Chase DeLauter

Chase Daniel DeLauter

Bats Left, Throws Left
Height 6' 3", Weight 235 lb.
School James Madison University
High School Hedgesville High School
Debut October 1, 2025 (Wild Card Series)

Born October 8, 2001 in Frederick, MD USA

Biographical Information[edit]

Chase DeLauter was a two-way player in college at James Madison University, both playing the outfield and pitching. In his final season there as a redshirt sophomore in 2022, he batted .437 in 24 games before breaking his foot in April, but pitched only once, although he had seen more action on the mound in previous years, featuring a fastball in the low 90s. He also dominated the Cape Cod League as a hitter in the summer of 2021, leading the league in homers and slugging percentage. In any case, the Cleveland Guardians drafted him as an outfielder when they used the 16th pick of the 2022 amateur draft to select him. He was the first first-round pick in his school's history. Although born in Maryland, he went to high school in West Virginia.

He made his pro debut in 2023 with the ACL Guardians, but was promoted to the Lake County Captains of the Midwest League after 9 games and finished the season in AA with the Akron Rubber Ducks of the Eastern League. His combined slash line in 57 games was .355/.417/.528 as he missed two months of action early in the year as he was still recovering from his college injury. After the season, he was named a Guardians organizational All-Star in spite of the time missed, then played in the Arizona Fall League where he participated in the Rising Stars Game. In 2024, he broke his foot again, and it led to a truncated season, limiting him to 30 games with Akron, 3 with the ACL Guardians and 6 with the AAA Columbus Clippers. He hit .261/.342/.500 in the 39 games, then batted .340 in 12 games in the Arizona Fall League.

More health issues affected him as he headed into 2024, as he had to undergo an operation for a sports hernia, once again delaying the start of his season. he ended up playing just 42 games between Rookie Ball and AAA, hitting .264 with 7 homers and 24 RBIs. He did not make his major league debut during the regular season, but was added to Cleveland's postseason roster. With his team facing elimination in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against the Detroit Tigers, he was inserted in the starting lineup as the centerfielder and #7 hitter. His most recent minor league game had been on July 11th after suffering a broken hamate bone in his right wrist. Playing under a very bright sky and with a strong wind blowing in an afternoon game on October 1st, he was charged with an error on the first ball hit to him as he dropped a fly ball off the bat of Gleyber Torres. That put a second runner on base with nobody out in the 1st, but pitcher Tanner Bibee bailed him out by striking out the next three Detroit batters in order. He then made a great defensive play in the 4th, when, with two outs and the bases loaded, he gunned down Zach McKinstry at third base. McKinstry was originally called safe, which would have resulted in Detroit scoring two runs, but the video review overturned the call and determined that only one runner had crossed the plate before the tag on McKinstry. Thus, the score remained 1-1, and Cleveland went on to win the game, 6-1. It was the key play of the game. He went 1 for 6 in the two games he played in the series.

Chase made his regular season debut on March 26, 2026, starting in right field against the Seattle Mariners on Opening Day. He made it a memorable occasion by homering twice, the first coming against Logan Gilbert as the second batter of the game, and the other coming in the 9th against reliever Cooper Criswell. Both homers were solo shots, and he ended the day 3 for 5 with 3 runs scored in a 6-4 win. He then hit another homer the next day, doing so in the 1st inning again and accounting for Cleveland's only run in a 5-1 loss to Seattle. He entered infinite improbability drive territory on March 28th, when he made it four homers in his first three games of the season, the blast this time coming off Seattle closer Andrés Muñoz in the 10th inning to give Cleveland a 6-5 win. Before him, only Trevor Story in 2016 had ever hit that many long balls in his first three career games, and only Story, the Mariners' Kyle Lewis in 2019, and he had ever gone deep in each of their first three career games. The fourth homer come after he had struck out in his first three plate appearances of the game, and made an out in the next one, before getting another chance in extras.

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