Rajai Davis believes Cleveland Guardians can navigate stretch run without a veteran leader

CLEVELAND — Rajai Davis’ memories of the 2016 World Series are still fresh enough that he can recall the role played by former teammate Mike Napoli.

Napoli, then 34, spent only one season in Cleveland, his last in a 12-year career. He led the team in RBIs and tied for the lead in home runs as its bid for a championship came down to Game 7 against the Chicago Cubs.

But Napoli was known for more than the fan-made “Party at Napoli’s” T-shirt he wore during a postgame interview that became the Guardians’ rallying cry. Now a Senior Director of On-Field Operations for Major League Baseball, Davis said Napoli kept the players focused, kept a team sober that could have gotten drunk on its own success.

“We had a guy who was going to check you. We had that veteran guy,” Davis said Friday during a weekend visit. “If guys got out of line, were getting a little too far ahead of their curve, ahead of what they’d actually accomplished on the field, we had a guy that stepped up.”

Managing egos or great expectations is not an issue for the 2022 Guardians, the youngest team in the majors. But as they enter Monday tied with the Minnesota Twins for the lead in the American League Central, they do not have that veteran leader in the mold of Napoli or Jason Giambi, who played a similar role in 2013-14 as he ended his 20-year career at age 43.

The Guardians gave up the division lead they had held alone since Aug. 10 with Sunday's 6-3, 11-inning loss to the Seattle Mariners at Progressive Field. From first pitch to conclusion, the game spanned eight hours and 20 minutes, including a four-hour and 33-minute rain delay, and the Guardians dropped their fifth consecutive game.

Guardians Manager Terry Francona alluded to that missing veteran piece when discussing the brief team meeting he held Thursday.

“Having guys like Giambi, that’s special,” Francona said before Thursday’s home loss to the Baltimore Orioles. “We’ve been really fortunate here having guys that add meaningful, like really meaningful [leadership].”

Francona said without that clubhouse voice, players’ buddies “show them the right direction” when they are called up. On Friday, right-hander Cody Morris became the 15th Guardian to make his major league debut this season.

Davis hit one of the franchise’s most memorable home runs, a game-tying two-run blast off Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. He still gets asked frequently about the moment, even though the Cubs pulled out an 8-7 victory in 10 innings.

Davis believes the Guardians (68-64) can survive the final 30 games without a Napoli − or Giambi-type leader to help them cope.

“They have Jose Ramirez, they have Shane Beiber,” Davis said. “Those two have experienced the highs of the highs, the best of the best, they’re All-Stars. If I was playing now, I would be sitting under their tutelage, under their wisdom, asking questions.

“The most important thing is having the right questions to ask. They could become a better player as long as they were willing to carry out what they’re hearing or just kind of learn from them. Watch them. They’re great examples of what it takes.”

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None of the Guardians except for reliever Bryan Shaw and third baseman Ramirez know what it’s like to have that veteran clubhouse presence. Davis and Bieber said it’s not a role that can be forced on someone, anyway.

“It’s hard to duplicate or replicate their personalities,” right-hander Bieber, the 2020 AL Cy Young winner, said Friday of Napoli and Giambi. “That’s not to say you even want to do that because you want everybody to be themselves.

“I think we definitely have a handful of leaders, whether it’s vocally or just by example. That’s how we feel. There’s a lot of guys who are willing to step up and speak for the team, but baseball is not always like that in comparison to other sports. I think we all do a really good job of holding each other accountable. I think that’s what’s most important at the end of the day.”

Bieber said meetings such as Thursday's haven’t been needed much this season.

“More than anything, as long as we’re bringing consistent energy and working hard through the highs and the lows, I think that puts us in a good spot at the end,” Bieber said. “That’s not what that team meeting was about, it was more just to keep going and stay focused type thing. As long as we continue to bring consistent energy, we’ll put ourselves in the best possible position we can.”

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The Guardians have been shut out 11 times this season, including four of the past seven games, but Bieber said they don’t get down on each other.

“I don’t think we have that issue, which is good,” Bieber said. “Obviously I think that’s a lesson that takes a few years to learn, and it seems like we may be ahead of the curve. We just have to stay consistent.”

Shaw said the Guardians can navigate the stretch run because of the culture Francona and his staff have created and the character of the young players.

“This team has kind of done it all year. We’ve … gotten good stretches and bad stretches,” Shaw said before Sunday's loss. “I think the leadership of the staff and the maturity of the young guys that we have, it’s OK that we don’t have that type of leadership. They know what they need to do, they understand the game, they know what and where to do what. They’ve done a really good job on the year of being their own kind of leaders.”

Asked why Napoli was so valuable in 2016, Shaw said, “Just his experience, his knowledge of the game and what to do when and how to do certain things. Guys asking questions all the time. When they needed something, they could talk to him. Or they just watched those type of guys, the way they go about their business, and take bits and pieces from that.”

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Bieber and Shaw said the young Guardians get some of that from watching Ramirez, who has finished among the top three in American League Most Valuable Player voting three times in the previous five years.

“Every one of the position players tries to watch him,” Shaw said.

“Nobody plays like him,” Bieber said of Ramirez. “The energy he brings every day is very special. It’s extremely contagious. He doesn’t need to do much more than be himself, that’s very obvious.”

Davis commutes to league headquarters in New York from his home in Connecticut, where his 7-year-old son, Jordan Michael, has become a baseball fanatic and a switch-hitter. But as he continues his liaison role, Davis will be watching the Guardians’ final month.

“This is where the cream of the crop, they rise,” Davis said. “This is where the pressure is maximized. We’ll see what happens under pressure.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Guardians chase division title minus veteran clubhouse voice