The Chase (DeLauter) Is Finally On

Chase DeLauter got an odd start to his major league career last fall — and an inauspicious one, at that — when he became the sixth player to debut in a postseason game before playing in a regular season one. The Guardians’ rookie right fielder has fared much better in the early stages of his first regular season in the majors, going on a home run binge that made a bit of history.

Facing the Mariners in Seattle on Opening Day last Thursday, the 24-year-old DeLauter started things off by homering in his first plate appearance, launching a towering 358-foot solo shot off Logan Gilbert. It was the first Cleveland run of the season, and though at least 140 players in AL/NL history have homered in their first career at-bat, in the eighth inning he joined a much more exclusive club. With the Guardians ahead 5-4, DeLauter hammered a 422-foot solo home run off Cooper Criswell, helping to seal the victory and becoming just the sixth player to homer twice in his regular season debut:

DeLauter didn’t stop there. He hit a 360-foot wall-scraper off George Kirby in the first inning on Friday, accounting for Cleveland’s only run in a 5-1 loss, and then a 365-foot opposite-field two-run shot off Andrés Muñoz in the 10th inning on Saturday; that expanded the Guardians lead to 6-3, and they hung on to win 6-5. Here’s a supercut of his four homers:

DeLauter thus became the third player to homer in each of his first three games, after Story in 2016 and the Mariners’ Kyle Lewis in ’19. Story separated himself from the pack by adding two more homers in his fourth game (his first at Coors Field), running his total to six. On Sunday, Munetaka Murakami of the White Sox also homered in his third straight game to start his MLB career, making him the fourth player to do so. DeLauter’s streak ended when he was held to a single on Sunday against the Mariners, one of two hits the Guardians collected in an 8-0 loss. Named the AL Player of the Week on Monday, he still leads the majors with four home runs. Murakami’s home run streak ended on Monday against the Marlins.

Beyond the historical angle, this is a much-awaited payoff for DeLauter, the 16th pick of the 2022 draft out of James Madison University. The 6-foot-3, 235-pound lefty has struggled to stay healthy since before he was drafted, suffering a series of fractures of the fifth metatarsal in his left foot. Unheralded as a two-way high school player in West Virginia, he put himself on the map with a stellar performance in the Cape Cod League in the summer of 2021, tying with Orleans Firebirds teammate Tyler Locklear for the league lead with nine homers, the first of which this scribe coincidentally witnessed in person. DeLauter’s first fracture, in April 2022, ended his junior season and likely cost him a spot among the top 10 draft picks. Another metatarsal fracture prevented him from making his debut that summer, and further injuries limited him to a grand total of 136 regular season games and 35 Arizona Fall League games from 2023–25.

DeLauter underwent surgery for a bone graft in his left foot in January 2023, then finally made his professional debut that June; after nine games in the Complex League and 42 at High-A Lake County, he finished the regular season with a six-game stint at Double-A Akron, then played 23 games for Peoria in the AFL. Yet another metatarsal fracture, along with a turf toe injury in his right foot and a right hamstring strain, limited him to 39 regular season games in 2024, with three in the Complex League, 30 at Akron, and the final six at Triple-A Columbus, followed by a 12-game stint with Surprise in the AFL.

Last year followed that all-too-familiar trajectory. DeLauter underwent bilateral core surgery to alleviate a sports hernia in March, played eight games in the Complex League in May before moving on to Columbus, then played just 34 games there before undergoing surgery in late July for a fractured hamate in his right wrist. He didn’t return to action until October, when the Guardians added him to their roster for their Wild Card Series against the Tigers. He debuted by starting Game 2 in center field, joining the Athletics’ Mark Kiger (2006), the Royals’ Adalberto Mondesi (2015), the Twins’ Alex Kirilloff, the Rays’ Shane McClanahan, and the Padres’ Ryan Weathers (all 2020) on the short list of players to appear in the postseason before playing a regular season major league game.

Alas, his debut did not begin well. The second batter of the game, Gleyber Torres, lifted a fly ball to center field; battling the sun and wind, DeLauter got to the ball but it clanked off his glove for an error, though the Tigers didn’t score that inning. He recovered to make a nice running catch of a Parker Meadows fly in the third, and thanks to the benefit of a replay review that overturned the call on the field, he cut down Zach McKinstry at third base to end the fourth inning. The throw wiped away a run that would have scored, and helped the Guardians to a 6-1 victory.

DeLauter ended up going 1-for-6 with a walk and a strikeout in his two Wild Card Series games, but the Guardians were eliminated.

In February, DeLauter placed 26th on our preseason Top 100 Prospects list with a 55 FV, up 29 spots from 2025 (when he was a 50-FV prospect), after he hit .278/.383/.476 (130 wRC+) with seven homers and impressive walk and strikeout rates (14.8% and 15.4%, respectively) at Columbus. He’s a disciplined hitter who produced an 84% contact rate and just a 16.8% chase rate at Triple-A last year. Despite his health risks and a dearth of game experience, he projects as a middle-of-the-order hitter, with a short, direct swing punctuated by a scissor kick that our prospect team called “more bluntly effective than poetic.”

The Guardians, who ranked dead last in the American League in both scoring (3.97 runs per game) and wRC+ (87) last year, can absolutely use someone who fits DeLauter’s profile. That’s particularly true after a winter in which the only addition to their lineup from outside the organization was first baseman Rhys Hoskins, whom they signed to a minor league deal in late February. The team has invested a whole lot of faith that DeLauter, fellow outfielders George Valera and CJ Kayfus, and first baseman Kyle Manzardo — all 25 or younger, with the three besides Manzardo combining for fewer than 200 major league plate appearances entering this season — can provide enough punch to augment an offense built around José Ramírez and Steven Kwan. Sometime this season, 2024 first pick Travis Bazzana, a 50-FV second baseman, could also join that promising, but comparatively untested, core.

Though DeLauter played center field in the postseason, he doesn’t have great mobility, and between that and his lengthy injury history, it made sense to move him to a corner if not designated hitter, and as he did pitch in college, he has the arm for right field. To create more space for the aforementioned young outfielders, the Guardians have moved Kwan over from left field to center to get the bulk of the reps there, though Daniel Schneemann started there on Opening Day and on Monday night against the Dodgers. DeLauter has started three games in right and two at DH. So far, he’s hitting .286/.318/.857 with a 96-mph average exit velocity and 57.1% hard-hit rate.

While he isn’t likely to maintain quite this level of power, virtually anything DeLauter can provide will be an upgrade after the Guardians received a 70 wRC+ and major league worsts in slugging percentage (.335) and WAR (-1.6) from their right fielders in 2025. Here’s hoping he can stay on the field.