The Guardians have released first baseman Carlos Santana, per a team announcement. He’d been placed on outright waivers earlier in the week and clearly went unclaimed. Infielder Daniel Schneemann has been reinstated from the paternity list and will take Santana’s spot on the active roster. Santana is now a free agent and can sign with any team for the prorated league minimum for the remainder of the season. So long as he signs prior to Sept. 1, he would be postseason-eligible with a new team.
Santana’s third stint in Cleveland will conclude with a lackluster .225/.316/.333 batting line and 11 home runs in 455 plate appearances. The 39-year-old remains an elite defender at first base, but his bat has wilted from both sides of the plate. The veteran switch-hitter is slashing just .220/.311/.325 against right-handed pitching and .235/.328/.353 versus lefties. That said, Santana was a thunderous force against left-handed pitching as recently as last season, when he raked at a .286/.356/.578 pace in 163 chances from the right-handed batter’s box.
Through the trade deadline, Santana’s bat was at least within arm’s reach of league average, but virtually all of his production this year came in a torrid month of May. He’s been below average at the plate in every other month and has cratered in August, hitting .186/.271/.233 through 48 plate appearances.
His recent poor play, coupled with the presence of young Kyle Manzardo and the recent promotion of top prospect C.J. Kayfus, left Santana without a clear role on a Guardians club that has fallen out of postseason contention. Cleveland will take the final month of the season to get regular reps for the 25-year-old Manzardo and the 23-year-old Kayfus. They’d surely hoped that another club would claim Santana and take on the remainder of his $12MM salary, but that was always a long shot. The Guards will remain on the hook for what’s left of that sum (minus the prorated minimum for any time he spends on another club’s major league roster).
Thanks, Carlos
A great spot for Carlos would be to back to Kansas for their playoff push
The Royals play in Missouri.
Alternative facts, Basquait.
KC has no more games against WSox (12-1 last year/10-3 this year). They were under .500 vs the rest of its schedule last year and this season. They’ll have to do something other than bottom feeding or hope someone like Seattle falls apart in Sept.
Sadly this means more Wilson instead of trying to shore up the lack of offense with a one dimensional outfielder from Columbus who will strike out too much but have great metrics. Sigh.
Jonathan Rodriguez?
Bring up gorage valera.
I think this will happen very soon
Jhonkensy “Big Christmas” Noel return???
Wilson was only called up because Schneemann went on paternity leave. He’ll likely be sent back to AAA tomorrow unless an infielder suddenly gets hurt.
Thats what we’re hoping for.
He should call Rob Thomas to save his career.
That’s a smooth comment.
Or else forget about it
When he was with the Phillies and saw his teammates, maybe not as focused as they should have been, he wanted to stick his foot up their asses.
Broke tvs in clubhouse. Young kids didnt take baseball serious. Kids Wanted to play video games.
In philly.
Carlos Santana wRC+86 > Donovan Solano wRC+84
So can we finally jettison this freakin guy?!?
wGoodVibesC+ would be off the charts.
Let’s get that fun differential up, boys!
Bringing Carlos back would be cool but he would have no playing time now that naylor is here
His Evil Ways (ask the Tigers) finally caught up with him. Still a painful Soul Sacrifice by the Guardians. He deserved to retire wearing a Cleveland uniform…
Now he can go back to playing music.
Bring him back, Minnesota Twins. The Pohlads can’t do better than paying league minimum, and his defense and right handed bat would help the Twins. So the Twins lose the first pick in the 2026 draft if they win a few more games. We need some PRIDE for the fans.
Well with the lottery you could suck and draft 13. Just ask the White Sox. Doesn’t pay to tank anymore.
Possibly his last year in baseball.. let a contending team get him so he gets one last shot, even if it is just in a bench role.
@Mo are you awake
But how many more AB’s does he need to reach incentives? Evil and cheap organization.
He doesn’t have any incentives in his contract that I have seen.
There were no incentives in his contract. They released him so he’d have the opportunity to play in post season if a contender picks him up. Hardly evil
I was being sarcastic. I wish him the best, always a solid player. May be the end of the road though.
Santana did have contract incentives. Extra $200,000 for 500 plate appearances, and $200,000 for each additional 25. He was 52 short of 500. I would assume that would kick in if & when he gets picked up by another team, and the Guards will have pay up.
If this is it, what a productive long career. Hope he gets another chance in a pennant race.
Red Sox really should grab another veteran insurance policy for October.
A good career, but Cle is out of contention and he was not that productive anymore, a contending team could use him as a pinch hitter or late inning defense.
If a playoff team has an open active roster spot, it could be a solid pick up if he can start hitting LHP again..
Yankees probably want him to put pressure on goldy
He’ll get picked up by some team before Sept. 1st and could be a late inning pinch hitter/defensive replacement. As long as he starts wearing his socks/pants properly. Lol
Bummer.. but probably the best move for all involved. I wouldn’t be shocked to see a contender scoop him up. Cleveland needs to focus on guys that factor into next year.
Rockies need to start picking some of these guys up. Get some older guys there to show the kids what to do. He might do pretty well in Coors.
Rockies have no 1B
Put LeMahieu at 2B, Santana at first and sign LD Martinez for DH.
Man as a tiger fan hes killed us so many times in a indian-guardian jersey, respect to him def a pros pro whose had a really good career. Grab and stash id say if he was a righty hitter so he couldnt hurt us down the stretch but too lefty heavy. Go back to the nl carlos if need be lol
Who’s going to play lead guitar for them now?