The plucky Guardians played a great Wild Card Series against the Rays in 2022. It was a sweep, but it was hard-won. They took the first contest 2-1, and the two teams were scoreless for the first 14 innings of Game 2, before Oscar Gonzalez finally hit a walkoff homer to advance Cleveland to the ALDS. Maybe you’re thinking, Oscar who?, and if so, don’t feel bad. That’s exactly the point, actually. We’re getting to that. Gonzalez was the team’s improbable starting right fielder and their no. 5 hitter that day. On the strength of that homer and a general notion of hotness, he had risen to fourth on the lineup card a week later, when the team lost Game 5 of the ALDS to the Yankees and watched their season come to a close.

In 2024, the unexpected hero of the team’s victory in one playoff series (the ALDS, over the Tigers) again moved to the cleanup spot by the end of their loss in the next (the ALCS, this time, but still the Yankees, and still in just five games). That time, it was Lane Thomas. Last fall, there was no October folk hero, because the Guardians lost to the Tigers in the Wild Card Series, but their cleanup hitter in the elimination game was young first baseman Kyle Manzardo, whom they hoped was emerging as a star at that position. Alas, that didn’t happen—in fact, it didn’t happen so hard that Manzardo spent the last two months of the campaign with Triple-A Columbus. In his place, Jo Adell served as the designated hitter and cleanup man in Monday’s Game 6 against the Rays, as Cleveland fell two wins short of a pennant.

These four players cover pretty disparate archetypes. Gonzalez was a pop-up prospect, as Cleveland-coded as can be—a medium-dollar international free agent who got waylaid on the way to the majors but eventually found a way to deliver some homegrown value. Thomas was the pure platoon bat, batting fourth (when he did so) only because he crushes lefties and the opposing starter was a southpaw; he symbolizes the team’s eternal dedication to taking the platoon advantage every time it gets a chance. Manzardo was acquired at the peak of his prospect status, looking poised to take over as the long-term answer at first base. Slotting him into that spot last fall was a mixture of grappling with the present and expressing hope for the future. Adell, who’s no more qualified to be a cleanup hitter this year than Thomas was two years ago and should only have done so when he had the platoon edge, did so Monday night despite the team facing a right-handed starter; he was there because they had no one else worth trying. He was there because he was the rare in-season trade pickup with a bit of name value, even if that’s about all there was of his value by the end of the year.

A common thread ties them all together, though: None were good enough to be a cleanup hitter even when they were assigned that duty with the Guardians’ season on the line, and they were all about to get worse, too. Here are their numbers for the season in which they filled that vital role (Season 1) and the following one (Season 2).