won Manager of the Year two years in a row and they were such completely different seasons. I think the big challenge in his first year was that he was a first-year Major League manager with no managing experience at any level but was fortunate that the team got off to a good start, so there weren’t those crisis points that he faced this past year. Then in 2025, they were way behind, there were two pitchers that MLB took off the roster pending an investigation and that was certainly a challenge. He has a way of not making the tough times worse than they are and just told these guys to go out there and play the game and if we play it well enough, then we will win enough games and be where we want to be. Plus, he had enough guys in the clubhouse who believed in that.

“There were some low points last year that were a real challenge, but he’s pretty good at when the one day ends just leaving it there, starting fresh the next day and trying to make the best of that day while not letting the day before hamper what you are trying to do that day. I think everybody tries doing that, but he was really good at imparting that wisdom on his team.”

Rosenhaus and longtime booth partner, Tom Hamilton, will return to the air on February 21 when the Guardians Radio Network is set to broadcast their annual spring training opener with the Cincinnati Reds from Goodyear Ballpark.

Next week, Brian Campbell, Youngstown State head softball coach will serve as guest speaker.