The Guardians have hired Dan Puente for an unspecified role on their major league coaching staff, per a report from The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma. Puente, 42, was a 12th-round pick in the 2004 draft by the Orioles and played in the minor leagues for two seasons, though he didn’t make it past the Single-A level before retiring from professional baseball. During his post-playing career, Puente took roles in the Astros and White Sox organizations before eventually landing a hitting coach gig in the Cubs’ minor league system prior to the 2020 campaign. He’s remained with the Cubs as a minor league hitting coach ever since, most recently coaching at High-A South Bend this past season.
While it’s not yet known what role Puente will take on in Cleveland, it’s worth noting that the Guardians lost assistant hitting coach Victor Rodriguez to the Padres earlier this winter when Rodriguez was offered a job as hitting coach under new manager Mike Shildt. Cleveland’s coaching staff has seen some noticeable turnover this winter, headlined by longtime skipper Terry Francona’s retirement from managing. Since Stephen Vogt was hired to take over for Francona as manager, the club has added Craig Albernaz as bench coach and Kai Correa as fielding coordinator. The club’s new coaching staff figures to have their hands full as they look to return to contention after a surprising third place finish in a weak AL Central division last year. The club’s 76-86 record put them two games behind the Tigers for second place and a whopping 11 games back of the Twins for the division crown.
More from the league’s Central divisions…
- Cubs fans enjoyed the club’s annual Cubs Convention this weekend, and comments from president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer regarding the club’s offseason were among the events on the event itinerary. As noted by The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney, Hoyer seemingly pumped the breaks on trade rumors regarding young slugger Christopher Morel, whose name has swirled in trade rumors throughout the offseason. While Morel wasn’t in attendance at this weekend’s festivities, Mooney relays that Hoyer described the idea that Morel’s absence was due to a potential trade in the works as “laughable.” Morel slashed a solid .247/.314/.508 while slugging 26 homers in just 107 games in 2023, though his position for the 2024 season is up in the air after spending much of last season at DH.
- White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease has been the topic of plenty of trade talks throughout the offseason, and WEII’s Rob Bradford recently spoke to the hurler about the barrage of rumors about his future this winter. Cease told Bradford that he takes most rumors “with a grain of salt” and noted that he hasn’t spoken with the club’s front office about the possibility of a trade, though he did acknowledge that “Publicly saying it’s an option is like an indirect way of letting me know.” Cease added that whether or not he’s traded has no impact on his offseason work, saying that “At the end of the day, it really isn’t my job… My job is to perform wherever I go and be a good player.” The 28-year-old righty is coming off a down season where he pitched to a 4.58 ERA over 33 starts put finished as the runner-up for the AL Cy Young award just one year prior after posting a 2.20 ERA in 184 innings of work back in 2022.
- Back issues played a role in limiting Cardinals infielder Nolan Gorman to just 119 games last year, and Daniel Guerrero of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch relays that the 23-year-old slugger has changed his offseason routine in hopes of staying healthy throughout the 2024 campaign. While Gorman told Guerrero that he hasn’t been able to pin down a specific cause of the issues, he’s been focusing on mobility and flexibility this offseason while working with a nutritionist to best prepare himself for the upcoming season. Gorman flashed impressive power in 2023, slashing .236/.328/.478 with 27 homers in just 119 games last year. Gorman split time between second base, third base, and DH last season and figures to split time between second base and DH with Brendan Donovan headed into the 2024 campaign.
Hoyer also said that a couple of more moves would be coming. Good to hear.
Guardians expected to file massive lawsuit against MLB and Rob Manfred for dereliction of duty in not acting in best interests of baseball for not restricting
other teams signing players while Guardians are in limbo on their tv contract with Diamond Sports/Ballys
As if MLB and Manfred can just ignore the CBA? They all agreed to it. If they don’t like the stipulations and ramifications, then they can wait til 2026. Until then, they have no one to blame but themselves for what the CBA allows and for signing a deal with Diamond Sports/Bally’s that hurt consumers/fans so badly that the companies are going bankrupt. Good riddance.
Morel missed the Cubs Convention because of a visa issue.
Back issues don’t go away
They can with serious work in flexibility/mobility training
This is very true. I’m not even 40 and I’ve had several back procedures and 2 back surgeries in the last 3 or 4 years. The 2 surgeries were about 15 hours apart. Don’t want to go too much off topic.
Apparently Dylan Cease trade rumors don’t go away either.
And they won’t as long as Chicago sticks to their unreasonable demands. Cease isn’t an ace but they want an ace return.
Anyone who wants to argue that he is an ace, spend a few minutes looking at him on Baseball Savant. He is a mid-rotation pitcher that had a great year a couple of years ago.
He’s one year removed from finishing 2nd in CY voting. Do you actually watch the games or do you only follow baseball through the sliders on Baseball Savant?
I said he had a great year a couple of years ago. He also has not had a great year any of the other years he’s pitched. But his pitching metrics are trending in the wrong way and that can’t be ignored. Especially by the front offices of prospective trade partners. There’s a reason no team has met the White Sox demands.
Yeah Joe I agree, nobody’s knocking down the door to get this guy for a reason. He isn’t worth top prospects in an organization’s 1-5. Dylan Cease might be worth a couple of prospects in someone’s top 5-15 ,especially right now. I felt like Everson Pereira, Will Warren, and Clarke Schmidt seemed like a fair trade for the White Sox. If that’s not what they want, then let’s just move on.
And the Sox have him under so trip for 2 more seasons. They should set a high bar. It’s not just his pitching but the contract as wel. He will be under paid as a pre-arb player. So an under paid #2 is quite valuable. More so than a market rate number 1. I hear you on his career trajectory, but the value he provides is still very high. As I have heard it said “you don’t trade for players. You trade for their contracts”. And Cease has a good one right now.
I take and agree with your point Kremer but he began arb last year.
I agree, Joe. If you’re going to pay a ridiculous price, I’d rather have Luzardo and his 3 years of control. And depending on the organization, I don’t even think I’d do that.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the White Sox want more for Cease than the Marlins want for Luzardo and his 3 years of control. They always demand ridiculous amounts and other than his strikeouts, a 4.58 ERA is not worth it. Having said that, I understand starting off with high demands because that’s his job, but at some point, when everyone laughs at him, one would think he’d come down to earth a lil bit. Sometimes Chicago gets what they want though. I can’t believe what they got for Eaton, a loogy like Bummer, etc. So maybe someone will get desperate.
Power has its place in a line-up, but the Cards really don’t need him. He won’t bring more victories. DH is his only option that makes sense. Donovan is more valuable. I am pretty sure Scott will be in center, and he should lead off. There is no room for Gorman.
Potato Slinger knows what’s up.
Nice snap synopsis Tater Tosser, now do a random Dodger.
Perfect. Trade him to the Tigers for Matt Manning and Wilmer Flores and be done with him 😉
Lol, exactly what I was thinking. And screw it, we’ll even throw in Veirling if they want.
I completely disagree. He has massive value. Huge lefthanded pop at 2nd base is almost a unicorn. LH power wins in the playoffs. that has been clearly shown. Also, he played league avg defense at 2nd by the end of last season even though he was learning the position. I watched almost every game and saw alot of great plays made by him . He has a very strong arm as well.
It isn’t that I don’t appreciated Gorman’s talent, it is just I don’t see a spot for him. I will bet, Scott is the Red Bird centerfielder. That moves Edman to second. Winn at SS, and a Donovan/Carlson DH dúo. So when and where is Gorman going to play?
Gorman will play 2B or 3B when he gets traded to the Tigers. St Louis still needs pitching. I like Gorman a lot.
If you hit for power like he does, then room will be made for you. Power wins games and Donovan is good, but less valuable.
I wish Detroit would throw you a couple pitchers in the minors for him. We could sure use him at 2B or 3B.
Agree —Trade him for Trout
I like Gorman quite a bit, but when you think about what happens if he’s not 2B or DH, that means Edman/Donovan can play there. It also would allow Walker to DH in his stead. Scott in CF would allow Noot to play the corners along with Carlson. Donnie can play corner OF if Edman is at 2B. It really might help defensively as others have stated. I don’t like the idea of Edman in CF full-time. He’s truly the biggest value moving around the diamond or middle IF.
GA Cubs Fan Please note that Christopher Morel could not get his Visa on time. He sent a video with his regrets.
This kind of brings me back a few years—always was amazed at the high number of players that had visa problems. Like they didn’t have calendars in those foreign countries. I miss the good old days.
It’s not as prevalent today as in the past, so a good old visa problem story is good to come across every now and again.
mike127- I thought Morel was playing in the Dominican Winter League or is that over? If it is it’s kind of surprising Morel didn’t have his Visa up to date because I expect him to be down in AZ working at 3B soon. He needs it.
Should have stayed with American Express then.
Only 6 comments thus far? Poor Spiders & Cubbies =/
Can’t really say much for both Chicago teams. Hoyer is waiting Bellinger out to get his price tag down and on the White Sox side, Cease hasn’t been traded because Getz is asking for a premium for him and probably won’t happen until the trade deadline at this point.
Cubs did introduce Imanaga, and he’s a pitcher I really hoped Cubs got, so that’s a win lol
Acoss- It’s like a card game of WAR. Right now Hoyer has most of the cards as he has more options. He can trade if he wants he has assets. Boras has no leverage right now. The Cubs will still be good without them.
I would rather have seen Cleveland hire David Ross instead of Vogt. Nothing against Vogt but Ross did pretty well with some pretty weak Cubs teams. I think he would have been perfect for Cleveland. A mid market team should snap him up before the Yankees finally realize Boone isn’t going to get the job done and bring in Ross.
Ross’s personal issues with Wilson Contreras and the amount of sway Contreras has inside the Cleveland organization played a factor.
Willson Contreras, as in the catcher who plays for St. Louis now?? How does he have any sway in Cleveland?? Am I missing something??
Every once in awhile there’s a post by someone that just makes you go WTF? That one was it TopJimmy.
Huh??? That comment has a ton of us shaking our heads.
“…comments from president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer regarding the club’s offseason were among the events on the event itinerary.”
It’s always good when there are events listed on the event itinerary.
That’s not as bad as “pumped the breaks”.
At least the second time I’ve seen that in the past few days, I think from the same sloppy writer.
Kick the tires.
Cleveland is a mess, no moves the cheap owner is sitting it out using the local TV deal collapsing as his excuse. Fourth place, KC will pass them they will battle White Sox for basement.
I honestly see this happening.
The major revenue stream drying up is real. Its not an excuse. Its a legitimate reason. And while KC has spent some, they are still a bad team with slightly improved pitching. They still can’t hit, and they are poor fielders.
The grass is always greener, as they say. The teams that stayed away from Bally and were satisfied with Foxsports et al are doing much better .
KC is way better at hitting than at pitching right now.
.”.. Hoyer pumped the breaks…”
Please, NIck, give us a brake.
Wish Detroit would give a couple pitchers for Gorman. We sure could use him.
I feel the Guardians have the worst offseason in the weak AL Central. Not sure what team is having the worst offseason maybe the Mariners or A’s.
Nolan Gorman of the Cardinals, not only would be The Best Trade Bait for an Ace Pitcher —— his exit would mean moving Tommy Edman back to Second base.
Edman ….. when he was an every day starter at Second….. was a Gold Glove winner.
By moving Edman back to second base—- that would give the Cardinals 3 Gold Glove recipients back in their infield. In addition to young Mayan Winn who very well could earn a Golden Glove himself in the future.
Thus —— possibly reuniting the best defensive infield in the National League —- without Gorman.
dizzy, I agree that it would help the infield defensively but Arenado & Goldie aren’t GGers at this stage of their careers. Nolan had a really good run of GGs, though. Neither of them is a liability by any means and the infield would be better in my opinion with some combo of Goldie, Donovan, Edman, Winn and Arenado. The OF consisting of Noot, Scott II and Carlson would be better also.
If Gorman has back problems that he can’t over why would anyone want him? He’s a young kid with 40 homer potential and is left handed give the kid a year or two!