Guardians Prospects
Trenton Deholm (SP, Surprise): 4IP, 3H, 2BB, 6K - Another pretty good outing for Denholm in the AFL. It’s hard to truly evaluate his knuckleball development because he continues to look like a pitcher who throws a knuckleball rather than a knuckleball pitcher. He only threw six total in this game and only hit 90 total and only got seven whiffs total, mostly on his sinker, changeup and curve. The results are good, which can be tough in Arizona for pitchers, but it’s hard to project anything going forward with him in this experiment.

Juan Benjamin (2B, Surprise); 1-3, R, HR, 2 RBI - I’ve noted before that Benjamin isn’t exactly lighting it up in the AFL this fall but he did hit a ball 444 feet in this game and 105 off the bat for a homer. That’s pretty shocking considering he’s always been a contact first bat. The air in Arizona can do that sometimes, but still surprised and a nice day for him in a tough fall campaign.

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Zane Morehouse (RP, Surprise): 0.1IP, BB - Morehouse was only needed for one out after he walked a batter.

Gabriel Arias (PH-SS, Tiburones): 0-2, 2K - By the far the toughest game for Arias in the LVBP. He didn’t start and still entered the game and stuck out twice.
[Whether he's hot or cold, Arias always is good for a bunch of strikeouts]

Angel Genao (SS, Aguilas): 1-3, E - Just one hit after a nice big offensive day by Genao earlier this week. He did make his fifth error of the winter already, so that’s a little concerning but I don’t know the condition of the field down there or the official scoring tendencies. So not going to look into it too much at this point.

Guardians Prospective
@CleGuardPro
·
31m
The following Cleveland #Guardians minor league players have elected free agency.

OF Jorge Burgos
INF Christian Cairo
INF Yordys Valdes

RHP Trey Benton
RHP Bradley Hanner
RHP Allan Hernandez
RHP Tyler Naquin
RHP Riley Pint
LHP Parker Mushinski

Valdes and Cairo were 2nd and 3rd [or maybe 3rd and 4th] round picks in the same draft. Valdes was at signing described as a fine fielder but a weak hitter and that never changed. Cairo a bit the opposite but neither skill ever excelled; he was given a chance as a Rule 5 pick from our system but returned. Now both can go anywhere and hope to continue to develop. As we know from Schneemann and Fry among others sometimes it takes a long time.

Hanner was a 2nd round pick we got in exchange for Benson along with an OF who's already disappeared.

Cleveland routinely has fewer minorleague free agents than most teams since we develop our own talent. Some teams have as many as a couple dozen.
Mushinski and Pint are the only guys on that list who CLE signed as a MLFA last winter. I'm not sure if Pint ever actually pitched this summer?

BA reviewed their preseason guesses as Sleeper Prospects in 2025 after the season. For Cleveland, one was a big success:

Juneiker Caceres, OF, Guardians

What We Said: Caceres shows strong bat-to-ball skills with promising underlying exit velocity data, hinting at more unrealized power in his profile.

How He Finished: Caceres moved to Low-A after the season concluded in the Arizona Complex League and continued to show off an impressive offensive profile. He more than held his own as one of the Carolina League’s youngest players and helped Lynchburg win the championship.

[I am not familiar with the second; but his very early returns look good:]

Alexander Garcia, RHP, Guardians

What We Said: Garcia signed with Cleveland out of Venezuela in 2024 and put forth a ho-hum pro debut in the Dominican Summer League. He returned to the level in 2025 and has been one of the best pitchers on the Guardians’ two DSL clubs. He got a chance to showcase his talent in the DSL all-star game and didn’t disappoint. In the league’s midsummer classic, Garcia showed a lively fastball up to 96 mph and complemented it with a sweeping breaking ball and a hard-dropping changeup. Together, the repertoire has helped Garcia strike out 48 hitters in 34.2 innings.

How He Finished: Garcia’s 48 strikeouts were the most on his team, and he held hitters to a .135 average. He’ll need to limit the walks as he moves through the system.

want the full list of 549 Minor League free agents?

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... ents-2025/

I skimmed the list and found some interesting names, mainly just looking for ex-Indi/Guardians
3 regular starting pitchers of not too long : Zach Plesac, Cal Quantrill, Adam Plutko
A top prospect: Catcher Francisco Mejia;j a high draft pick Lenny Torres. Some other draftees who never made it to the majors for us, Justin Merryweather who has had a big league career, Anthony Misiewicz, Ryder Ryan, Randy Lebaut
Some other briefly Cleveland major leaguers; Xzavion Curry, Oscar Mercado, Ben Gamel, Owen Miller; very briefly Brian Taylor and Alex Young
A couple infielders who had more success elsewhere: Christian Arroyo, Alex Velazquez
And though never with Cleveland, top 10 prospect who flopped bigtime Eloy Jiminez; and the perpetually fast and still only 36 year old Billy Hamilton.

Guardians Prospective
@CleGuardPro
·
10m
Very good list by
@AramLeighton8
with six #Guardians in his top 100. I'm happy to see someone finally including Velazquez back on a list, deserving.

34) Chase DeLauter
48) Travis Bazzana
56) Angel Genao
70) Cooper Ingle
91) Ralphy Velazquez
97) Khal Stephan

Yes, nice to see Velazquez recognized for his very solid second half offense in Lake County and in Akron.
Chourio has of course fallen way out of the Top 100.
Braylon Doughty may not be far behind
And maybe Espino who in extremely limited time looked top notch in Arizona.

Baseball America highlights Arizona League prospects:

7 Arizona Fall League Players Who Boosted Their Stock In 2025

we’ve compiled a list of seven AFL players whose 2025 performances could mean an awful lot to their careers moving forward.

Daniel Espino, RHP, Guardians

In any other scenario, mentioning a player who only tossed 4.2 innings this fall would certainly raise eyebrows. However, that small sample size is a result of Espino’s resilience in the wake of missing the past three years with injuries that kept him off the mound.

During an appearance on Baseball America’s Hot Sheet Show, the 24-year-old righthander even joked about how the Guardians’ complex in Goodyear, Arizona, should be named after him given how much time he’s spent rehabbing there.
In total, Espino threw 84 pitches (50 for strikes) with seven strikeouts to three walks. His longest outing lasted 1.2 innings (39 pitches)—the most he’s thrown in a single outing since April 2022. The Guardians’ 2019 first-rounder sat 94-98 mph with his fastball, and he showed a plus slider that impressed scouts.

With all the time he’s missed, there is a strong belief that Espino’s destiny is trending toward a role in the bullpen rather than as a starter, like he was once projected.

Here's a You Tube interview with Espino. Don't know if you can open it

Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGpwqwfaJ8A

Will Espino be a candidate for the bullpen in 2026?
Starting rotation with him is concerning.

Guardians News and Notes: Saguaros Win AFL Championship

News and Notes for Saturday, November 15th, 2025

by Madelyn Novak

Nov 15, 2025, 10:19 AM CST

The Surprise Saguaros won the AFL championship with a key hit from Guardians second base prospect Juan Benjamin.

Sagauros 9, Javelinas 4 was the final score. No other special news of note for Guardians players active in winter ball. Carlos Hernandez gave up 3 runs in an inning of work and Angel Martinez struck out four times, so best to forget those debuts.

We are officially in the offseason doldrums, but with the deadline to put Rule 5 eligible prospects on the 40-man roster on Tuesday, November 18th and the deadline to tender players a contract on Friday, November 21st, we should see some activity soon. The Guardians seem likely to protect shortstop Angel Genao, outfielder Kahlil Watson, and right-handed pitcher Austin Peterson... then another slew of pitchers like Yorman Gomez, Steven Perez, Matt Jachec, and Trenton Denholm may get consideration.

Anthony Castrovince had a nice piece on Stephen Vogt’s presser about his new coaches.

https://www.mlb.com/news/stephen-vogt-guardians-bench-coach-tony-arnerich-look-alike?adobe_mc=TS=1763223358%7CMCMID=07266777041613146278510668230452312126%7CMCORGID=A65F776A5245B01B0A490D44@AdobeOrg&affiliateId=mlbapp-android_webview&rsid=mlbat.bat.android&theme=dark

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