Headlines

  • Red Sox Likely To Activate Alex Bregman Tomorrow
  • Astros To Promote Brice Matthews
  • Phillies Reportedly Targeting Controllable Relievers
  • Yankees Prioritizing Pitching, Also Searching For Infield Help
  • Orioles Trade Bryan Baker To Rays
  • Yankees Release DJ LeMahieu
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Rumors

MLB Trade Rumors

Remove Ads
  • Home
  • Teams
    • AL East
      • Baltimore Orioles
      • Boston Red Sox
      • New York Yankees
      • Tampa Bay Rays
      • Toronto Blue Jays
    • AL Central
      • Chicago White Sox
      • Cleveland Guardians
      • Detroit Tigers
      • Kansas City Royals
      • Minnesota Twins
    • AL West
      • Houston Astros
      • Los Angeles Angels
      • Oakland Athletics
      • Seattle Mariners
      • Texas Rangers
    • NL East
      • Atlanta Braves
      • Miami Marlins
      • New York Mets
      • Philadelphia Phillies
      • Washington Nationals
    • NL Central
      • Chicago Cubs
      • Cincinnati Reds
      • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Pittsburgh Pirates
      • St. Louis Cardinals
    • NL West
      • Arizona Diamondbacks
      • Colorado Rockies
      • Los Angeles Dodgers
      • San Diego Padres
      • San Francisco Giants
  • About
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Tim Dierkes
    • Writing team
    • Advertise
    • Archives
  • Contact
  • Tools
    • 2025 Trade Deadline Outlook Series
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Agency Database
  • NBA/NFL/NHL
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • App
  • Chats
Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Offseason Chat Transcript: Cleveland Guardians

By Mark Polishuk | October 7, 2023 at 1:31pm CDT

Since the Guardians’ entry in MLBTR’s Offseason Outlook series was posted earlier today, our related live chat about all things Guards also had to launch.  Click here to read the chat transcript.

Share 0 Retweet 0 Send via email0

2023-24 Offseason Outlook Cleveland Guardians MLBTR Chats

Astros, Twins Announce ALDS Rosters
Main
Dodgers, Diamondbacks Announce NLDS Rosters
View Comments (8)
Post a Comment

8 Comments

  1. Samuel

    2 years ago

    Under Shapiro-Antonetti Cleveland would come up with a new philosophy (that the analytic community was hot about) each year or two, then run it into the ground. Sort of like the fad diets that come out each Spring.

    Francona squared them away some, but Antonetti’s doing it again.

    Their farm system was ranked highly the past 2-3 years, primarily because of their abundance of middle infielders (SS, 2B; some could play 3B, 1B, even OF as well). But all those guys have come up and they’re pretty much the same player: Decent fielders but no gold glove candidates; contact hitters that don’t hit for much of a BA; a little speed but no one that has enough to turn a game. Fact is that Andres Gimenez (who they acquired in trade) is the best of the lot and should be the everyday SS.

    Not being able to pay for power in free agency is true, but a team that acquires a young players’ rights through drafting or other means controls his rights for 6 years at the ML level. Arbitration might be higher, but seldom are power hitters in arbitration awarded $30m a year…..and if Cleveland had a player like that (think a Juan Soto / Pete Alonso) and couldn’t afford the salary in his 4th/5th/6th season, they could easily move him for a decent major leaguer and one of two very good prospects.

    This is a team stuck in a rut. Superior pitching, too many LH hitters, little power. A few years ago they won doing some stealing and playing smart fundamental baseball, they’re stopped that. Their D is OK, but the most important position is C and Bo Naylor is going to take years to develop there (he’s not Roberto Pérez or Austin Hedges behind the plate) – look at the work Yainer Diaz has had to do with the Astros coaches the past 2-1/2 years. They need new hitting coaches to start. But mostly they need to become a balanced ML team that can give the manager multiple options to win each game.

    The best thing they have going for them is being in the worst division in MLB. But the Tigers and Royals have made some very solid moves in their FO and organization, the results will be seen in the next few years.

    1
    Reply
  2. hockeyjohn

    2 years ago

    I would not give up much of anything for the oft injured highly overrated Tyler O’Neil.

    5
    Reply
  3. hockeyjohn

    2 years ago

    Seattle fans, Morosi is a moron just trying to get clicks. Jose Ramirez will be a Cleveland Guardian for a long time.

    5
    Reply
    • basquiat

      2 years ago

      Jose Ramirez is 31 years old.

      Reply
  4. Col_chestbridge

    2 years ago

    I have a bit of a long theory, but here goes. Small market teams like the Guards, A’s, and Rays have to “gamble” a bit to win. The A’s made a big gamble last year on speed with the new hold rules, that’s why they went hard after Ruiz. That didn’t work out. The Guardians had a different gamble go bad.

    The Guardians thought that the high contact/low strikeout/less power approach would be rewarded by the rule changes with the shift. There’s quotes to that effect from both Antonetti and their hitting coach. That was why they decided to trade off Will Benson (high power, low contact) and Nolan Jones (same, but also playing out of position in RF) for further away prospects and instead commit to Will Brennan and Oscar Gonzalez as their OF. To put it mildly, those gambles failed.

    Instead the shift ban really opened up that left side of the infield. Which was a boon for left handed dead pull hitters like Benson and Jones. Which made the offensive contributions of Kwan, Straw, and Brennan look that much worse. In addition, not being able to play way out of position exposed a lot of Amed Rosario’s defensive shortcomings and made him near unplayable (he has well documented issues with range to his left).

    Misfiring on Josh Bell hurt. I’m not convinced Zunino was a huge deal because they were probably just buying time for Bo Naylor. But the thing I think they would really do differently if they had a time machine is instead of trading Jones and Benson, trading Rosario and Brennan.

    Reply
    • Samuel

      2 years ago

      Col_chestbridge;

      Don’t agree that small market teams “gamble”. The O’s surely aren’t. The Rays know exactly what they’re doing, and will turn over quality young productive players with 2-3 years left in arbitration to get multiple prospects back (that play cheap) which they can coach up to be productive for the years they need them (most players peak at age 28 anyway).

      The A’s do a different sort of rebuild, basically they turn over the roster as the majority of their players are approaching their 6 years of control limit. They didn’t get Ruiz with the idea that they’d be a speed team and win in 2023. They’re really playing to have a contending team in place when they get to Las Vegas in a few years.

      As for trading off Benson and Jones – yes, it might be that they went with more contact over power. But truth be told I have no idea how they think about these things – they were simply overloaded with young LH hitters (probably why they held onto Oscar Gonzalez who hits RH). As far as Benson and Jones go – and I keep writing this – they went to teams that had balanced line-ups. Consequently they weren’t seeing a disproportionate number of LH pitchers – particularly at critical points in a game. Hitting is so much about getting good pitches to hit. And since there are so few LH pitchers in MLB, LH hitters that are used to seeing the ball coming out of a RH pitchers hand (much easier to adjust to) are at a large disadvantage when they have to face a LH pitcher (RH hitters do not have this issue against RH pitchers because they see so many).

      That was simply a poorly assembled position player roster, and has been so for years now. The obsession with LH contact hitters has not worked, but they seem to be stuck in that mentality.

      You don’t think that if they’d held onto Yandy Diaz and Harold Ramirez as solid RH hitters that the team wouldn’t be better? If anything, opposing managers would have been hesitant to bring in a LH pitcher at a critical point in a game if Diaz or Rameriz were on deck, since a new pitcher has to face a minimum of 3 batters unless it’s the end of the inning.

      Reply
      • Col_chestbridge

        2 years ago

        Tanking for awhile to pick up draft picks and prospects is gambling of sorts. You’re gambling a certain percentage of those prospects (both from drafting higher and from the trades) will work out well enough. There’s always risk in doing that vs. the risk of a proven mlb caliber player.

        But trading guys in arb is a fairly decent gamble. All of those teams also sign guys in free agency every year, hoping they’ll flip things around and be valuable trade chips. Those are low stakes – if they don’t work out you’ve at least saved some service time I guess – but still gambles. Nothing is as sure as signing and trading for proven mlb caliber talent.

        Yandy and Harold are for sure guys who would help the current roster for the Guardians, sure. Harold was a random waiver claim so I don’t think just the Guardians can be blamed for passing on him. Yandy I think they considered to be the price of doing business for going “all in” to get Carlos Santana back during an ultimately failed playoff push.

        1
        Reply
  5. User 3594734386

    2 years ago

    Chase Delauter. Leading up to his senior year at JMU, he was getting legit press as #1 overall pick in the draft. Injury happens, stock drops and falls to you guys. A steal!

    2
    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.

Log in Register

    Top Stories

    Red Sox Likely To Activate Alex Bregman Tomorrow

    Astros To Promote Brice Matthews

    Phillies Reportedly Targeting Controllable Relievers

    Yankees Prioritizing Pitching, Also Searching For Infield Help

    Orioles Trade Bryan Baker To Rays

    Yankees Release DJ LeMahieu

    Trevor Williams To Undergo UCL Surgery

    Nationals Fire PBO Mike Rizzo, Manager Dave Martinez

    Brewers Activate Brandon Woodruff

    Clarke Schmidt Expected To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

    Bobby Jenks Passes Away

    Braves Release Alex Verdugo

    Top 40 Trade Candidates For The 2025 Deadline

    Rays Reinstate Ha-Seong Kim

    Yankees Have Shown Interest In Ryan McMahon

    Royals Interested In Bryan Reynolds

    Rangers Option Josh Jung

    Kevin Pillar Announces Retirement

    Braves Place Spencer Schwellenbach On IL With Elbow Fracture

    Giants Exercise 2026 Option On Manager Bob Melvin

    Recent

    Mets To Designate Rico Garcia For Assignment

    J.D. Davis Signs With NPB’s Seibu Lions

    The Opener: 2025 Draft, Pitchers’ Duel, Mets

    Trade Deadline Outlook: New York Yankees

    Trade Deadline Outlook: Atlanta Braves

    Which Other Relievers Might The Orioles Shop?

    Lee Elia Passes Away

    Red Sox Likely To Activate Alex Bregman Tomorrow

    Poll: Which Teams Should Make The Biggest Push For Jarren Duran?

    MLB Finalizes Home Run Derby Field

    MLBTR Newsletter - Hot stove highlights in your inbox, five days a week

    Latest Rumors & News

    Latest Rumors & News

    • Sandy Alcantara Rumors
    • Luis Robert Rumors
    • Alex Bregman Rumors

     

    Trade Rumors App for iOS and Android App Store Google Play

    MLBTR Features

    MLBTR Features

    • Remove Ads, Support Our Writers
    • Front Office Originals
    • Front Office Fantasy Baseball
    • MLBTR Podcast
    • Trade Deadline Outlook Series
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Agency Database
    • MLBTR On Twitter
    • MLBTR On Facebook
    • Team Facebook Pages
    • How To Set Up Notifications For Breaking News
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors

    Rumors By Team

    • Angels Rumors
    • Astros Rumors
    • Athletics Rumors
    • Blue Jays Rumors
    • Braves Rumors
    • Brewers Rumors
    • Cardinals Rumors
    • Cubs Rumors
    • Diamondbacks Rumors
    • Dodgers Rumors
    • Giants Rumors
    • Guardians Rumors
    • Mariners Rumors
    • Marlins Rumors
    • Mets Rumors
    • Nationals Rumors
    • Orioles Rumors
    • Padres Rumors
    • Phillies Rumors
    • Pirates Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Rays Rumors
    • Red Sox Rumors
    • Reds Rumors
    • Rockies Rumors
    • Royals Rumors
    • Tigers Rumors
    • Twins Rumors
    • White Sox Rumors
    • Yankees Rumors

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives
    • RSS/Twitter Feeds By Team

    MLBTR INFO

    • Advertise
    • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

    Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

    hide arrows scroll to top

    Register

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version