CLEVELAND, Ohio – When the Cleveland Guardians acquired Kyle Manzardo from Tampa Bay for Aaron Civale in 2023, they envisioned a solid contact hitter with moderate power potential.
What they’ve gotten instead is an emerging slugger who’s forcing pitchers to think twice about walking José Ramírez to face him.
“Well, I didn’t see any of this coming,” Terry Pluto said on a recent episode of the Terry’s Talkin’ podcast.
“You know, I saw 20 to 25 homers and 35 to 40 doubles, which is a really good player. I mean, yeah, I did not see that he would have seven homers and with 22 games or whatever it is,” Pluto said.
The transformation in Manzardo’s approach at the plate has been remarkable. While his batting average has actually dipped slightly from .234 last year to .210 this season, his slugging percentage has skyrocketed from .421 to .531. This dramatic power increase comes from a focused approach where Manzardo – the former Lake City High School and Washington State star – said he is waiting for pitches he can drive instead of just making contact.
Perhaps most impressive is the 24-year-old’s improvement against breaking balls.
“Last year his slugging percentage against breaking balls was .170,” podcast host David Campbell said, quoting stats from BaseballSavant.com. “This year, his slugging percentage on breaking balls is .765.”
The term for what Manzardo says he is doing is “tunneling pitches”– identifying and anticipating pitches he can drive instead of just make contact with.
“When that breaking ball is hanging there, he’s crushing it. There’s your tunneling thing.” Pluto said.
“I also know power develops later in players. You could just go look at whether it was Manny Ramirez or Jim Thome or just about all these guys,” Pluto said. “The signs were there late last season when Manzardo came back after a stint at AAA Columbus.
“He did hit five homers in I think 80 at-bats, and he looked like a different hitter,” Pluto said.
His emergence has already changed the dynamic of Cleveland’s lineup.
“I’ll tell you one thing… Some of these teams are hesitating now to, to walk Jose with Manzardo behind them,” Pluto said.
The trade that brought Manzardo to Cleveland is looking better every day.
“They’re going to look back at that trade of Aaron Civale for him, it’s just one of the better ones they’ve made in recent times,” Pluto said.
