No Reason To Be Concerned About Kyle Manzardo’s Slow Start, Guardians Opinion

Kyle Manzardo is still waiting for his first big league hit. The Cleveland Guardians’ second-ranked prospect has now played in two major league games and it’s been a rough 18 innings for the 24-year-old.

Manzardo has seven at-bats under his belt. However, he’s 0-for-7 in those appearances and has already racked up five strikeouts. His plate presence has not looked great 

No, this isn’t an ideal start to Manzardo’s career, but let’s not overreact to it either. Even the best of prospects and players go through slumps and struggles and that’s what Stephen Vogt is focusing on.

“It’s hard to hit here,” said Vogt after Manzardo’s debut. “He’s here, he’s earned it, just be yourself. Everybody’s going to have a three strikeout game and if you haven’t you haven’t been here long enough.”

“I think too many times, guys come up and we expect them to be perfect. They make one little mistake and we write them off and just understand no matter how long you’ve played this game, you’re going to make those mistakes.”

Manzardo hit .303 with a .375 OBP, and a 1.017 OPS including nine home runs and 20 RBI through his 109 at-bats in the minors. It’s worth noting that he also got off to a slow start at Triple-A in early April.

Manzardo will get it going, he’s too good of a hitter not to. We just have to be patient and eventually, he’ll be a key contributor to this Guardians offense.