Jo Adell’s Cleanup Role Highlights Cleveland’s Postseason Batting Pattern

A cleanup spot shaped by circumstance

Jo Adell batting cleanup in an elimination game says as much about Cleveland’s roster options as it does about the Guardians’ confidence in him. In Game 6 against Tampa Bay, Cleveland put the designated hitter in the heart of the order against a right-handed starter. The team was two wins short of a pennant, and the alternatives offered little reason to expect a better answer. That’s a notable assignment, but it doesn’t automatically mean the club sees Adell as a settled solution. In October, a lineup spot can be both a vote of confidence and a sign that a team is still searching.

Cleanup carries a familiar expectation: the hitter should help turn baserunners into runs. But the label can make a temporary choice look more definitive than it is. A manager setting an October lineup has to weigh the pitcher, the available hitters, and what each player has done lately. When the options are limited, the choice may say more about the roster’s shape than about any one hitter’s long-term standing. Cleveland’s recent postseason choices make that tension hard to miss.

A postseason role that keeps changing

Cleveland has turned to a different kind of hitter each time it needed a late-series cleanup choice. In 2022, Oscar Gonzalez was an unexpected starter in right field and hit fifth when the Guardians faced the Rays in the Wild Card Series. He ended a 14-inning scoreless stretch in Game 2 with a walk-off homer, completing a hard-fought sweep. That moment made him a vivid part of the series, but one dramatic swing couldn’t by itself establish what he’d be as a hitter over a longer stretch. A week later, riding that postseason surge, he had moved up to fourth for Game 5 of the ALDS against the Yankees, where Cleveland’s season ended.

Two years later, Lane Thomas occupied the same spot late in the ALCS, again against New York. Thomas had helped Cleveland beat Detroit in the ALDS, but his cleanup assignment reflected a narrower skill: He hit left-handed pitching well. The matchup made sense when a southpaw started; the lineup slot was less a declaration of star status than an effort to gain a platoon edge. That distinction matters. A hitter can be useful in a specific matchup without being the answer every day, and a playoff lineup often puts that kind of targeted value on display.

Last fall, the Guardians looked to first baseman Kyle Manzardo in their Wild Card elimination game against Detroit. He represented a possible long-term answer at the position as well as an attempt to find offense in the moment. That hoped-for breakout never arrived. Manzardo spent the final two months of the season with Triple-A Columbus. The sequence captures how quickly an October assignment can become a test: a team may be asking a player to contribute now while also trying to learn what role he can handle later. The result, in this case, didn’t provide the breakthrough Cleveland needed.

Adell’s path to the spot was different again. He was an in-season acquisition with name recognition, but by the end of the year Cleveland had few compelling options to put ahead of him. With a right-hander on the mound, the platoon rationale that sometimes explained Thomas’s placement wasn’t there. Adell was in the middle of the order because the Guardians needed someone to try. That’s a plain explanation, and a useful one: a prominent assignment can reflect immediate need as much as a player’s established production.

The common thread is what comes next

Gonzalez, Thomas, Manzardo, and Adell don’t fit one player type. Gonzalez was a modestly priced international signing who took a winding route to the majors. Thomas was a matchup hitter whose value rose against left-handers. Manzardo arrived at the height of his prospect reputation, carrying expectations at first base. Adell brought a recognizable name after a trade, with less production to support the billing by season’s end. The players differ in background and role, but Cleveland’s choice of each one points to a recurring problem: finding a hitter it can trust in a high-leverage lineup position.

Yet their postseason assignments share a more telling feature: none had established himself as a dependable cleanup hitter when Cleveland handed him the job. The role was often a response to circumstance—an October hot streak, a favorable pitching matchup, a bet on a prospect, or a thin set of alternatives. In each case, the decision also arrived near a turning point in the player’s trajectory. October can compress those judgments into a handful of games, when the need for an immediate answer is sharp and the evidence about a player’s longer-term value is still incomplete.

There’s a practical tension here. A club can make a defensible matchup choice and still be showing that its lineup lacks a settled middle. A cleanup spot doesn’t guarantee a player will produce, and placing someone there doesn’t settle what his future role should be. Still, repeated changes in that assignment are worth examining because they show where a team is trying to find offense. Here’s the thing: the name in the slot may change, while the roster question stays put.

What the pattern means for Cleveland

The pattern matters because a cleanup hitter is expected to anchor the lineup’s run-producing spots, while Cleveland’s choices have often reflected uncertainty about who can do that work. The Guardians have found different ways to fill the vacancy, but the changing profiles suggest the underlying question persists: Can any of these short-term answers become a reliable middle-of-the-order bat, or will the next October bring another name into the role?

This is more significant than it looks. If you’re working in this space, the distinction between a promising playoff moment and a dependable offensive role is familiar: a short run can change a player’s public profile faster than it changes what a team can count on. Cleveland’s decisions show the club responding to the immediate matchup while leaving the larger question open. That doesn’t make each choice wrong. It does mean the choices shouldn’t be mistaken for proof that the problem has been solved.

And yet. October lineups are built with the players available, not with an ideal roster in mind. The Guardians can keep searching among prospects, acquisitions, and matchup options, but a postseason cleanup assignment can’t substitute for sustained production. The next test is whether one of these players claims the role through a fuller body of work—or whether Cleveland again has to make the best of a thin set of choices. (And this is the part most people overlook.) The lineup slot is a snapshot; the roster need behind it is the longer story.

For now, Adell’s placement reads as both an opportunity and a measure of the alternatives around him. A chance to take on a central role. And a reminder that Cleveland is still looking for a hitter who can make that role feel settled.