The Guardians have declined their $6MM option on left-hander John Means, per Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors. Means is now a free agent. Additionally, left-handers Kolby Allard and Matt Krook, right-hander Ben Lively, catcher Dom Nuñez and infielder Will Wilson have been outrighted off the roster and elected free agency, per Zack Meisel of The Athletic.
Means signed a one-year, $1MM free agent deal last winter. He was rehabbing his second career Tommy John procedure and hoped to make it back for the final few weeks of the ’25 season. That didn’t happen. Means was able to make five rehab starts with Triple-A Columbus but struggled to a 7.97 earned run average over 20 1/3 innings. The Guards weren’t going to make a $6MM commitment off that limited body of work.
The 32-year-old Means was an All-Star with the Orioles in 2019. He pitched to a 3.68 ERA over parts of seven seasons as a generally reliable mid-rotation arm with Baltimore. Injuries have unfortunately robbed him of most of the past four years. He’s looking at minor league offers or an incentive-laden MLB deal.
Of the outrighted players, Allard made the most significant contributions to the 2025 Guardians. He put up a 2.63 ERA across 65 innings as a long reliever. Allard throws roughly 90 MPH and doesn’t miss bats, though, so there’s generally been skepticism about his ability to churn out strong results. This is the second time this year that he went unclaimed on waivers.
Lively was Cleveland’s Opening Day starter this year. He carried a 3.22 ERA over his first nine outings but blew out in May. He underwent Tommy John surgery that’ll cost him the bulk of the ’26 season. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Lively for a $2.7MM arbitration salary. That’s not outlandish but not exactly a drop in the bucket for a low-payroll franchise to devote to a journeyman starter who’ll miss the majority of the season. This serves essentially as an early non-tender, but it’s possible Lively has shown enough to command a cheap big league deal from another club.
Krook was claimed off waivers from the A’s in May. Cleveland kept him in Triple-A for the rest of the season. He turned in 34 innings of 3.18 ERA ball with Columbus. Nuñez is a depth catcher who only made it into two games behind Bo Naylor and Austin Hedges. The former Rockies backstop hit .176 in 76 Triple-A contests. Wilson is a former first-round pick of the Angels who never panned out with the Halos. The North Carolina State product earned his first big league look this year with Cleveland, batting .192/.267/.244 in 34 games.
Definitely a Pirates type of bounce back veteran LHSP on a cheap 1-year deal.
Bummed the Guards are moving on from Lively and Allard.
I sort of understand Allard – they have three good relief lefties and that’s not counting Cantillo. And long relief can be found elsewhere. For the same reason, Krook was a foregone conclusion.
Lively I was hoping they would stick with. I know he’ll miss most of next year but there is still another year of club control on him after that. And he had proven to be capable back of the rotation help.
Means is a minor surprise. I would think $6M is a small price to pay for the upside he has, and they could at least use some rotation depth. Perhaps they saw something in that rehab that alarmed them.
The most surprising to me is Will Wilson. Not because he’s anything special but because they’re otherwise kind of starved for guys with options. Everybody else here had no options left.
In the future, this date could be called Scrub Day…
That’s Means, tony! 😆🍻
Hope 2026 doesn’t turn into a good season for him like it did matthew Boyd, what a waste, traded bieber, let Boyd and means go,
You can’t truly (in all honesty) blame Cleveland for trading Bieber. Look at where they were in the standings + he still had some rehab time left & he (most definitely) wasn’t going to exercise his option to stay in Cleveland. Yes, he decided to use it after all but the organizations are completely different. On the plus side, for Cleveland, Khal Stephen looks like a really good pitcher going forward.
Tigers can fix him up
Just like they did with Cobb.
Yep, for every Boyd there’s a Cobb
That means Means is cooked. I’m not even kidding. I loved, loved, loved Means during some dark Baltimore years but he is made of glass and not coming back.
He made 5 rehab starts towards the end of the minor league season. The last being 5 IP.
Yeah, and then Cleveland declined his ultra-affordable option.
This has Red Sox written all over it.
@WadeBoggs
I hope you’re wrong. I love John Means as well for the same reasons (bright light in some dark times). I hate that it’s CLE that is letting him walk bc if it were another less pitching sharp org, I’d just chalk it up to impatience or ignorance. $6MM really isn’t much in the scheme of things.
So my hopes that he still has a little run in his left arm is not going have to rest on, “well, that’s just their opinion”.
Come’on John… you show’em.
Yeah I hope I’m wrong too but with his skillset, $6M is half of market value. They must have seen something in his rehab medicals. I can’t rationalize it any other way.
He was completely ineffective in his return and his velocity was diminished. Someone is going to sign him to an incentive laden contract. I wouldn’t guarantee him $6MM either. He’ll probably sign for a very small base with some incentives to maybe push him back up to $5MM or so. He’s thrown 50 innings in 3 seasons.
I’m hoping he does come back and pitch well so he can get himself paid something next year. It’s not coming this year.
people often do things contrary to their own good. I’m not 100% willing to believe that CLE must have made the right call with add’l data that we don’t have. I mean there’s a good chance of that but there’s also a chance they blew it. Honestly, prob less of a chance than that the Rays blew it by not picking up Pete Fairbanks’ option but maybe the O’s can capitalize on both mistakes and get Means as a lefty in the Pen and Pete as a 8th inning guy and to switch off with Robert Suarez in the closer role.
I don’t want to touch Pete. TB burns through pitchers. Lost 2 ticks off his heater from his peak and his K rate has absolutely plummeted. Those are bad signs for a guy leaving TB. Feels like the next team is going to be paying for a rehab stint after a surgery. I hope not for Pete but you have to look at their history.
Good. Hope most teams feel the same way and my team can grab him. But I doubt that’s the case. Pete had a 1.04 WHIP, his statcast numbers still look good (he still has a 90% fastball) so he’ll go for a premium somewhere and do well.
This wasn’t a case of Tampa chewing him up and spitting him out, it was simply a numbers game. At some point your alternatives give you 80-90% of the veteran for 10% of the money, which is the what smart most low-revenue markets have to pay attention to.
@avory
TB replaces the old expensive guy with young guys all the time. But they don’t let the older expensive guy walk away for nothing. They constantly extract value. Odd to let him walk if they believed he had surplus value or wasnt damaged.
Hate to break this to you, but even low revenue teams want to win, and sometimes they’re willing to let guys walk and net the present value that a consistent player provides in the season at hand rather than bet on prospects’ possible contributions down the road.
It’s a common misconception that teams like Tampa and Cleveland have some hard and fast rules they follow in operating their clubs. They wouldn’t be as smart and shrewd and successful as they are if they were that inflexible.
Orioles should try to bring him back on a minor league deal with an in season opt out or incentive filled contract. Can never have enough pitching and he’s familiar with the pitching staff and players, so it could be a good opportunity to make a come back.
Im rooting for Means to get healthy and pitch well. He has pretty good stuff and a no hitter under his belt.
The Os have resurrected some careers – John time to come home! If there’s nothing left – then retire where you belong.
Lively was the opening day starter this uear… because Bibee had the flu.
I am surprised they are moving on from Lively though. I know he has fringey stuff but he had good results with Cleveland.
Lively underwent TJ in June. This wasn’t surprising at all to me.
I hope he lands somewhere. Maybe Angels? It didn’t surprise me they let him go. TJ and a guy who lives on control doesn’t mix.
Since Lively is cheap and controlled through arbitration through 2027, the value proposition is not all that different from Means was last year.
Cheap, 1-year deal with a potential comeback late in 2026 – plus a cheap team option for 2027.
Hopefully this move was made simply because of a roster crunch and not an indication that his rehab is going poorly.
Lively up yourself then
None of these moves is surprising in the least. Means didn’t perform well in his rehabs and the team’s rotation looks like it won’t have room for him to start the season on the big club. There are better uses for the $6m.
I’m also grateful for what Allard gave us when we absolutely needed him, but the pen needs more talent. I’d rather take the Allard and Means money and find a better option and/or take a run at Junis if we want to bring someone back from last year’s club.
Agreed. I also think they move Espino to the pen. He becomes a very good asset and will help protect that fragile arm.
I think they still see Espino as a starting pitcher and that’s the highest and best purpose for that arm of his. He can just as easily blow out that shoulder again being a high leverage reliever.
I stretch him out slowly (just as they are doing in AZ) and honor his hard work and dedication by allowing him every opportunity to come back and be the starting pitcher he dreamed of once being.
No Means No
Means to an End it would appear
I’d guess that at least one of these guys will be back with the Guards in spring training on a minor league invite. Lively most likely on a cheap rehab deal.
Allard sure helped but he was no Pedro Avila.
Well, actually he was.
¿Who’s the long relief miracle worker for 2026? Carlos Hernandez?