Stuart

Fairchild

Fairchild didn’t take long to find a new opportunity after being removed from Cleveland’s 40-man roster last week. The 30-year-old reserve outfielder went 3-for-19 at the dish during a 14-game stint with the Guardians last month. He’s merely emergency organizational depth at this juncture of his career.

Fairchild was designated for assignment last weekend and passed through waivers unclaimed. Unless he opts to hit the open market, he’ll continue to function as extra outfield depth for the Guardians at the Triple-A level.

Fairchild loses his spot after going 3-for-19 with no extra-base base in 14 games. 21 of his 27 plate appearances ended with a walk (seven) or a strikeout (14). It seems unlikely that he’ll be picked up on waivers.

No surprise as Kwan will be spared from having to face Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. That honor goes to Stuart Fairchild instead. The 28-year-old has put together an abysmal season overall, but he went 2-for-4 with an RBI during Friday’s series opener and is hitting .281 (9-for-32) in nine games since returning from bereavement leave earlier this month.

He finished with only three at-bats, as the platoon option was pinch-hit for by Chase DeLauter late in the loss. No fantasy value here, just thought we’d give Fairchild his due as the rest of the Guardians mustered only one hit combined against Carlos Rodón.

The Guardians are facing left-hander Carlos Rodon, but DeLauter has started the last two games against lefties. Of course, that was with Steven Kwan on the bereavement list, so with Kwan back, DeLauter shifts to the bench so that Stuart Fairchild can play center field with Kwan in left field.

Fairchild was hitting .289/.417/.479 in 176 plate appearances at Columbus after a nice WBC with Chinese Taipei. He could figure in as a short-side platoon bat for the Guardians with Daniel Schneeman handling the strong side while Steven Kwan is on the bereavement list.

Chinese Taipei scored its automatic runner with two bunts in the top of the 10th. Korea advanced its to third with one sac bunt, but the runner was thrown out at home on Hyeseong Kim’s non-bunt grounder to first, and Do Yeong Kim flew out to end the game afterwards. Chinese Taipei, which also got homers from Yu Chang and Tsung-Che Cheng, finishes 2-2 in Pool C play to keep itself alive for now. It needs to hope that Korea and Japan both beat Australia, which would result in three 2-2 teams behind Japan in the standings. One of Chinese Taipei, Korea and Australia would then advance by claiming the tiebreaker.

This game ended after seven due to the mercy rule. Chinese Taipei also for four RBI from Yu Chang and three from Chen-Wei Chen for its first win through three games. The club will need to beat Korea on Sunday to have any chance of moving on from pool play.

Fairchild fortifies Cleveland’s outfield depth and will compete for a bench role in spring training. The well-traveled 29-year-old defensive specialist got into 28 games this past season for the Braves, batting .216 (11-for-51) with two steals across 55 plate appearances. He’s gotten into 277 games at the highest level dating back to 2021.