Guardians clinch first AL Central title since 2018
ARLINGTON, Texas — A sturdy pair of goggles was mandatory attire Sunday in Cleveland’s clubhouse, where impromptu showers of Champagne and beer broke out inside a thick haze of cigar smoke.
The Guardians, baseball’s youngest team, finished an unexpected run to the top of the AL Central.
Rookie Steven Kwan hit a grand slam and drove in a season-high five runs as the Guardians clinched a division championship no one thought possible six months ago with a 10-4 win over the Texas Rangers.
When catcher Luke Maile squeezed Josh Smith‘s foul pop for the final out, the Guardians began celebrating a title that actually became official 15 minutes earlier following second-place Chicago’s loss to the Detroit Tigers.
Tied for first place Sept. 4, the Guardians have won seven straight and ripped off 18 wins in 21 games to open a 10-game lead and run away with the division.
“This team’s good. We’re not just young. We’re pretty good,” said starter Cal Quantrill, the club leader with 14 wins. “I don’t think anybody’s excited to face us right now. We’re playing our best baseball. We’re playing baseball the right way.”
This is Cleveland’s 11th Central title since the division’s inception in 1994 and its fourth in 10 years under manager Terry Francona, who battled health problems the past two seasons but has enjoyed this ride with a team that may have surprised early on but is now being viewed as a legitimate World Series threat.
“For what our guys did, and when you’re doing it with people that you absolutely care about and love and respect, it means a lot,” Francona said before his statement was interrupted by a bone-chilling dousing.
“I’m amazed by these guys,” said Chris Antonetti, the team’s president of baseball operations. “They came together and played the game the right way.”
This season wasn’t supposed to happen.
After dropping Indians as their team name following the 2021 season, a move that rankled a sizable portion of Cleveland’s fan base, the Guardians did little to upgrade their roster in free agency as the front office decided 2022 would be devoted to seeing what it had.
As it turned out, Cleveland’s kids were more than all right.
Maybe no one more so than Kwan, a 25-year-old with a game way beyond his years. He made the roster in spring training and has been the Guardians’ pesky leadoff hitter from opening day, working pitchers into deep counts before slapping hits and becoming an annoyance on the base paths.
It was fitting that it was Kwan who led the way to the Sunday clinch.
“Help any team I was on whether it had been Triple-A or the majors,” Kwan said of his goals this season. “I think that helped me in college, travel ball, whatever. I know if I focus on helping the team and others, then everything will fall into place.”
Kwan’s slam in the eighth inning barely cleared the wall and bounced back into play. He wasn’t sure it was out until signaled by first-base umpire Bruce Dreckman. He said his reaction was “blackout.”
With bigger games ahead, Kwan wasn’t ready to reflect on what he and his teammates have accomplished.
“I definitely want to keep my head down, keep it rolling,” he said. “Maybe in a superstitious kind of way don’t want to take my eyes off anything. Keep it going forward.”
The Guardians have defied the odds from the start and became the first team to win a division with at least 16 rookies making their major league debuts.
The season began with low expectations everywhere but inside Cleveland’s clubhouse. Maybe it was naivete, but the Guardians believed they could be special, and that’s exactly what’s happened.
“From day one, they’ve come together,” Antonetti said. “You go around the clubhouse, the tone our veteran players set like José Ramírez, Amed Rosario, Shane Bieber, Austin Hedges. ‘Tito’ [Francona] said just find a way to help the team win.
“They embraced that mentality.”
The Guardians have done it with an offense that puts the ball in play, solid and often spectacular defense and a lights-out bullpen anchored by closer Emmanuel Clase (a big league-best 39 saves).
Cleveland strikes out less than any team in the majors, and nobody goes from first to third better.
Amid the clubhouse chaos, Antonetti made a point to credit the 63-year-old Francona, who won two World Series with Boston and may have had his best season after dealing with serious medical issues.
“To think of what he’s overcome personally to get to this point,” Antonetti said. “This is a special moment for Tito.”
Looking at the points race one month into the season gave us a glimpse into the future — even if for one fleeting moment.
Upon gazing at the very mountaintop of goals and assists prior to Saturday night’s games, one wouldn’t see the familiar names of Connor McDavid (21 points, tied for third), Jack Eichel (also 21, after leading for much of the season), Nathan MacKinnon (20 points, tied for eighth) or even Leon Draisaitl (17 points).
It was Macklin Celebrini‘s 23 points in first, and Connor Bedard in second with 22. According to ESPN Research, Celebrini and Bedard are the only players both 20 or younger to rank top two in points (tied or outright) through that stage of season or later (230 GP) in NHL history.
I found it poetic that in a week where hockey fans celebrated what could be one of the last meetings between two of the greatest rivals in NHL history — Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin — we see perhaps the next big hockey rivalry emerging atop the leaderboard in the 20-year-old Bedard and the 19-year-old Celebrini. Like Crosby and Ovechkin, who were selected first overall a year apart (2005 and 2004), Bedard (2023) and Celebrini (2024) are also sequential first overall picks.
Bedard had Crosby-like hype entering the league. Unlike Crosby, Bedard won the Calder Trophy his rookie season. But entering the 2025-26 season, there was already some chatter about whether Celebrini is better than Bedard right now.
That chatter is thawing in favor of the excitement that is surely growing in seeing future NHL superstars cement their status right before our eyes. Even if the “rivalry” might not be as intense as the heyday of Ovi vs. Sid — until the two meet in the playoffs once or twice — Bedard vs. Celebrini can at the very least be a battle of skill and flash that both clearly possess.
Will they remain atop the points race for the entire season? Maybe not. McDavid (still the best player in the NHL), MacKinnon and the rest of the usual suspects will certainly have a lot to say about that. But, even if it’s for this one fleeting weekend, it’s fun to have a taste of the NHL’s long-term future.
Jump ahead:
Games of the week
What I loved this weekend
Hart Trophy candidates
Social post of the week
Stick taps
Biggest games of the week
I’m going to keep an eye on the New York Rangers this week. So far, they have this wild “Amazon on the road, Temu at home” record to start the season: 7-1-1 away from Madison Square Garden … and 0-6-1 at the “World’s Most Famous Arena,” with five of those losses being shutouts. That home shutout mark ties their single-season record … in the first seven games!
The Rangers host the Nashville Predators on Monday and Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, with two road games — Tampa Bay Lightning and Columbus Blue Jackets — sandwiched in between.
This week could either be more of the same or a change of pace for the Broadway Blueshirts. And it’s fascinating to watch unfold.
Tuesday, 9:30 p.m. ET | TNT
The Ducks are 10-3-1 and lead the Pacific Division. They are 8-1-1 in their past 10 games and have the No. 2 goal differential in the Western Conference at +14.
Their first meeting of the season with a stacked Avalanche team — first in the Central, with the West’s best goal differential at +21 — will be a solid test.
Saturday, 7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
I’m curious about this game, which is also a 2006 Stanley Cup Final rematch — with Rod Brind’Amour, the captain of the champion Hurricanes, now behind the bench.
Brind’Amour’s style of hockey typically results in few goals for the opposition; the Canes are allowing the eighth-fewest goals per game this season. How will that fare in this tough test against McDavid, Draisaitl & Co.?
Other key matchups this week
Thursday, 7 p.m. | ESPN+
Thursday, 7 p.m. | ESPN+
Thursday, 10 p.m. | ESPN+
Saturday, 5 p.m. | ESPN+
What I loved this weekend
As an avid puck collector, I want to throw some flowers to the Philadelphia Flyers and their assortment in the team store. While attending their Star Wars Day on Saturday, I ventured into the shop and saw a cornucopia of landmarks, legends and game pucks.
The mark of a good collectors’ puck is uniqueness and quality. The 3D printing on pretty much all of the pucks was a value add, and the different materials (metal vs. rhinestone, for example) offered great variety.
Gritty even had his own puck, complete with googly eyes and an orange beard. Creative.
If you’re a Flyers fan and you walk past this, you’re probably picking up a puck or two.
Hart Trophy candidates if the season ended today
It might be the only week I can do this …
Congratulations Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini, you are Hart Trophy finalists if the award was handed out on Nov. 10, 2025!
If the Capitals were in a playoff position, I would easily give the third spot to Logan Thompson (.930 save percentage, only 16 goals allowed in 10 games despite a 6-4-0 record). William Nylander has 21 points — including a league-leading 18 at even strength — and is a plus-8. Alas, he also falls prey to the “your team is not in the postseason right now” fate.
You know which team is firmly in that playoff position as we head to the all-important American Thanksgiving cutoff? The Avs. And they just dismantled the Oilers over the weekend 9-1. Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and two assists in that game alone and took over the league lead in points — which is very rude after I made the whole point about Celebrini and Bedard above. He gets the nod as my third pick.
Honorable mention: Leo Carlsson. Uncle Leo is on an absolute tear so far this season. He had 45 points last season and already has more than half of that (23) through 14 games; he’s riding a nine-game point streak, I believe we call that a heater! He’s going to be a finalist on this list a few times coming up, I’d bet.
Social media post of the weekend
NJ Devil is one of the best mascots in sports, full stop. Speaking with Devils fans, they would point to his tireless work in the community, creating core memories for kids at Devils home games and keeping the vibes high during those games as the main reasons for the honor.
But I will add the fact that his social media game is tight; he’s routinely collaborating with influencers such as Kickball Dad and Frank the Tank. On Saturday, NJ got help from current AEW wrestler Claudio Castagnoli to put a Penguins fan through a table:
Castagnoli, a native of Switzerland, caught up with his fellow countrymen Timo Meier, Jonas Siegenthaler and Devils captain Nico Hischier, who presented him with a Jersey jersey:
Stick taps
You might know the story of Logan Coyle, a 9-year-old boy who is battling cancer and put out a call earlier this year for mascots to send him videos of encouragement.
Hundreds of mascots from across all sports, including hockey, flooded Logan with videos, gifts and visits.
The New York Islanders were among the first to do so, with Sparky visiting Logan in his hospital room.
Logan battled through another setback this week but fought hard and is now back home. Mascots continue to send him all the good vibes, and in recent weeks, Logan has been strong enough to attend games and meet some of them in person! I know that one of his favorites, NJ Devil, is waiting to roll out the red carpet at The Rock when he’s ready.
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