Cleveland Guardians fans want the drought to end. The team hasn't won the World Series since 1948, and fans aren't sure when the Guards will be able to compete for a Fall Classic victory again.

They almost snapped the drought on multiple occasions during the 1990's, reaching the World Series in 1995 and 1997. In fact, in '97, Cleveland was just a couple of strikes away from winning it all. However, the Indians, as they were called at the time, fell short.

In 2007, they blew a 3-1 ALCS lead to the Boston Red Sox. They proceeded to blow a 3-1 World Series lead in 2016 to the Chicago Cubs in a series that still haunts fans of the team. Instead of being aggressive in MLB free agency, however, Cleveland is choosing to rely on its ability to develop players.

Owner Paul Dolan addressed this mindset during a recent interview with Jeff Schudel of The News-Herald.

“We're always looking to improve the team,” Dolan responded when asked if the Guardians will look to add another bat. “But frankly I think a lot of our improvement is going to come internally and organically. We've got a lot of young guys that we gotta see what they can do and they're about ready to break through. So it's going to be an interesting year to see what our young guys can do.”

Are the Guardians rebuilding? 

Okay, to be fair, nobody expected Cleveland to out-bid the Los Angeles Dodgers for Shohei Ohtani. Fans also weren't expecting the team to pursue Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Blake Snell in free agency.

But right now, Cleveland's prized free-agent acquisition this offseason is… Austin Hedges. No disrespect to Hedges, who seems to have a great personality and is a strong defensive catcher, but the Guardians seemingly have not made much of an effort to add more help.

So are they rebuilding? Dolan's comments about relying on their young players would suggest that Cleveland is headed in that route. After all, we haven't heard the Dodgers and New York Yankees saying things like that.

In all reality, it is uncertain what direction this ball club is headed in. In 2022, despite featuring MLB's youngest roster, the Guardians reached the MLB playoffs. They took a step back in 2023, however, and missed the postseason. Perhaps Dolan's strategy of turning to players already within the organization will work.

But again, for a franchise that fans who were born in 1949 or later haven't even seen win a World Series, one would expect more of an aggressive pursuit in free agency. Adding an outfielder or two to boost the lineup would give Guardians fans some hope.

Unfortunately for Cleveland baseball, it may be a while before the team has another opportunity to snap the World Series drought. But who knows, perhaps the team will take a page out of the movie Major League's playbook and shock the world in 2024.