If Chase DeLauter can stay healthy, the Guardians could be on their way to more glory days

The hard part will be keeping him healthy. He will take care of the rest, and if we are lucky, the rest will be the best part of a show that the Guardians, and their fans, have been waiting forever to see. On Thursday night in Seattle, the lights went on, the curtain went up, and Chase DeLauter went off. First impression: Wow! Just Wow! This must feel like the fans in Boston felt back in the day, when a cocky, gangling hitting machine named Theodore Samuel Williams stepped off the train and asked, "Which way to Cooperstown?" For now, for us, forever (if we are lucky!), this changes everything. Guards fans no longer must wait for Jose Ramirez to start, extend and finish a game-winning rally. Help has arrived! The Chase has arrived! All hail The Chase! Only all of us have been waiting for what potentially could happen in this coming season, but it already seems to be eliciting a soothing, intriguing glow. It's the kind of glow that keeps fans in their seats during rallies because The Chase is up next, Jose is putting on his batting gloves, Kyle Manzardo's next home run is right around the corner and Steven Kwan doesn't necessarily have to be traded. If you saw the Guardians' thrilling victory in Seattle on Thursday night, you saw the future of what could be an intriguing Guardians Summer, one that could be gloriously augmented by the sweet-swinging DeLauter, to whom the baseball gods, and the injury gods have finally thrown some hittable pitches. Their timing was perfect. Since Cleveland drafted DeLauter in the first round (16th overall) in 2022, he has been the Christmas present the Guardians have been unable to open, because The Chase has spent most of his time in professional baseball trying to recover from injuries sustained in professional baseball. Finally, in 2026, the baseball gods have given The Chase the green light to resume his baseball career. If you watched the Guardians' win, you saw the Guardians' middle-of-the-order hammer, whose calling cards are either home runs hit over the wall or doubles and triples hit off the wall. For too many years, Guards officials have been patiently waiting for their Cleveland version of Ted Williams. Finally, this spring, all the bad luck was sprung, and The Chase has been freed from all the injuries. Sure enough, when the injuries were all put back together again, Guards officials felt it was time to unleash The Chase, and it has been nothing but good news since then. In many ways, the return of The Chase has seemingly kick-started not just DeLauter's career, but it also seems to have jettisoned all the bad luck vibes the team has had to deal with over the last few years. Indeed, it's almost as though the baseball gods themselves got tired of being patient while all The Chase's ailments ran their course, which, of course, was a long and tedious one. Barring any more injuries — hasn't The Chase had enough? — DeLauter figures to play a key role in the Guards' coming season, and the two home runs he hit Thursday night were a case in point. A healthy and productive DeLauter hitting in the upper third of the batting order, is exactly what manager Stephen Vogt has in mind. Ideally, one supposes, what Vogt would like most, would be a return to the middle of the order havoc that the Guardians were able to inflict on pitchers in recent years. A healthy DeLauter would be a perfect match for the Guardians. He is, in fact, the latest incarnation of a handful of former Guardians sluggers, some of whose careers were cut short by injury. We saw flashes of that in recent years, and that was without DeLauter. The same type of approach with DeLauter would be a welcome addition to a Guardians team that could use an extra power bat here and there in the lineup. Indeed, it wasn't that long ago that the Guardians, who were then known as the Indians, unleashed a robust band of thumpers who helped cleave their way deeper into the playoffs than they normally would otherwise. The lynchpin for that type of strategy now might still be viable, but only if the team had enough thumpers that could produce a top of the order such as Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, etc. Those days are now gone, but they are also gone from the lineups of most of the other teams, many of whom are unable to swim in those waters. Belle, Ramirez and Thome were a load for any pitching staff to have to face. Steven Kwan, Chase DeLauter and Jose Ramirez are worthy replacements, when healthy. The wild card, of course, is The Chase, whose healthy arrival to a team desperate for power is always welcome. Still. Contact Jim Ingraham at ingraham4@gmail.com.