It's been nine years since the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series, beating the Cleveland Guardians in seven games to end their historic 108-year title droug

Juan Brito (Cleveland Guardians) with a Spectacular Hit Chicago Cubs, 03/01/2025

First baseman Anthony Rizzo, 35, has yet to find a match in free agency. After a down year at the plate, largely due to injuries, the New York Yankees declined his $17 million club option for 2025 in November.

Yordys Valdes (Cleveland Guardians) with a Spectacular Hit Chicago Cubs, 03/01/2025

There is also another factor that could lead this Chicago Cubs veteran starting pitcher to make the rotation on opening day.

With a surplus of pitching depth added throughout the offseason, the Chicago Cubs' relief pitching should be a strength in 2025 after it has been a weakness in the last couple of years. Those moves saw Chicago acquire Eli Morgan from the Cleveland Guardians and Ryan Brasier from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

With the back of the Cleveland Guardians rotation having plenty of unknowns, Joey Cantillo has a tremendous opportunity to prove he deserves a spot on the Opening Day roster as a starter. However, the pitcher is still showing some flaws in his spring appearances.

We're at the point of spring training where it's no longer "just early." While it's still important to take Cactus League stats with a grain of salt, the Cleveland Guardians have also played enough games where some trends can start to be analyzed more,

The Cleveland Guardians' second base battle would always be one of the most interesting parts of spring training. This remains true even with the team two weeks into Cactus League games. While there's still plenty of time before Opening Day,

But Stephen Vogt has to write someone's name into second base on March 27, and Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com believes, as of right now, that'll be Gabriel Arias. "Second base will probably got to ... Gabriel Arias," wrote Pluto.

The Cleveland Guardians fell to 2-6 in the Cactus League after dropping Saturday’s affair against the Chicago Cubs 7-4. There were some exciting takeaways for Cleveland, though. Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis,

Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report recently released his updated Opening Day lineup predictions for each MLB team and made a few bold predictions regarding the Guardians. Here's what the analyst predicts Cleveland's first lineup of the 2025 season to be: