CLEVELAND, Ohio — Guardians No. 2 prospect Chase DeLauter will skip the Arizona Fall League and focus on his offseason conditioning, according to team executives.
DeLauter, 23, made his big league debut during Cleveland’s postseason run, starting in center field during games 2 and 3 of the American League wild card series against the Tigers.
It was originally announced that DeLauter would make his third appearance in the prospect league, but instead it was determined that the 6-foot-3, 235-pound outfielder will work out at the club’s Goodyear training facility for a “big chunk” of the offseason.
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Guardians president of baseball operations, Chris Antonetti, said after having conversations with DeLauter, both sides determined that his brief time with the club at the end of its run created a sense of confidence and that he belongs and can compete in the majors.
“We thought about what would make for the most productive offseason for him,” Antonetti said. “Through the dialogue (DeLauter) felt like he would be best served to have the best 2026 by just focusing on his body and conditioning.”
Staying healthy has been the biggest struggle for DeLauter since the Guardians made him their first round draft pick in 2022 out of James Madison.
He missed large portions of the 2023 and 2024 seasons and was sidelined again in 2025 with sports hernia and hand surgeries.
DeLauter recovered and went 1 for 6 with a walk and a strikeout in seven plate appearances during the wild card series. He committed one error on a ball hit into the sun in center field, but also picked up an outfield assist on a momentum-shifting play in Game 2 when he threw out Zach McKinstry at third base, erasing a Tigers run.
Antonetti said it is hard to read too much into a two-game sample, but based on DeLauter’s body of work when he is healthy, the organization believes he is capable of having an impact on the major league roster.
“We expect that he’ll come into spring training to compete for a spot,“ Antonetti said. ”We expect we’re going to have a lot of competition in spring training both on the position player side and on the pitching side.”