In 2023, the Cleveland Guardians hit 124 home runs, the fewest in the American League. On Thursday night they hit three homers in a 10-3 rout of the Orioles to bring their season total to 123. That’s in the middle of the pack in the AL but a huge improvement over the previous season. It’s a big reason they are scoring 4.64 runs per game, up from 4.09 R/G in 2023.

This was new manager Stephen Vogt‘s philosophy coming into the season:

Stephen Vogt examined the roster when he was hired as the team’s new manager in November and concluded the Guardians should not be last in the Majors in home runs, as they were in 2023 when they homered 124 times.

“We’re going to work on improving swing speed and swing decisions to swing at pitches that we can do damage on and really put an emphasis on it,” Vogt said in November. “There’s not much more you can do, but we’re hoping to get a lot more power and impact the baseball a lot better.”

MSN.com

The players bought into the philosophy, and the Guardians own the best record in baseball.