Kyle Manzardo has struggled at the plate to start the year, but how concerned should the Cleveland Guardians be?
Kyle Manzardo’s start to the 2026 season is not off to how he or the Cleveland Guardians would’ve liked.
Manzardo was one of the key pieces in Cleveland’s young core, and seemed destined for another big season after hitting 27 home runs last year. However, through Manzardo’s first 39 at-bats, he has just four hits (.103 AVG).
The question is: Should the Guardians be concerned with Manzardo’s slow start to the season?
No.
Well, at least not yet.
Manager Stephen Vogt has put it perfectly over the last week; Manzardo is hitting the ball hard, it’s just not finding grass. The slugger currently has an average exit velocity ot 93.1 mph, which ranks in the 90th percentile compared to the rest of baseball.
At some point, that hard contact has to turn in Manzardo’s favor, and that’s represented in another advanced metric that works in his favor. Manzardo’s xwOBA is currently a .330, which basically means he’s one of baseball’s unluckiest hitters right now.
Something that is worth monitoring is that both Manzardo’s whiff and strikeout rates are up, but still close to where they were a year ago. Clearly, he’s proven to live through a little bit of swing and miss, and still hit for power, but worth noting.
The good news to focus on is that it looks like some of that could finally be turning for Manzardo, too.
In Cleveland’s series opener against the Atlanta Braves, Manzardo blasted his first home run of the year. It was a 452-foot moonshot to deep center field off Bryce Elder, making the pitcher’s first earned run he’s given up this season.
“Obviously, he's been hitting the ball hard just to have people, and so to see him get a result was nice,” said Vogt after the game. “We know it's going to turn. We have a lot of faith… it's going to turn at some point.”
If Manzardo’s struggles continue, then, yes, it will become a concern, and the Guardians might look to move him further down in the lineup. However, it’s still incredibly early in the season, and with how hard Manzardo is hitting the ball, that luck has to shift at some point.
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