Cleveland Guardians Prospect Report 4/22/25

No cooling off CJ Kayfus

SCOREBOARD

Lehigh Valley IronPigs 7, Columbus Clippers 3 - Statcast
Akron RubberDucks 5, Richmond Flying Squirrels 1
Great Lakes Loons 9, Lake County Captains 3
Lynchburg Hillcats 6, Fayetteville Woodpeckers 5

HIGHLIGHTS

Will Brennan (RF, Columbus): 2-5, 1 2B, 2 RBI - Brennan extended his org-leading on-base streak to 17 games with the only multi-hit performance of a lackluster night for the Clipper bats. His evening was highlighted by a 103.2 MPH ninth-inning double that provided the final two runs of the Clip Show’s mini-rally.

Dom Nunez (DH, Columbus): 1-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 K - Nunez’s 365-foot homer to right field (the longest-hit ball of the game despite having only a 94.9 MPH exit velocity) extended his home run streak to three games. While that is impressive enough in itself, this is from a guy who has only seven hits (including four homers and two doubles) in 33 at-bats so far this season. There’s feast-or-famine and then there’s whatever Dom is doing to start the season.

C.J. Kayfus (1B, Akron): 2-4, 1 R, 1 K, 1 SB - Kayfus extended the longest current hitting streak in the org to 14 games with this two hit effort, which brought his season slash line to .434/.524/.698 with eight extra-base hits (three doubles, four triples, and a homer) and 10 RBI over the course of his season-opening streak. For those doing the math, yes, that’s a 1.222 OPS on April 22. C.J. should be preparing for a trip down 271 in the not-so-distant future.

Kahlil Watson (LF, Akron): 1-3, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 SF, 1 K - While it’s a smaller sample size due to a season-opening injury, Watson has been nearly as impressive as Kayfus. After a hitless season debut, Kahlil is 5-for-15 with two doubles, a triple, a homer, and five RBI in four games since.

Tommy Mace (SP, Akron): W (2-2), 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R (earned), 3 BB, 3 K, 1 HR allowed - Mace “rebounded” (if you can call it that from his only multi-run start of the season so far (3 ER in 5.1 IP last Wednesday) with a stellar performance in his longest outing of 2025 to date. While his control issues (6.33 BB/9) persisted, there's no way that coming within one bad pitch of hurling six frames of one-hit shutout baseball is anything but a highlight.

Steven Perez (RP, Lake County): 3 IP, perfect, 3 K - Perez’s unblemished trio of innings in relief of Tugboat after a night that was…not exactly his best…was the highlight of a largely forgettable night of baseball in Eastlake. This was his second straight three-frame effort and saw him return to shutout baseball after allowing a single baserunner to cross home safely last Wednesday in Fort Wayne. Like Kayfus, Perez might be headed down I-271 soon, albeit on a more northern stretch of the highway.

Tommy Hawke (LF, Lynchburg): 2-3, 2 R, 2 BB, 1 K, 3 SB - Hawke continued a spectacular season so far with this multi-hit, multi-walk, multi-steal effort. Tommy is now slashing .333/.467/.375 with 18 stolen bases - the latter number good for second not only in the Carolina League, but also all of North American professional baseball (behind only Royals OF prospect Asbel Gonzalez of the Columbia Fireflies, who has already nabbed 22 bags). Given what they did with one 80s Indians mascot (the Baseball Bug), I wonder if the Captains will attempt to unearth the Tom E. Hawk costume in anticipation of Tommy Hawke’s seemingly inevitable promotion to the Corner of SOM Center and Vine.

Luis Merejo (1B, Lynchburg): 0-1, 2 R, 4 BB, 1 K, 3 SB - Merejo continued to display the impressive plate discipline that has marked the early portion of his 2025 campaign on t Tuesday with a season and career-high four walks, bringing his total for the year-to-date to 16. Coupled with his two HBPs, free passes have accounted for 18 of Luis’s 26 trips to the basepaths this season, good for a .236 isolated plate discipline. If he can improve the batting average part of his on-base percentage (currently at .190), he will be dangerous at the plate.

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES

Yordys Valdes (SS, Columbus): 1-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 SB - Valdes topped the Clipper exit velo chart in his Triple-A debut with a 105.3 MPH single to center in the ninth.

Christian Cairo (2B, Columbus): 1-3, 1 BB - After getting a hit in all five games he played in last week’s homestand against the Louisville Bats, Cairo picked up right where he left off in the opener of this week’s series in Allentown, Pa.

Mason Hickman (RP, Columbus): 2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 2 K - Hickman remains unscored upon in five innings of work since being activated from the Development List after doing a masterful job of damage control in his longest outing of the season so far after coming into the game in the wake of Parker Messick’s disastrous start.

Travis Bazzana (2B, Akron): 1-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 K - Bazzana’s fifth-inning single brought his season RBI total into double digits.

Jake Fox (CF, Akron): 1-4, 1 R, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 1 K - One-quarter of Fox’s hits this season (two of eight) are triples.

Jake Miller (RP, Akron): H (1), 2 IP, perfect, 2 K - Miller picked up his first professional hold with a pair of perfect frames.

Zane Morehouse (RP, Akron): 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K - Morehouse’s rough April 11 outing (4 ER in 1.1 IP) is thankfully starting to look like an outlier.

Esteban Gonzalez (LF, Lake County): 1-3, 1 R,1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K - Gonzalez’s sixth-inning solo shot provided the only Captain extra-base hit and RBI of the evening.

Alfonsin Rosario (RF, Lake County): 1-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB - Rosario extended his team-leading hit and on-base streaks to eleven and twelve games, respectively, by reaching twice last night.

Jaison Chourio (CF, Lake County): 1-4, 1 R, 2 K, 2 SB - Chourio opened his High-A stolen base account by swiping both second and third in the bottom of the eighth.

Bennett Thompson (C, Lynchburg): 1-3, 1 R,1 RBI, 1 HBP, 1 SB - Thompson’s third-inning RBI single extended his team-best hit streak to eleven games in a contest that saw his OPS actually decrease by twelve points (from .994 to .982) due to lack of multiple hits.

Jose Pirela (CF, Lynchburg): 1-2, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 1 K, 1 SB - While Pirela had an all-around solid game at the plate and on the basepaths last night, what everyone will remember this performance for is his first non-complex homer - an absolute blast to right field of the kind that makes you wish Single-A had statcast.

Sean Matson (RP, Lynchburg): S (1), 2 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 3 K - After blowing his first professional save opportunity last Wednesday, Matson successfully converted his second with a pair of scoreless frames.