Guardians' $20,000,000 phenom using failure against Aaron Judge's Yankees in ALCS as motivation for 2025 season

Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase recently reflected upon his poor outing against the Aaron Judge-led New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series last year. The Guardians All-Star stated that he has used that heavy setback as motivation to improve his abilities so that he does not repeat it again in the future.

Emmanuel Clase, who signed a 5-year, $20 million contract in 2022, firmly established himself as the best relief pitcher in the game as he picked up his third straight All-Star selection in 2024, besides leading the AL in saves for the third consecutive year at the end of the regular season.

However, he struggled mightily in the postseason and gave up back-to-back home runs to Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton against the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the ALCS. He also gave up two runs in the ninth inning of Game 4 as the Guardians eventually bowed out to the Yankees in five games.

On Wednesday, Emmanuel Clase was in conversation with MLB Network analyst Mark DeRosa at the Cleveland Guardians spring training camp in Goodyear, Arizona. Clase offered his perspective on his disastrous outings against the New York Yankees led by Aaron Judge.

"Obviously, it was not the result that we wanted," he replied through his interpreter Agustin Rivero.

"I want to keep working in a way that would put us in a better position this year," he added. "My focus is to work a lot harder so that does not happen again."

Clase recorded 47 saves last year with a 0.61 ERA and a 0.659 WHIP to finish third in the AL Cy Young voting.

Guardians outfielder makes contrasting comparison with the physique of Aaron Judge to stress importance of mental strength in MLB

Aaron Judge wa named the AL MVP for the second time in his career last year (Image Source: IMAGN)

Cleveland Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan claims that having a strong mentality is the most important trait for an MLB player by comparing the highly contrasting physical statures of himself and New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge. Kwan gave his thoughts in an appearance on the No Agenda podcast this Wednesday.

"Baseball obviously needs some talent, but it's a mental game. Look at me, a 5'8" kinda guy; I get to play next to Aaron Judge. No body type is the same, but the only similarity we have is being solid up here. I firmly believe baseball is one of the hardest mental sports to be part of," he said.

"Nobody fails as often as we do on a daily basis, and are expected to show up the next day and do the same thing. That could beat somebody down. You need a tool to be able to filter that and be able to move to the next day. I think that's why it's so important [to be mentally strong], because it can manifest into something really nasty down the road, if you're not handling it every day," Kwan added.

Steven Kwan shared the same dressing room with Aaron Judge last year as he made an appearance at the All-Star game. Kwan posted a .292/.368/.425 slash line at the end of the season with 14 home runs, 12 stolen bases, 84 runs scored, and an OPS+ of 126.