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Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Even with rookie Chase DeLauter putting together a strong inaugural campaign, the Guardians have gotten less from their outfielders on the offensive side of the ball than all but a few other contenders. Ahead of Monday’s deadline, they acquired outfielder Jo Adell from the Angels in exchange for catching prospect Jacob Cozart, a move that appears to be a half-measure unless they can fit Adell into the short side of a platoon and limit his defensive exposure.
Currently 57-56, three games behind the AL Central-leading White Sox and occupying the American League’s third Wild Card spot, the Guardians have scored just 3.95 runs per game this year with a 93 wRC+, both of which rank as the league’s second-lowest marks. A lack of offense from their outfielders has contributed significantly to that problem:
Lowest wRC+ by All Outfielders
Team PA HR BB% K% AVG OBP SLG wRC+ WAR Phillies 1297 35 5.3% 27.1% .243 .289 .380 81 0.5 Reds 1367 41 10.2% 24.5% .216 .304 .363 81 0.1 Astros 1326 40 9.0% 25.9% .220 .298 .376 90 3.2 Rays 1361 36 6.7% 17.9% .248 .301 .387 91 5.1 Guardians 1372 28 8.5% 18.7% .239 .310 .361 91 3.7 Rockies 1390 36 6.5% 20.0% .265 .322 .427 92 1.8 Diamondbacks 1356 30 8.8% 23.3% .234 .309 .397 93 4.3 Padres 1412 37 8.9% 25.1% .238 .311 .376 93 3.9 White Sox 1297 30 6.8% 21.3% .244 .309 .384 94 3.4 Giants 1336 35 4.5% 19.6% .257 .297 .408 94 1.5Guardians left fielders landed on my Replacement-Level Killers list a couple of weeks ago, as did their first basemen and designated hitters. Their left fielders have combined for just an 80 wRC+, their center fielders a 72 (albeit offset with good defense), but their right fielders have posted a 120 wRC+.
At first glance, Adell — who’s making just $5.2 million this season and has one more year of control after this — seems like an imperfect fit to fix any of those problems, as he’s struggled to replicate last year’s long-awaited breakout. And when I say long awaited… to recap, he was a 2017 first-round pick who cracked our Top 100 Prospects list in each of the next three seasons, ranking as high as no. 4 in 2020 as a 65-FV prospect. He was similarly regarded by other outlets thanks to his combination of plus-plus raw power and plus speed. But since debuting early in the 2020 season, he has generally struggled to make good contact, or at times any contact at all, with his lack of refinement limiting his opportunity to show off the tools that so tantalized talent evaluators. Not until he ran out of options in 2024, his age-25 campaign, did he spend a full season in the majors, and not until last year did he manage even a 100 wRC+ in any season. He hit .236/.293/.485 (112 wRC+) with 37 homers, though the Angels’ attempt to shoehorn him into center field — where he posted dreadful metrics (13 DRS, -8 FRV) in just 724 innings, not that he was much better at the corners given final numbers of -14 DRS and -13 FRV — limited him to a modest 1.2 WAR.
Even while being limited to 10 innings in center field this season, Adell’s offensive performance has taken enough of a step backwards that he’s been worth just 0.1 WAR. He’s hit just .239/.287/.395 (89 wRC+), and while he’s trimmed his strikeout rate from 26.4% to 23.7%, his walk rate has fallen from 5.8% to 3.5%. A career-worst 36.5% chase rate — about four percentage points higher than last year — hasn’t helped. Despite maintaining exceptional bat speed (97th percentile this year, 99th last year), his quality of contact has suffered. He’s lost almost two miles per hour in average exit velocity relative to last season, and his barrel rate has been more than cut in half:
Jo Adell Statcast Profile
Season BBE EV LA Barrel% HardHit% AVG xBA SLG xSLG wOBA xwOBA 2024 283 89.8 15.8 11.7% 44.5% .207 .222 .402 .426 .296 .314 2025 379 91.7 16.1 17.2% 49.6% .236 .260 .485 .549 .333 .365 2026 318 89.8 17.0 8.2% 43.7% .239 .257 .395 .438 .299 .323Adell has underperformed his expected slugging percentage in each of the last three seasons, and the trend hasn’t been helped by him pulling the ball less often, particularly in the air; over the three seasons shown above, his pulled air rate has dropped from 23.4% to 18.1% to 15.7%. His year-over-year performance has fallen off against changeups, sliders, and sinkers; after hitting .282 and slugging .408 against the last of those offerings last season (and being even more productive against them in 2024), he’s hit just .198 and slugged .279 against them this year despite chasing them less often.
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Defensively, Adell’s season might best be described as “adventurous.” In 869.1 innings in right field, he’s been below average, but -5 DRS and -3 FRV only goes so far without visuals. Recall that he made highlight reels when on April 5 he robbed the Mariners of three home runs in a single game:
But lest anyone think that harkened a Gold Glove, on June 2, Adell pulled a Jose Canseco, as a drive by the Rockies’ TJ Rumfield glanced off his glove and then bounced off his head (!) and over the fence. Rumfield was initially credited with a home run, though the official scoring on the play was revised to a four-base error on Adell. Though understandably embarrassed, fortunately he was not injured:
Unfortunately, this wasn’t even Adell’s first four-base error in the majors. When he was a rookie in 2020, a fly ball by the Rangers’ Nick Solak bounced off his glove and over the fence for a homer.
Adell’s overall production doesn’t stand out as an upgrade for the Guardians. While DeLauter has hit for a 150 wRC+ in 219 plate appearances as a right fielder and for a 124 wRC+ (.278/.347/.444) in 398 plate appearances overall, the only other primary outfielder on the Guardians with a wRC+ of 100 is Steven Kwan, who clawed his way up to that mark with a red-hot July following a very slow start and is hitting .258/.360/.317. It was his early-season struggles and those of Angel Martínez (.225/.260/.414, 85 wRC+) that led to the Guardians landing on my aforementioned left field Killers list.
In a market notoriously short on right field bats, Adell does have one strength that fits a clear need for Cleveland: He hits left-handed pitching. He’s absolutely raking against southpaws, consistent with the previous two seasons, though he’s struggling to a greater degree against righties:
Jo Adell Platoon Splits
Season Split PA BB% K% AVG OBP SLG wRC+ 2024–26 vs LHP 339 6.5% 21.8% .277 .327 .579 147 2024–26 vs RHP 1141 5.4% 27.3% .214 .275 .388 84 2026 vs LHP 130 3.8% 22.3% .303 .338 .571 148 2026 vs RHP 326 3.4% 24.2% .214 .267 .326 65The switch-hitting Martínez owns a 92 wRC+ in 176 plate appearances against righties this year, a step forward for him; a right field platoon between him and Adell could be an improvement. Manager Stephen Vogt could put DeLauter (a lefty who’s been above average against pitchers of either hand) in the field and Adell at DH to mitigate some of the defensive concerns. With Kwan back in left, that still leaves center field a problem. Lately, rookie Petey Halpin, a lefty-swinging 40-FV prospect, has been playing there with Kwan back in left, but he’s hit just .213/.246/.315 (55 wRC+) in 117 plate appearances, albeit while putting up 4 FRV in 261 innings. An alignment with Kwan in center, Adell and Martínez in left, and DeLauter in right would also work, though it leaves the Guardians needing a DH solution.
Following Saturday’s trade of Bo Naylor to the Brewers, Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti had this to say to reporters, including colleague David Laurila, regarding potential upgrades:
“There is a scarcity of right-handed bats available on the market. I think there are a lot of teams that are looking to add that type of player, and there are fewer players available than teams need. But just for clarity, I don’t think we’re limiting our scope to just right-handed hitters. We are trying to find ways to improve our offense.
“We need to continue to explore all of the external opportunities to help us get better, but most importantly, we need to make sure that we are doing what we can to help [players currently on the team] continue to get better. No matter who we bring in from the outside, no one or two people are going to change the trajectory of our season.”
As for the return for the Angels, who on Monday also traded José Soriano to the Blue Jays, Ryan Zeferjahn to the Cubs, and Brent Suter to the Braves, they’re getting Cozart, a 23-year-old catcher whom the Guardians chose in the second round of the 2024 draft out of North Carolina State. After finishing last season at Double-A Akron, Cozart has spent all of 2026 there, batting .239/.330/.384 (96 wRC+). He’s graded as a 40-FV prospect, with Eric Longenhagen providing this updated assessment:
Cozart continues to track like a good backup catcher. He’s a plus defender who excels at framing along three of the four borders of the strike zone (all but the top of it) as well as at ball blocking. He doesn’t have a great arm, but he does things to hasten his exchange (like throw from funky platforms) that control the running game enough that it shouldn’t be an issue. On offense, Cozart is looking to ambush pitches on the inner half. He sacrifices lots of contact away from him to do this. He has a 30-hit/40-power skill set on offense, below the primary catcher bar but still enough to consider him a good backup.
Angels catchers have combined for just a 60 wRC+ this season, and after trading Logan O’Hoppe — whose -13 DRS, -14 FRV, and -4.8 FRM only added to the team’s troubles — they have a catching tandem of Tyler Heineman and Travis d’Arnaud, neither of whom has even hit up to O’Hoppe’s low level this season. There’s no point in rushing Cozart to the majors, especially with Moisés Ballesteros (who arrived in the Zeferjahn trade) now in the fold, but he’s a useful backup option.
In the hours before the trade deadline, it’s sometimes difficult to judge a team’s moves because there may be more to come. By itself, the Guardians’ acquisition of Adell may not help much, but if it’s part of a larger set of moves that puts him in a position to succeed as a platoon bat, it could have a greater impact. We’ll soon find out.