Two Early Dazzlers in Spring Training

These two guys are showing their potential worth down the line

With the first couple weeks of Spring Training coming to a close, the Guardians have had a bit of a slow start. The team has had its rough go of working out the cobwebs and getting in good shape for the start of the regular season.

This, as always, is expected and nothing to be worried about in the slightest. However, there are two players that I would like to highlight who have been showing some real promise.

Those two guys are Doug Nikhazy and Brayan Rocchio. These dudes have been two of the brightest spots for the Guardians over this two-week stretch, and for a team that has needed help in both the hitting and pitching department, it’s good to see that things could be looking up for both these two.

Starting off with Rocchio, Brayan had a very mediocre rookie campaign at shortstop in 2024. But everyone knows that he did a total 180 at the plate during the playoffs, putting together the best ABs of his life and delivering so many important hits for the team.

The Guardians fanbase has since hoped that this was not just a 10-game hot streak for the former top-5 organizational prospect.

So far in Spring Training, Rocchio has indeed been keeping heads turned towards him, as he has been putting up the highest exit velos of his life. It goes without saying that Spring Training stats are to be taken with a grain of salt, but for what it’s worth, Brayan’s SLG during the 2025 Cactus League (.647) has been far greater than that of his previous year (.417). Power has always been the biggest question for the young Venezuelan, so it’s really good to see such high and consistent exit velos being posted on his base hits.

As for Nikhazy, he was recently written about here on Covering the Corner, and since then he put together another outing last night. His best outing of his young Cactus League campaign, that is.

In his three innings pitched, he dished out six Ks, only allowing just two runners on base. Nikhazy continued his trend of keeping traffic off the basepaths and pitching with efficiency, which proves very promising for the lefty prospect.

Doug is currently hoping to be one of the guys who makes the cut for the Opening Day roster, but the question will be about where he’d get put in.

My personal opinion is that Nikhazy should be given a chance to hack it in the rotation, but I’m sure he’d still even be grateful to just make the team.