Cleveland Guardians Spring Training Prospect Report 3/11/25

In the time you read this, Guardians pitchers walked another batter

SCOREBOARD

Los Angeles Dodgers 10, Cleveland Guardians 4 (Statcast)

STARTERS

Johnathan Rodriguez (DH): 0-4, 1 RBI - While Rodriguez didn’t get any hits on Tuesday, he did make HARD contact, with two batted balls in the game’s top ten including a 111.1 MPH groundout in the fifth inning that was the fifth-hardest hit ball in the majors yesterday.

Milan Tolentino (3B): 0-2 - Tolentino also got in on the loud out action with a 106.5 MPH lineout in the third.

Doug Nikhazy (SP): L (1-1), 1.2 IP, 4 H, 7 R (all earned), 4 BB, 1 HBP, 2 K, 1 HR allowed - Nikhazy started his outing with three straight balls to Dodgers DH Shohei Ohtani and didn’t particularly improve from there. While one’s first early-game action being against a regulars-laden Los Angeles lineup is admittedly baptism by inferno and nerves were almost certainly a factor, thos outing is certain to tap the breaks at least a little on a hype train driven entirely by performances in the fifth inning or later of early preseason games.

RESERVES

Kahlil Watson (CF): 1-2, 1 R, 1 K, 1 SB - Watson continued his streak of getting a hit in every multi-AB game this Spring in his first game with multiple trips to the plate since March 2 against the Brewers.

Micah Pries (RF): 2-2, 1 R, 1 3B, 1 RBI - Pries had the only multi-hit Tuesday for the Guards, with his 107.6 MPH triple in the sixth opening the Cleveland scoring account - which he would make a further deposit in by scoring himself later in the frame - and a single two innings later topping that in the exit velo department at 110.8 MPH, good for second on the game’s leaderboard.

Ralphy Velazquez (1B): 1-1, 1 RBI, 1 SF - Velazquez was productive in each of his first two major league Spring plate appearances, including driving in the aforementioned Pries run on a sac fly from the fourth big league pitch he’s ever faced.

Kyle Dernedde (SS): 0-2 - In another entry in the “much sound and fury signifying nothing” department, Dernedde grounded out both times he made contact - once at 104.7 MPH and another time at 106.9 MPH (that one resulting in a double play).

Christian Knapczyk (2B): 1-2, 1 R, 1 K - Kanpczyk singled on a line drive to left in his first preseason plate appearance for the Big Club, later getting driven in by…

Guy Lipscomb (LF): 1-1, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB - Lipscomb - who, like Pries in the sixth, was involved in both of the Guardians’ seventh-inning runs - got his 2025 preseason started with a 105.1 MPH RBI double to right field.

Alex Mooney (3B): 0-1, 1 K - Mooney struck out swinging after looking at a pair of strikes to send the game to the seventh-inning stretch, recording his first big league Spring out in the process.

RELIEVERS

Magnus Ellerts: 0.1 IP, 1 R (earned), 4 BB - Ellerts fared little better than Nikhazy in first-inning mop-up duty, managing only six strikes (one of which was an inning-ending flyout off the bat of Dodger 1B Freddie Freeman) in 22 pitches.

Josh Harlow: 0.1 IP, perfect, 1 K - Harlow, on the other hand, got the Guards out of the third quickly, striking out veteran Chavez Ravine mainstay Chris Taylor (all three whiffs coming on 91 MPH cutters) in a major league Spring debut he will remember for the right reasons.

Ryan Webb: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R (earned) - While his fastball was up a couple of MPH from his debut last Thursday, it was evident that he wasn’t in the ninth inning anymore.

Bradley Hanner: 1 IP, 2 BB, 3 K - Hanner did not allow any contact on 22 pitches in a bottom of the sixth that consisted entirely of two of the three true outcomes. A high-70s curveball was the workhouse of the outing (nine pitches) and, while he didn’t throw a fastball, his sinker filled the role admirably at 92-94 MPH.

Andrew Misiaszek: 1 IP, perfect, 1 K - Misiaszek is yet to allow an earned run in 6.2 innings this Spring (and 8.1 frames in his MLB preseason career) after a solid eighth that helped speed the game to a merciful conclusion.

DID NOT PLAY

RHP Reny Artiles
RHP Alonzo Richardson
RHP Robert Wegielnik
C Cameron Barstad
IF Alberto Mendez
OF Petey Halpin - first 40-man roster player to dress and not see action this Spring
OF Jose Pirela