The Guardians have designated outfielder Estevan Florial for assignment, tweets Zack Meisel of The Athletic. His spot on the roster will go to outfielder Steven Kwan, who’s been reinstated from the injured list and is back in the Cleveland lineup tonight.
Acquired from the Yankees in a December swap that sent right-hander Cody Morris back to New York, the out-of-options Florial won a spot on Cleveland’s Opening Day roster but has yet to hit with his new club. The once-vaunted prospect has appeared in 36 games with the Guards and tallied 111 plate appearances while mustering only a .173/.264/.367 slash. Florial has shown some extra-base pop, with three homers, six doubles and a pair of triples, but he’s also gone down on strikes in a staggering 36.9% of his plate appearances.
Strikeout woes are nothing new for Florial, who’s now punched out in 33.5% of his 245 big league plate appearances. Even as Florial put up gaudy numbers in Triple-A with the Yankees organization in 2022-23, he did so while fanning in three out of every ten trips to the plate. The Yankees largely left him in Triple-A to try to sort through his lack of contact skills, but it’s not a flaw that Florial has been able to overcome to this point.
Florial’s combination of power and speed has long been tantalizing, but he’s now a .192/.291/.329 hitter in the big leagues who can’t be sent to the minors without first clearing waivers. Another club that’s not in contention could perhaps afford to take a flier and place a waiver claim, but it’d be hard for any team with postseason aspirations to give Florial any kind of meaningful playing time when he’s clearly a project. The Guardians will have a week to try to trade him, pass him through outright waivers, or release him. If he clears outright waivers, Florial can reject the assignment and elect free agency by virtue of the fact that he’s been outrighted once in the past (with the Yankees in April 2023).
Yay!
Another overhyped Yankees prospect who does nothing in the majors…
I’ll forever appreciate his legacy series against the Yankees
Will this finally be the move that gets Schneemann on the 40 man? Have to think Arias’ days will be numbered now once that happens…
Arias isn’t going to be DFA’d to get Schneeman on the club. Arias may be optioned but you’ll need to find someone else to DFA to open a spot on the 40 man.
They opened up a spot on the 40-man by DFAing Florial. I’d like to think that if they call up Schneeman, they’d make sure he’ll get at-bats and not just sit on the bench, so Arias is probably safe for now. I don’t see it happening unless they run out of patience with Rocchio or someone gets hurt.
Wow! Remember when he was the untouchable prospect for Yankees fans?
I don’t because it never happened. This guy was buried at AAA for the Yankees and eventually DFA’d, very far from “untouchable”.
No.
Emilio!!!!!!
I’m still happily in shock Cleveland gave up Cody Morris for Florial. Guys with 35% K rates in the minors never pan out. Florial has more big league service time than I ever will, and he can probably do the quad A thing for a few years. He can play any outfield spot, runs well, and will hit the random homer off a meatball pitch.
As a Guardians fan I think it was worth giving up Morris to take a shot on Florial. Going into the year, they didn’t really have any outfield options other than Kwan that had much upside and I doubt they expected to be playing this well right now so they probably figured they could give Florial an extended run of at bats to see if he could figure it out.
Morris was also just gonna be a reliever for them because he had no ability to stay healthy and because the control is an issue. He definitely has the stuff to be an impact late inning guy if he can stay healthy, but he’s got his questions too. Plus I feel like you always have to be skeptical if the Guardians are moving on from a pitcher.
Not exactly a Floral performance.
Unrelated question that needs to be asked. Why doesn’t Baseball Reference trust us to comment on Wander Franco? The riffing could be great from this motley crew of the usual suspects that regularly post. We’re missing out! That said, it’s probably because something like an insignificant minor league signing of say, a journeyman backup catcher often sends many here into a vitriolic frenzy of traded insults.
Seems like you answered your own question by stating the obvious.
The usual Yankee failed prospect. Year after year after year after year its always the same old story. The issue is the organization and the fans way overate their prospects. Greg Bird, Miguel Andujar, Justus Sheiffield, Clint Frazier, Rob Refsnyder, Devi Garcia, etc. There are way more than that but those are just off the top of my head
Tell me more about Brett Baty, Amed Rosario, Dom Smith, Mark Vientos, Ike Davis, etc. There are way more than that but those are just off the top of my head.
So every failed Yankees prospect the Yankees just trade for a Verdugo and Soto. The problem now is the Yankees won’t be able to bring back both. So Spencer Jones and Dominez better be can’t miss prospects.
Rosario isn’t a failed prospect. He’s just not as good as hoped. Although if you want an example of a WAAAAY overhyped prospect, Rosario is the poster boy.
Aaron Judge, Anthony Volpe…no? What about any of the prospects that they turned into Juan Soto? no still?
They’re gonna have to turn in some $$$$ if they want to keep Soto for more than a year.
Money will not be an issue. Any team that signs Juan Soto will make so much more from having him on their team than they will pay him. In business, it is called an investment. When the return on investment (ROI) is calculated, paying Soto whatever is a no-brainer. Even Cashman and Hal can do that math. Like I said, it is a no-brainer!.
Frazier and Sheffield were Cleveland prospects.
EVERYBODY has a laundry list of failed prospects.
Maybe he has a future with Clint Frazier on the Charleston Dirty Birds.
The thing I never understood is that the scouting report on Florial was that at minimum he was a decent defender. So why is it that the Guardians decided to play him in CF precisely once, and mostly put him at DH/PH duty? You would think on a team having infielders learn OF on the fly that he’d be a guy to at least put in as a defensive replacement every once and awhile. But instead they had Arias playing CF, Fry playing LF/RF, and supposedly have been getting Manzardo LF reps in practice.
Once his lack of defensive value became apparent, this was pretty much a matter of time.
His defense was clearly overhyped–Cleveland said as much by the way they used him. I was startled by his arm as well…not nearly as strong as we were led to believe. Good kid, wish him well. I just don’t know how you improve contact in the zone. He doesn’t chase, he just can’t hit strikes.
Probably the best evaluation of Florial I’ve seen: “he doesn’t chase, he just can’t hit strikes.”
I don’t see him getting many more reps at the MLB level. So many swing and misses in his wheelhouse. He just can’t hit consistently.
When Cleveland got him, I was sure he’d be DFA’d by mid June. Looks like that was too optimistic. He’s now beginning the Greg Allen portion of his career when he’ll drift from team to team, the difference though is Allen can field and has some value.
When evaluating position prospects, one tool counts far above all the rest.
A kid can run like the wind, be strong enough to hit a ball thru a brick wall, and play defense like a roomba…but if he can’t make contact with a bat on a baseball, it doesnt mean squat.
Bradley Zimmer disease. Daniel Johnson caught it too.
He looked like a major league power hitter. Looks apparently are deceiving.
It sure was nice to have Kwan back tonight. What a player.
Honestly, and I can’t believe I’m saying this with those awful numbers, but I wouldn’t mind if the White Sox put in a claim for him. He’s played well when I’ve watched him this year and I don’t know, maybe there’s something there still.
White Sox a good call. Play him every day. 3/4 weeks of every day play should certainly go far in evaluating efforts to go forward or go fish.
Sox are awful. The opportunity is inexpensive. Go for it.