The Cleveland Guardians in 2025 have gone through their fair share of troubles. From the shaky start to the year, to very tough losing streaks, and the loss of Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz to an MLB investigation over alleged sports gambling, it’s been a tumultuous season.
While not the headliner of the year, the Guardians’ offense has been one of the main reasons for the team’s lack of focus in 2025. With Jose Ramirez, Kyle Manzardo, and Stevn Kwan making up the only above-average hitters on the team, it’s no surprise the offense has struggled.
As Bob Nightengale of USA Today pointed out, with the team’s offensive struggles, the Guardians are going to extend some unfortunate franchise history. Cleveland will go another year without a 40-home run slugger, an 18-year streak since Travis Hafner in 2006 will extend to 19 seasons after the 2025 year comes to a close.
Guardians to Come Up Short of 40 Home Runs
The Guardians have one of the worst offenses in baseball this season. Ranking second to last in team OPS, last in batting average, and most importantly for this record, 22nd in team home runs.
Typically, if a team is hitting a lot of home runs, among the league’s best, it’s due to at least one player who is hitting the long ball better than most. A 30-home run season is impressive, but a sign of a great power-hitting season is 40 home runs.
In the Guardians’ long history, only 12 times has a hitter slugged 40 home runs. Jim Thome holds the single-season franchise record at 52, while in 2006, Travis Hafner was the most recent slugger to reach 40 home runs, when he hit 42 in his best season as a professional.
The Guardians haven’t seen a 40-home run hitter in the years since, though they had a few close calls. In 2018 and 2024, Jose Ramirez hit 39 home runs, one shy of setting a new benchmark for the franchise.
In 2017, Edwin Encarnacion hit 38 home runs, while Francisco Lindor in 2018 hit 38 as well. The next closest hitter to 40 home runs was 2021 Ramirez, who hit 36, the only other time a Guardians hitter had at least 35 home runs in the last decade.
This season, Ramirez has 26 home runs, while Manzardo has 23. Both are solid numbers, and while they could both eclipse 30 with strong finishes, it’s very unlikely that either reaches 40 on the year.
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That would extend the Guardians’ streak of seasons to 19 without a 40-home-run season by a hitter. They’ve come close, but haven’t breached the threshold in nearly 20 years.
In a season with a severe lack of offense, it’s hardly a surprise that no Guardians hitter is close to 40 home runs. But the rest of the baseball world is still slugging home runs.
Cal Raleigh is at 50 with a month to go, while Kyle Schwarber is at 49 following a four-home-run game near the end of the month. Shohei Ohtani is at 45, while Aaron Judge is at 43 and Eugenio Suarez is at 42.
Junior Caminero, who the Guardians traded away in 2021, is at 39 at just 21 years old, while Juan Soto sits at 35, and could easily reach 40 on the year with a strong finish.
Ramirez, the Guardians’ home run leader, is tied at 25th overall with a bunch of other hitters at 26 home runs. He’s a great hitter, but this season, he will come up well short of 40 home runs.
The Guardians’ unfortunate franchise history is being extended anotehr year, as Hafner will have to wait at least one more season for the next 40-home run slugger to join him and six other Guardians sluggers in franchise history to reach 40 home runs in a single season.
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