2/13/26: Guardians Weekly

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Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network.

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Hi everyone, welcome to Guardians Weekly Jim Rosenhouse along with you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland.

Our last of our hot stove shows from Northeast Ohio before heading out to spring training.

That's where we will join you next week.

So good times ahead as we'll have reports from good year throughout the spring and then on into the regular season,

which begins on March the 26th.

A lot to get to on this week's show.

In the second half of our program, we will hear from Ryan LaFever,

the longtime broadcaster for the Kansas City Royals and give us an update on the Royals hopes for the 2026 campaign.

We'll also visit with Guardians pitcher Slade Cicconi.

Get his thoughts on the season ahead as well as a brief look back at a year ago.

A real breakthrough season for him.

But first we had a chance to catch up with David Fry recently about midway through the off season as he continued to make his way back from an injury plagued 2025 campaign.

Remember back in 2024, he was an all star hitting 14 home runs and driving in 51, playing several different positions, including first, third, the outfield also catching.

So a little bit of everything for David Fry, a designated hitter as well.

But last year coming off of Tommy John's surgery, a late start.

And then at the end of the year with a week to go, he was struck in the face with a pitch from Terrick Scoobal that ended his year before the postseason began.

When we caught up with him, they look great.

Things are progressing very well for him as spring trainings right around the corner.

And he says the biggest change this off season, another addition to the Fry family.

Yeah, it's been an unbelievable blessing.

I have a second daughter in the timing of it to where I get to be at home and just be dad for a little bit and learn how to take care of two girls now, which I say take care of my wife does most of the work.

But it's been super fun and nice now kind of like getting back into a normal off season doing baseball stuff.

And certainly fans want to know how you do how you are doing after a really scary injury at the tail end of the regular season.

How things going with your recovery and getting back to baseball?

Yeah, feeling great.

As of like last week, clear to like have normal workout, hit, throw, do everything.

Definitely a god thing that it wasn't anything more serious.

And I just had to miss a few weeks and kind of back and getting ready for this next season.

And when you look back on it, that stretch, end of regular season and then a postseason run, I'll be at short.

What was that like for you and how important was it to be able to come around here during the postseason and be around your teammates?

Oh, huge. I mean, it's why you play the regular season.

The goal in the regular season is to make the playoffs and when you make the playoffs, the goal is to win the World Series.

And just that run that we had in the last month of the season, that was a part of most of it playing.

But even after I got hit, just like just the way the team came together and you know, the playoffs are so much fun.

I wouldn't even allow to be in the dugout. I was in the clubhouse, but just being those games are just so different.

There's so much energy and we were super excited.

I was hoping that we would get staying clean a little bit longer, but hopefully we can change that this year.

You mentioned a run at the end and it was uncommon historically so to be able to complete the job and win the division.

What was it like going through that on a day-to-day basis maybe late August and then on in the September?

So much fun. I mean, just the group that we have, no matter what's happening, we have so much fun together, whether we're in the clubhouse out there playing whatever it is at the hotel together.

And just there was never any like, oh gosh panic, we're not playing good, whatever.

It was just, hey, we just keep doing what we're doing.

We know at the end of the day the results are going to finally come and it took a while, but they finally didn't.

I remember looking at Bo and Hegey the last week of the year and I was like, I don't think you guys have called it barrel in like a month.

Our pitchers didn't give up any runs, but it was really cool to be a part of and just, especially with what our pitchers did, just watching them kind of curious that last month.

David Fry joining us, obviously with an injury where it was sustained.

I know the plan was full recovery, Tommy John, you're going to catch a lot. Is that still the plan going in the next season?

Yeah, I think so. Whenever we kind of talked about it, it was kind of like maybe how 24 was where I'm able to catch and then go to other positions as needed.

But that's kind of how I'm preparing this off season is get ready to catch as much as possible.

And then, you know, just kind of like every other year with me, whatever situation arises, be ready to play whatever position they tell me and I'll be happy with it.

Everybody does their off seasons differently for you. What does that mean? Where do you do your workouts and how far along are you at this point?

So yeah, we're in Louisiana now. We're building next to my wife's parents and we're about 30 minutes from where I went to college.

And so I still know a couple of the coaches up there pretty well and I just go up there. They have full weight room, work out facilities and obviously cages and stuff.

So I get to work out there and then go go home and be dad for the rest of the day.

It's a nice break from the trail and all over the place and then you have to, once spring training comes, get the girls ready to travel and follow me everywhere.

Just because it's fun. The name of the town that your college is in.

Nakedish. Nakedish. Try and spell that folks. You'll never get it. But thank goodness you can pronounce it. That's awesome.

Swing wise. It just seemed like it was a challenge to get where you like to be able to get it to a good spot here this off season so far and feel real confident going in the spring training.

Yeah, I've started hitting some and just kind of looking back, I think during the rehab process, you know, maybe gotten some bad habits.

I don't know if it was me trying to baby it with my elbow or if it was just, you know, hitting and you don't really realize it and you get to bat some bad habits and then all of a sudden it's

going to go face, road on, scuba and freed and it's like, all right, got to be ready to go and you're kind of playing catch up.

But yeah, I feel really good about where we're at. I've been in contact with Fank or our hitting coach and he's had a lot of good stuff for me and feels super confident where we're at and I'm kind of getting ready for the season.

He mentioned the team and why it was so fun to be a part of that a year ago and at least so far not a whole lot of changes and the good cast of characters that seems to be coming back.

What is it that makes this group click that maybe allows them to overcome some tough times and get where they want to be?

Yeah, I think it's just, I mean, there's like kind of cliches. It is, I guess, we just like really love being around each other.

It's just a group that knows how to have fun but also prepare really, really well. I think our staff mix with our players do a great job every week of preparing for each series.

And I think that kind of gives us a little advantage before the game even starts of okay, even if they might have a slight advantage here.

Here's how we're going to overcome it by preparing and our team buys into it and we're also, we just have a lot of really talented guys in there.

How much do you keep track of what's going on with with other teams, different transactions, things like that as a big part of this team?

Is that something you keep track of daily or you just kind of figure it out when you get the spring training?

Yeah, I would say, especially this off season, having our second daughter, I've been on my phone very little.

So I try to keep up with like the major dates that happen and see what's happening with things.

But yeah, if you were to ask me what's kind of happening in the baseball world right now, I wouldn't be able to tell you.

Alright, most importantly, and we'll end on this.

We're recording this in the clubhouse.

The clubhouse dynamic, you locker fairly close if not right next to Austin hedges.

How do you keep it together in that situation and how much of a challenge is that?

Very challenging.

I have probably the hardest job on the team because I have to keep them in check all year.

I mean, you got to deal with a dirty locker.

He's probably smelling a little bit that day.

And then he's just, he's just loud and you got to keep him in check.

And you never know what you're going to hear that day.

No, but being serious, I'm very happy.

He's coming back and I'll gladly take on the role of trying to keep him in check all year.

I was going to ask you, what was your reaction when he resigned? Good or bad?

Very happy, but I got my work cut out very enough.

David, great to see you. Thanks for coming by.

Yeah, thank you.

That's David Fry who certainly is optimistic about what lies ahead for 2026.

Same holds true for Slate Sikoni, the Guardian starting pitcher.

We'll visit with him next on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.

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So Coney and a good rhythm throwing strikes.

And has had hitters off balance from the get go.

Here's Coney's pitch.

Swing and a miss.

Strike three.

He strikes out the side.

Now the tutu delivery.

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96 miles an hour.

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Slate, Coney.

Reaching back for a little extra.

Welcome back to Guardian's weekly Jim Rosenhaus.

Back with you from progressive field downtown Cleveland.

Guardian's getting ready for full squad workouts at spring training.

They begin next week.

The pictures are there already, including Slate, Coney,

who we caught up with midway through the off season.

Last year, a breakthrough year for Coney.

As Major League highs and starts with 23 innings pitched with 132.

Finish seven and seven.

And was a mainstay in that starting rotation.

And he says the trade prior to last season that brought him from Arizona

changed everything for him.

Yeah.

I mean, it certainly changed the trajectory of my career being traded here

and being given the opportunity that I was given and being in a position to take advantage of it.

I think there's a lot to build on off of last year.

I certainly know that I did not reach my ceiling or my potential.

But from where I was in 24 to where I got to in 25,

the progress was very eye-opening to show what that potential could be

if I just continue working hard and doing the right things.

Just visiting with you in spring training,

before you threw a regular season pitch for the team,

it just seemed like you were excited about what was going on

and then what was it that you realized pretty early on

that could be really good for you here?

I saw that my interests and Cleveland's interests were aligned.

And we both saw areas in me that needed improvement,

but we also saw the good that I did.

And we were able to have very specific plans put in place to attack

the things that I needed to do better without losing my strengths.

Slates of Coney joining us.

Breakthrough year for you and you were a part of that run at the end of the season

that saw this team reach the postseason number one win a division,

which was historically unlikely.

I think others were thinking it, but you said it when things were at their worst.

What gave you confidence in July to say this team could make the postseason

when it looked like an insurmountable challenge?

Just the guys in this locker room, I saw the way that they showed up after the losses.

You know, nobody came in here and carried one day to the next

or one pitch or a bat or poor out-air, poor game to the next.

It was good, bad, and different.

Next day was a clean slate, new day, new opportunity.

And I took a lot of crap online for what I said.

A lot of people called me delusional.

A lot of people said I was off my rocker.

But not in here.

Not nobody in here ever.

There's never a point in time where anyone in this building agreed

with any of those statements that people were saying outside this building.

And that is another reason why we did what we did was because we didn't listen to the noise

and the things that people outside this building who don't know what goes on inside this building were saying.

From a fans perspective, we're watching this develop, and it was really fun.

And each day seemed to be more fun than the next because of what was happening.

What was it like in here as you got closer to accomplishing what you wanted to?

We played that win playlist a lot after games, man.

We signed new every song by each word.

It was fun.

We were in here freaking.

I mean, we had guys in the locker a couple over from me playing Super Smash Bros after games.

We had some guys drinking beer.

We had some guys that were just happy to be here and just enjoying the ride.

I mean, it was, you know, the vibes were perfect.

And even after the losses, you know, we weren't coming in here hanging our heads.

I mean, we weren't partying and listening to music.

I think what we were like, you know, we lost today.

We did some things well.

We did some things bad.

Let's learn from what we didn't do great and show up tomorrow and be better.

So obviously you want to go further than it turned out the team was able to.

But what has that done this off season as you've talked to different guys on the team?

You're here for the mid-December workouts in terms of focus for the next season

and what you want to carry maybe a step further or two.

Well, you know, from the looks of it right now, it seems like we're pretty much returning the entire September staff

that went on that incredible run along with the pitching staff that was responsible for, you know, helping us do that.

And, you know, the catchers that were calling all the pitches and, you know, everybody that was a part of that September run

was going to be back in this building on April 1st.

And I think that gives us so much confidence that it's like, hey, if we just work

and we all just get a little bit better, we were already so good, you know, last year.

We were so good.

If we just get a little bit better and sharpen up a little bit of this and a little bit of that

and stay a little bit healthier and just do the little things a little tiny bit better.

We have a legitimate chance to be a top five pitching staff in this league

and also be the cheapest pitching staff in this league, which is a really nice, really nice mix.

Changing the subject completely.

Earlier today, had a chance to visit with Doug McKasey.

Rare in a major league clubhouse.

Our two guys who played on the same travel ball team at eight or nine or ten somewhere.

We were still in the little field, man.

We've known each other since we were ten years old.

We played together, a team called Team Florida, growing up.

And we've known each other ever since.

Yeah, as soon as I got traded, I think he was one of the first people I tried to reach out to.

So I was like, I get to, like, I mean, he knows my dad.

You know, I know his parents.

Like, we stayed at each other's houses when we were like to eleven years old.

Like, it was really like a full circle moment.

And he said, you guys just blistered teams and only lost like four games.

Can you confirm that information?

Correct.

We actually, in two years, we did lose a total of four games.

We would actually, most of the terms we played, at least half of them, we would play up.

Or we would play with, we were eleven years old playing like with wood bats.

Because, like, it was, like, it was getting to the point where we were like,

we went, we played Cooper's town and we won tournament in Cooper's town.

And there was one team the entire week we didn't run real.

Like, it was just, it was one of those teams that was special.

And is the thought of playing in the major leagues?

Does it start then, or even maybe even earlier, where realistically you're thinking,

you know what?

I'm playing in the big leagues someday.

I don't think it started then, but I think the love of the game really blossomed at that age.

And there were some high-end Division I players.

And another big league, Gunner, a pitcher for the Oakland Athletic.

I think he underwent a Hippolabrum surgery.

But he's another guy on that team, such three big leagues on one ten-year-old baseball team.

That's pretty cool.

At starting pitcher Slade Sikoni, and again, he's already at spring training

and getting ready for a new year and a lot of optimism there from him.

So, supremely confident.

And that's what you need, certainly, to make it through and have success in the major leagues.

Stay tuned, we'll have more to come, as we take a look at the Kansas City Royals,

our American League Central Division opponent previews continue after this.

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Hey Smith, he's ready, he fires.

Pitch at high in the air.

Medium deep right.

Jones is under a ballgame.

What a huge win for Cleveland.

Kate Smith takes care of business in the night.

And the Guardians take three out of four from Kansas City.

Welcome back, it's Guardians Weekly.

And we continue our look around the division rivals,

the American League Central for the Guardians.

And this week we take a look at the Kansas City Royals.

A team that two years ago made the postseason last year.

Just a slight step back, but trying to reload and see if they can be contenders again.

And we're joined by Ryan LaFever, long time broadcaster now for the Royals.

Former Watertown Indian in the Cleveland farm system,

we always like to mention that.

Ryan, are you doing surviving Watertown weather in the Midwest last week or so?

Yeah, I don't think we got it like you did Rosie,

but by Kansas City standards, we got a fair amount of snow and it's cold.

Well, I know you're looking forward to getting down to spring training.

And when you look at your ball club from a year ago,

what were some of the things that held them back that maybe weren't

readily top of mind from just the casual fan that caused them to come up a little bit short playoff wise?

Well, we weren't as healthy as in 2024.

I mean, we were amazingly healthy in 2024.

We lost Vinnie Pasquantino to a wrist injury at the end of August.

And that was the first and really the only significant injury they had in all of 2024,

totally different last year.

The entire starting rotation at some point went on the injured list.

Some guys more than once.

Chris Boobitch, who was having a breakout season and was a Saiyan candidate for a while.

He made one start in a second half and he was done.

We had injuries on the positional player side.

The royals led the league hitting with runners and scoring position in 2024.

They struggled in 2025.

So those are all the objective reasons why they didn't play like they did in 2024.

The subject of reason I will defer to my long time radio partner,

Danny Matthews, who's getting ready for his 58th year broadcasting royal games.

What about 25 years ago?

And I don't, excuse me Rosie, I don't remember who we were talking about.

But Danny said something that I've never forgotten and I think it applied to us.

And he said, have you ever noticed that when a team has an unexpectedly good year,

just out of the blue, they make a monumental leap forward.

It always seems like the next year they regress.

I thought that was interesting and I pay close attention to that and I've seen that play out.

Lord times and not and there are a lot of reasons for it.

One of them would be when you have an unexpectedly good year,

sometimes everything just seems to fall into place and it just appears to be a lot easier

to actually is.

And then it's just human nature to go in and say we're going to even be even better this year.

And so I think the expectations were high among some people last year.

The other part that Danny said was, but if they can learn from that year when they take a step forward,

look out the next year.

So we're hoping that that comes true for us and that the expectations were a little high.

They took a backslide last year if they're healthy and they learned something from last year.

Hopefully this is the lookout year for us.

And they made some moves in the off season to improve the ball club.

Any one or two of those moves stand out to you that could be especially helpful for this team?

Well, one area of improvement they've needed for several years now is more production in the outfield.

We have a pretty good defensive outfield but not very productive offensively.

So we got Lane Thomas and we're hoping he's going to be more healthy for us than he was for you.

And you know, with his strength against left hand pitching, we've got an opportunity for him to slide in nicely.

We have a left hand hitting centerfielder Kyle Iswell, who's poised to have a breakout season.

He's a well above average defensive centerfielder.

He's a left hand hitter who struggles at times against left hand pitching.

So Lane Thomas could fill in there and then we have a young top prospect.

Jack Caglione, who made his big league debut last year and just really struggled, really struggled offensively at the big league level.

So Lane Thomas might be able to slide in there as well.

And then we got a player from the Brewers in a trade.

Isaac Collins, little spark plug, five foot eight guy, good defensive player on base type of a guy.

And we got him in a trade for on health Serba, a lefty that we've had for a while.

And they're going to plug him in mostly in left field.

But I still think Rosie, there's still some things on the table for them.

I think they want to get a bona fide impact bat in the outfield and that would make a world of difference for us.

Boy, it sounds like a lot of teams in the same boat as they're including here in Cleveland, for sure.

Hey, you look at who's leading things for your ball club and McQuatero sign an extension and surprise it all that the faith that the organization is showing in him.

Not at all. I think he should have gotten some manager of the year votes last year.

I mean, certainly he didn't accomplish what Stephen vote did.

I mean, that was amazing as an outsider.

I can't imagine what it was like for you guys day to day down the stretch.

I was so exciting.

But with all the things that I mentioned to you, the fact that we still had a winning season last year was pretty remarkable.

And if we go back three seasons, Rosie, we lost 106 games in 2023.

That was McQuatero's first year.

That tied for the worst season in Royals history.

The next year he goes to the playoffs.

That's never happened in Major League history.

A team loses 106 or more games and goes to the playoffs the next year.

And he had them so prepared.

That I mean his fingerprints were all over that.

And then everything goes wrong last year and they still have a winning season.

And our record was very close to what it was before.

I mean, you opened by saying, you know, we fell a tad short and we really did.

It was they really rallied at the end to get a winning season.

And so, you know, we in the industry, we reward people when they make it to the playoffs and they win World Series.

And but I think there's.

And then people get fired when the team doesn't perform at all.

And I also think there's a gray area in there where managers don't get enough credit.

And I think McQuatero did an outstanding job.

Because this team could have easily fallen to 10 or 15 games above 500 when one thing after another kept going wrong.

But he kept them focused and they still had a winning season.

Ryan LaFever joining us.

Kansas City Royals longtime broadcaster.

And Ryan, some off the field things this off season.

The past couple of years, it seems like the Royals have been awfully close to nailing down firm plans for a new ballpark.

This off season, the chiefs who share that plot of land with with the Royals in a different part of the parking lot, it seems.

They got a new stadium.

What does that mean for the Royals?

And where do things stand in terms of playing at a different ballpark than Coffman Stadium?

Well, nobody wants to leave Coffman Stadium, including our owner.

Former minority owner of the Indians.

John Sherman and.

But it's just not economically viable for us in today's climate.

We need more than a stadium.

We need an entertainment district.

We need to find ways to draw revenue outside of what happens in the confines of Coffman Stadium.

And Coffman Stadium is a beautiful stadium.

It's a it's a beloved stadium throughout all of Major League Baseball.

And you can imagine how people feel about it here in Kansas City.

But it's just time.

And they have done some loose economic studies since I've been here to see if they could do something like that.

At what's called the Truman sports complex where, you know, we share the parking lot with the chiefs.

And the bottom line was that people just came to the realization that when the chiefs and the Royals are not playing nobody's going to drive out there and have dinner or stayed at a hotel or have a convention or anything.

So it was it was off the table for both teams.

There was a well, there was always the speculation that we would move, which we will.

We would move and then the chiefs would have that piece of property all to themselves.

But Kansas was a major player.

You know, we have a really unique situation in that.

You know, most people don't know that outside of Kansas City.

Most people don't know that Kansas City is one big city that's cut in half by the state line.

There's a Kansas City Missouri.

That's where the main downtown is.

And that's where the chiefs and the Royals play.

And then there's Kansas City, Kansas.

And the state of Kansas was was a major player in trying to get both teams once the vote failed a couple of years ago to build a new stadium for the Royals and renovate arrowhead stadium.

Kansas stepped up right away.

And we have a unique situation, Rosie, where the teams could cross the state line and really not impact the fans that much.

You know, it's not like moving from, you know, one state to another and you're 500 miles away.

So you got two states fighting for the teams, but it really doesn't affect the fan that much as far as distance goes to the stadium.

So the chiefs got what they wanted when we expected that based on the run that they've had and that's no surprise.

And now, you know, the Royals are still waiting to make a decision.

The unfortunately, the rally cry through the media and the politicians in Kansas City has been, you know, one of the royals going to make up their mind.

But this is a 50 year decision that the Royals are making here and they don't have the luxury that the chiefs do right now of everyone saying, what do you want and where do you want it and we'll do whatever we can.

So they've got to sift through their options, which have changed now because the chiefs have decided that they're going to Kansas.

I know there's some frustration, but at the same time, I give our ownership team credit because they're not going to be rushed into making decision on, on a stadium.

They're going to make a decision when it's time to make a decision while you're at Coffin Stadium.

And you mentioned it earlier that the good defensive outfield and how important that is in Kansas City.

But maybe not as important in the coming season, tell us about the outfield dimensions and how drastic the changes are expected to be.

Well, here's one of the advantages of analytics is that, you know, it didn't take them very long to start getting the data for how many balls.

Our hitters would have hit out of most major league ball parks and would not at Coffin Stadium, and it was a, it was a pretty, pretty high number.

Now, our ballpark actually produces more offense than people think it's not a great ballpark for home runs, but, you know, similar to.

Course field that if you don't get it over the fence, there's some big gaps out there and singles turn into doubles and doubles turn into triples.

And if you have a team with speed, like we had in 2014 and 2015, we didn't need much power because we had elite speed and we're able to use that big ballpark to our advantage.

Well, now we have, we have some speed, but we also have some power and they're being hurt.

And we also believe that we have the pitching staff. Here's where the analytics come in as well.

The analytics show that bringing the fences in will not hurt our pitching staff by and large, just based on their track record and their and their style of pitching.

And then the third part is what we just discussed. I mean, we're going to be gone in five years.

So, you know, had we stayed longer, if this was our home for the next 20 or 30 years, you know, they might have been a little more conservative with the dimensions.

But for the roster that they have both pitching and offense and the length of time that we're going to be a coffin stadium.

They decided that the best move would be to bring in the fences 10 and no more than 10 feet.

And there's still some dimensions that are going to remain the same, but it's mostly the power alleys. I mean, you've done enough games there, Rosie.

I mean, 385 to the left and right center field. I mean, it's, it's unless it's the summertime and the winds blown out. I mean, wall scraper home runs at best.

And so that's really the part of the ballpark where they're going to bring it in.

And to your point about the home runs, I feel like two years ago, I saw a number where if Aaron Judge had played his home games in Kansas City and Bobby Whit had played Yankee Stadium, maybe the MVP vote would have been different.

Don't get us started on that one. Let me tell you that I spent I spent last year.

I took it a step further, but I spent last year asking a lot of writers.

And of course, no one would admit this, but I know it's true. If Bobby would junior had the season he had for the Yankees.

And Aaron Judge had the season he had for the royals would Aaron Judge still be the unanimous MVP. And, and you know, most of them said yes. And I was like, give me a break.

And I know I'm preaching to the choir and Cleveland.

And, you know, let's finish though, just one of the the feel good stories in the game, because of how he plays and what he's meant to your franchise.

Your day to day with Bobby Whit Jr. What does he mean and has, you know, for the longest time, Salvador Perez seemed to be that that team leader and probably still is, but, but where is Bobby Whit starting to slot in in terms of importance to that franchise?

Well, since you brought him up, I'll start with Salvi. And Salvi is, you know, here's he's our Jose Ramirez. He's more outgoing than Jose Ramirez is, but just the example every single day, playing every day, playing hard every day.

I mean, I mean, did Jose Ramirez have surgery this off season? I mean, it's just remarkable to me that he puts the years he puts up every year. And then you find out he had a broken wrist or a torn ligament in his ankle or something like that.

He played through it. Salvi is the same way. And it's his team, but he he he understands. He's also a very humble man. And he understands what Bobby would junior means he understands how good Bobby is and how good he's going to be.

And he's really pushed Bobby to be more of a vocal leader, because one thing for sure Bobby leads by example, he plays every day, he plays hard.

He makes no excuses. He was one the heart and hustle award back to back years.

And I think Kansas City's been a really good fit for him. Similar to Jose Ramirez. I mean, I'm assuming Rosie that Jose Ramirez has had opportunities to say no to some of those extensions and that's the free agent market.

He he realizes he's got it pretty good in Cleveland. He's comfortable in Cleveland. So why mess with that? And I think Bobby Bobby and Salvi both feel the same way about Kansas City.

But Bobby had a down year last year. I think he's still got some MVP votes that weighed down the down the road. But he's he's special doesn't like to talk a lot hates talking about himself.

But I wouldn't be surprised Rosie that at the end of this year, we don't find that he has found his voice in the clubhouse and becomes more of a vocal leader.

I'll part of the growing up process and major league baseball in so many ways. And he is fun to watch and obviously a treasure for the Royals franchise.

Ryan LaFever always great to catch up with you. We'll see you in a couple of weeks down in Arizona. See you soon Rosie. Good to talk to you at his longtime broadcaster for the Kansas City Royals Ryan LaFever.

Stay tuned more to come after this.

A progressive home in AutoBondle can protect you around the clock, but we can't protect you from those painful moments in sports.

I can't believe we blew a five touchdown lead. Sure, but you got to feel like they were going to win for almost the entire game.

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Well, the back to progressive field Jim Rosenhaus back with you on Guardians weekly as we wrap things up for our hot stove shows with this show today next week.

We will be in good year and our show will be the morning of the exhibition opener for the Guardians as they'll take on the reds next Saturday with a 305 first pitch.

We'll bring that to on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians radio network. Pictures and captures have reported full squad starting workouts officially on Tuesday.

So we're there folks. The off seasons behind us. The season is to begin soon with spring training starting next week and the regular season on March the 26th.

That's going to do it for this week's edition of Guardians weekly. Thanks as always to Brian Matsay for helping to put together our shows each and every week.

Until next week when we join you from good year. This is Jim Rosenhaus reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.

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