Welcome back to the Guardians Beat newsletter. My name is Tim Stebbins, and this is my first season covering Cleveland for MLB.com. |
SAN FRANCISCO -- Dylan DeLucia did not have a standard start to his professional career, but nearly three years after he was selected in the MLB Draft, the 24-year-old is doing his part to make up for lost time. DeLucia was promoted to Double-A Akron for the first time on June 10. The right-hander was Cleveland’s sixth-round pick in the 2022 Draft, but he did not pitch with an affiliate that year and underwent Tommy John surgery in June ‘23. That delayed his pro debut until June 21, 2024. All things considered, DeLucia's rise to Akron was quick, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise. He earned Most Outstanding Player honors at the 2022 College World Series with Ole Miss. He entered Wednesday with a career 2.95 ERA in 106 2/3 innings over 26 games (24 starts) between the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League, Single-A Lynchburg, High-A Lake County, and Akron.
"There’s been a lot of things to be excited about with Dylan,” said Will Huntington, the Guardians’ assistant director of player development. "... The pedigree in college and just some of the things he showed during his collegiate career, especially the competitor [he was], the constantly showing up in big moments and in big games and rising to the occasion. We saw it in the College World Series. That's something we've seen be true in our organization as well.”
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We saw it last fall; DeLucia threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings vs. High-A Wisconsin in a decisive Game 3 of the 2024 Midwest League Championship Series, to help Lake County win the title. In his Akron debut last Wednesday, he threw six scoreless innings, allowed two hits and struck out five. DeLucia made 19 appearances (17 starts) with Lake County the past two seasons, so the Guardians felt his promotion to Akron was an "appropriate challenge,” Huntington said. "We've seen him be a guy who's not afraid to attack hitters, who limits walks, gets some strikeouts,” Huntington said. “So overall, [he’s a] pretty well-rounded, pretty exciting pitcher.” DeLucia features a four-seam fastball, slider and changeup. His four-seamer has been around 93-95 mph and getting up to 96 mph. This year, some of the keys for DeLucia have included him continuing to show consistency with his delivery, his fastball velocity and secondary execution. And with this being his first full season, getting through the season healthy will obviously be big. As for what DeLucia needs to do to keep advancing up the farm system? His stint with Akron is a good barometer for that. “As guys get challenged against better and better hitters, they tend to find out more about themselves and who they are as a pitcher,” Huntington said. "Just getting challenged to that higher level, hopefully is a great learning opportunity and a good moment to kind of work with us to figure out what those next steps are.” Here are some other recent developments in the farm system: |
Triple-A Columbus: OF Jhonkensy Noel Noel was optioned to the Clippers on June 8 to reset offensively after struggling in the Majors the first two months of the season. Through seven games with Columbus, he’s gone 10-for-29 (.345) with four doubles and two home runs. |
High-A Lake County: LHP Josh Hartle Hartle, Cleveland's No. 21 prospect, has thrown back-to-back six-inning scoreless starts for the Captains, in which he has allowed just five hits and two walks. The lefty (whom Cleveland acquired from the Pirates on Dec. 10 in the trade for Spencer Horwitz) has a 2.77 ERA in 55 1/3 innings over 12 starts this season. Single-A Lynchburg: OF Tommy Hawke Hawke, 22, entered Tuesday with 60 stolen bases, which ranked first in the Minor Leagues. What’s more, Hawke (the Guardians’ sixth-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft) has only been thrown out five times. |
MLB MORNING LINEUP PODCAST |
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FIRST ALL-STAR BALLOT UPDATE |
MLB released the first 2025 All-Star Game ballot update on Monday. Here are a few notes as it pertains to the Guardians:
• José Ramírez was the leading vote-getter among American League third basemen (968,754 votes) and had a substantial lead over second-place Alex Bregman (397,581). Ramírez also ranked third among AL players, behind Aaron Judge (1,568,527) and Cal Raleigh (1,043,168) • Steven Kwan (457,882 votes) ranked fourth among AL outfielders, behind Judge, Riley Greene (675,070) and Mike Trout (475,265). • Bo Naylor (10th among catchers), Carlos Santana (eighth among first basemen) and Daniel Schneemann (ninth among second basemen) also cracked the top 10 at their position. The first phase of voting ends at noon ET on June 26, and you can vote up to five times per day. The leading vote-getter in each league will receive an automatic starting spot. From there, the top two vote-getters at each position will advance to Phase 2 of voting (and the top six outfielders).
However, if an outfielder finishes as a league’s top vote-getter (as Judge is pacing toward), then only the next four outfielders will advance to Phase 2, to determine who secures the final two spots. You can find the complete ballot standings here, and you may vote here.
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The Guardians have a series of promotions scheduled for next week’s six-game homestand against the Blue Jays and Cardinals. That includes Free Shirt Friday (June 27, first 10,000 fans) and a Cleveland Buckeyes cap (June 28, first 15,000 fans). Theme nights with unique promotional items (with the purchase of a special ticket) include Educators Night (June 25, Guardians tote bag) and Black Excellence Night (June 27, limited-edition jersey with the Guardians “Black History C” logo). More information on the promotional schedule and how to get tickets is available here. |
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