Sim, ele absolutamente era
Na novelização, Baze é identificado como Guardião em várias ocasiões:
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Por Cassiano, depois que Chirrut aborda Jyn sobre seu colar:
"We're not here to make friends," [Cassian] muttered. "Not with those guys."
"Who are they?"
"The Guardians of the Whills. Protectors of the Temple of the Kyber. But there's nothing left to protect, so now they're just causing trouble for everybody."
Chapter 4
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Pelo próprio Chirrut, na citação você se lembra:
Chirrut's partner laughed again. The sound was brief and ugly, but Chirrut only shrugged and told Cassian, "Baze Malbus was once the most devoted Guardian of us all."
Baze Malbus. Cassian ran the name through his mental database and came up empty. "Now he's just your guardian?” he asked.
Neither man took the bait. Cassian ran his hands over his face, scratched at his beard. Both of the Guardians were formidable fighters, to be sure
Chapter 5
Há também um grande número de ocasiões em que Baze e Chirrut são descritos como "os Guardiões", no plural; mas não vou citar cada um deles.
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Na narração (ênfase minha):
Cassian tried to interpose his body between Baze and the cell door as the Guardian straightened with purpose.
Chapter 6
He was certain Chirrut understood his warning. But the blind man, once brother to Baze among the Guardians of the Whills and now the fool Baze was cursed to entertain, started forward again.
Chapter 10
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E, mais importante, na própria narração interna de Baze:
"The Force is with me," he repeated. "And I am with the Force."
[...]
He spoke the words, and in them he found not comfort but conviction — or the memory of conviction, as if the words were a key to the forgotten faith of his youth. The unlocked memory strangled him, wracking and intense. He knew again the significance of the Force in every breath and action, knew all he had forsaken in years past; saw the vast gulf between the Guardian he had been and the man he was now, and wept in his heart for both.
Chapter 20
E no Guia Visual:
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Former Guardian of the Whills Baze Malbus has found a more concrete cause in fighting the Empire. A combat-hardened veteran of countless skirmishes on embattled Jedha and elsewhere, Baze has a bravado that provides a marked contrast to the spiritual centeredness of his best friend and moral compass, Chirrut Îmwe. Baze's faith has seemingly evaporated in the fires of Jedha
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Though both are Guardians of the Whills, Baze and Chirrut could not be more different in their approach to combat.
E no site oficial Twitter do Star Wars :
@StarWars Baze Malbus. A former Guardian of the Whills dedicated to the fight against the Empire. #RogueOne