CLEVELAND — Jhonkensy Noel has one of the loudest home runs in franchise history, but the 2025 season hasn’t been kind to him, and he’s now headed to Triple-A Columbus.
The Guardians optioned Noel to Triple-A Columbus prior to Sunday’s game against the Houston Astros. Johnathan Rodriguez was recalled in his place.
Noel drilled the score-tying home run in Game 3 of the ALCS against the New York Yankees. He has a mountain of power, but his contact rate and strike zone discipline has rendered much of it moot in 2025. He was hitting just .146 at the time of his demotion.
“It just hasn’t been the start to the season that he would’ve liked or that we would’ve liked,” said manager Stephen Vogt. “And for me, Jhonkensy [needs to] just go play, go relax, get back to being you. There’s some adjustments that need to be made, obviously, but I think in Jhonkensy’s case, we know how good of a player he is. I mean, he plays an unbelievable right field. He’s a good base runner, and he has the power to hit the ball out of the yard. It just hasn’t been there yet this year.”
Rodriguez returns to Cleveland after a blink-of-an-eye stint in the majors earlier this season. He was inserted into Sunday’s lineup. The Guardians are hoping he can put more emphasis on putting the ball into play. He had a .902 OPS in Triple-A.
“Yeah, it’s just a matter of competing, have more of a competitive advantage, I feel,” Rodriguez said through a team translator. “To me, homers are not a priority, it’s just a result of the type of AB you have. So for me, if I was able to have a good competitive AB and then [the results are whatever they are].”
