The Guardians’ three best hitters aren’t performing well, according to recent numbers.

Many things have been written about the Cleveland Guardians’ rotation, even at this site.

Words such as “mediocre”, “injury-prone”, “middling” and “the weakest link on the team” have been used to describe the unit.

If we look at the season as a whole, there is a lot of truth to those adjectives about the pitching staff.

However, it would be negligent to ignore that it’s the offense dragging this team back in recent games.

To be more specific, the Guardians’ best three hitters are all slumping at the moment.

“Entering today, since the All-Star break: Steven Kwan: .213 average, 617 OPS Josh Naylor: .217 average, .683 OPS Add in the fact that José Ramírez now has 3 hits in his past 29 at-bats and you have a top-heavy Guardians lineup with a severely underperforming top,” reporter Casey Drottar tweeted.

You can praise David Fry, Jhonkensy Noel, and whoever you want, but it’s pretty well-established that Steven Kwan, Jose Ramirez, and Josh Naylor are the best and most productive hitters on the Guardians lineup.

It’s a fact that can be proven with both numbers and the eye test.

However, to say they are all slumping at the moment would be an understatement.

Cleveland has scored, before taking the field on Saturday night, four runs in their last three games and fewer than three in six of their last seven contests.

A lot of that has to do with Kwan – the leadoff hitter – not getting on base enough, and J-Ram and Naylor, two premier run-producers, failing to bring in the baserunners they encounter.

Those three are supposed to be carrying the Guardians offense, and they can’t get anything going at the plate right now.