After falling to an 0-2 deficit, the Guardians rallied in historic fashion to overcome the White Sox in five games in the American League Division Series. Their reward? A date with the top-seeded Rays in the AL Championship Series, who not only won five of six head-to-head games in the regular season, but also enter the ALCS on ample rest thanks to a sweep of the Yankees.
And if the Guardians are going to climb the Tampa Bay mountain for their first World Series appearance since 2016, they’ll have to do so while facing down a handful of names familiar to the Cleveland organization.
The connections start with the Rays’ brightest star, and they extend all the way to the skipper.
Before Caminero took baseball by storm with his mammoth home runs, vibrant personality and back-to-back All-Star appearances as he turned just 23 years old, Caminero was … a Cleveland farmhand.
Caminero signed with the organization out of the Dominican Republic in 2019. He played just one season in the system, posting a .914 OPS with nine home runs in 43 games in the 2021 Dominican Summer League. Then the club dealt him to the Rays in a one-for-one deal for 23-year-old pitcher Tobias Myers.
While Myers has since turned in varying success in the Majors, with a 3.68 career ERA in 81 games, it didn’t happen with the Guardians. Cleveland designated him for assignment less than eight months after the trade. The righty bounced between the Giants and White Sox before catching on with the Brewers and, eventually, becoming a piece in this past offseason’s Freddy Peralta trade (who is now a Ray, too).
“That’s a bad trade,” said Chris Antonetti, Guardians president of baseball operations, in 2023.
DH Yandy Díaz
Cleveland at least (briefly) saw the fruits of its labor with Díaz, whom the organization signed out of Cuba in 2013. Díaz worked his way through the system before his debut in 2017, when he played 49 games with a .679 OPS. He hit much better in Year 2, posting a .797 OPS in 39 games, but Cleveland still taxied him between MLB and the Minor Leagues.
Then Díaz became part of a blockbuster three-team trade in December 2018.
Cleveland sent Edwin Encarnación and a Draft pick to the Mariners, as well as Díaz and pitcher Cole Sulser to the Rays. In turn, Cleveland received Carlos Santana from Seattle and Jake Bauers from the Rays.
Díaz became the two-time All-Star and steady performing bat we know today in Tampa Bay. He owns a career .818 OPS with the club. Albeit the lesser-known piece of the trade, Sulser also pitched in 51 games this season for the Rays and was on the ALDS roster, though he did not appear in a game against the Yankees.
Cleveland got a career year from Santana in 2019 (34 home runs), but Bauers struggled in two seasons with the club, leading to a 2021 DFA. However, Bauers is still impacting the 2026 postseason, only as a big-time breakout player with the Brewers.
RHP Kevin Kelly
Kelly was one of the Rays’ top relievers in 2026, recording a 2.44 ERA in 71 games, typically in high-leverage situations. 2025 wasn’t as good for the righty, but he was solid in both 2023 and 2024, giving him a career 3.23 ERA out of the bullpen for the Rays.
Tampa Bay found Kelly via the Rule 5 Draft from … Cleveland. Well, kind of.
The Rockies actually selected Kelly in 2022, but the Rays traded for him, and he then earned a spot on Tampa Bay’s Opening Day roster. A 19th-round Draft pick by Cleveland in 2019, Kelly had pitched to a 4.66 ERA in 40 games at High-A in 2021.
Palacios had a solid regular season, hitting 10 home runs on a .704 OPS in 124 games. He played an even bigger role in Tampa Bay's ALDS sweep over the Yankees. Palacios roped a two-run single in Game 2 that served as key insurance late in the game.
A third-round pick of Cleveland in 2018, Palacios debuted with the Guardians in 2022, but didn't see much success. He joined the Cardinals after the Guardians designated him for assignment, crushed the ball in a small 2023 sample and then was traded to the Rays in January 2024.
Manager Kevin Cash
Cash, a Tampa native and onetime Devil Rays catcher, has been on the bench for the Rays since 2015 -- the longest-tenured active manager in MLB. He’s twice been named the AL Manager of the Year and has taken the Rays to the postseason six times, including the 2020 World Series.
Cash spent 2013 and 2014 as Terry Francona’s bullpen coach in Cleveland.
Returning the favor?
The Rays-to-Guardians pipeline is not as strong as the other way around, but there are a few noteworthy names who got their start in Tampa Bay and wound up with this 2026 Cleveland group.
That includes Guardians director of baseball operations Bobby Kinne, who previously was the Rays’ Major League pitching strategist. Trade Deadline pickup Nathaniel Lowe came up with the Rays before becoming a bit of a journeyman. The Guardians also added Kyle Manzardo as a prospect from the Rays in a 2023 trade, though he has not been on Cleveland’s postseason roster.
The biggest name in this group? Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, whose 10-year MLB career began with an 0-for-27 showing at the plate with the Rays in 2012. Now, like Cash, Vogt has become a two-time AL Manager of the Year. And their squads are set to do battle in the ALCS, the third postseason matchup between two of MLB’s most forward-thinking clubs.