Guardians Select Anthony Gose
The Guardians announced that they have selected left-hander Anthony Gose to their roster. He had recently elected free agency but re-signed with the club on a minor league deal, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. Lefty Logan Allen was optioned in a corresponding move. The club already had a 40-man vacancy and won’t need to make a corresponding move in that regard.
Gose, 34, has been on and off the Cleveland roster all year. This is the third time his contract has been selected. Since he is out of options, the two previous stints resulted in him being designated for assignment fairly quickly. The first instance resulted in him accepting an outright assignment. The second time, as mentioned, he elected free agency but quickly re-signed on a fresh minor league pact.
A former outfielder, Gose switched to pitching a few years ago. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a late convert, control has been an issue but he has racked up some tantalizing strikeout numbers. In 2022, he tossed 21 innings for the Guards, punching out 30.4% of batters faced. But he also gave out walks at a 15.2% clip, leading to a 4.71 earned run average.
He required Tommy John surgery at the end of that year, which led to him missing the entire 2023 season. The Guards signed him to a two-year minor league pact, which covered that lost year as well as the current campaign. Around his transactions, he has managed to throw 39 Triple-A innings this year with a 3.46 ERA. The 15% walk rate is still high but he’s also still getting the Ks, with a 32.9% rate this year.
The Guardians have Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibee scheduled to start their next two games but then have an off-day on Thursday. By optioning Allen, they can add one extra bullpen arm to a relief mix that is fairly taxed after yesterday’s double-header. Given the way they’ve treated Gose this year, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he is designated for assignment again once the club needs another fresh bullpen arm or a fifth starter.
Giants Acquire Nate Furman As PTBNL In Alex Cobb Deal
The Giants have acquired minor league infielder Nate Furman from the Guardians as the player to be named later in the trade that sent Alex Cobb from San Francisco to Cleveland, per announcements from both clubs. Cleveland also sent young lefty Jacob Bresnahan to San Francisco at the time of the swap. Robert Murray of FanSided reported Furman’s swap prior to the deal being made official.
Furman, 23, was Cleveland’s fourth-round pick back in 2022. He’s not ranked prominently among the team’s prospects but posted a big .338/.417/.500 batting line in 176 plate appearances at High-A this season before struggling in 13 games in the wake of a promotion to Double-A (.125/.300/.200 in 51 plate appearances). It’s possible that health played a role in those struggles with the Guards’ affiliate in Akron, however. Furman hit the injured list with a strain in his right shoulder late in June, was transferred to the minor league 60-day injured list in July, and has still yet to return to action.
With the Guards, Furman played primarily second base and third base. He played both middle infield slots in college at the University of North Carolina. Scouting reports tout him as a plus runner who’ll likely settle in at second base. While Furman didn’t show much power in college (three career homers) and didn’t hit a home run in 2023, he popped seven long balls in High-A this season. He’s also 47-for-54 in stolen bases during his young professional career, and he’s shown a plus approach at the plate, with a 13.6% walk rate against a 13.9% strikeout rate. Furman has high-end speed and bat-to-ball skills, but he’ll need to continue to add power and/or break out as a high-level defender at second base in order to profile as a regular.
The trade of Furman finalizes the return for the veteran Cobb, whom Cleveland has thus far only been able to utilize for two starts. The veteran righty pitched 10 1/3 innings and allowed five runs during that pair of outings and has since been placed back on the 15-day injured list due to a finger injury. Those are the first two starts Cobb has made this season. He opened the year on the injured list while rehabbing from offseason hip surgery and dealt with shoulder and blister issues that delayed his return to the big leagues.
Anthony Gose Elects Free Agency
TODAY: Gose cleared waivers, as per his MLB.com profile page, and chose to become a free agent rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A Columbus.
AUGUST 21: The Guardians have designated left-hander Anthony Gose for assignment, per their transactions tracker at MLB.com. Left-hander Joey Cantillo has been recalled to take his spot on the active roster.
This is the second time that Gose has been quickly designated for assignment after being added to Cleveland’s roster. The first stint led to one appearance but he didn’t get sent to the mound at all in the second stint. He is out of options and therefore can’t be sent to the minors unless he’s removed from the 40-man roster entirely and passed through waivers.
The converted outfielder underwent Tommy John surgery in September of 2022, then was non-tendered by the Guards. He re-signed with them on a two-year minor league deal, covering his rehab from that procedure and planned return to the mound this year.
His results both before and after the surgery have featured a lot of strikeouts but also a lot of walks. In 29 major league innings, from 2021 to the present, he has a 4.34 ERA, 30.9% strikeout rate and 13.8% walk rate. In his 39 Triple-A innings this year, he has a 3.46 ERA, 32.9% strikeout rate but a 15% walk rate.
With the trade deadline now passed, the Guardians will have no choice but to place Gose on waivers again. Players with at least three years of service time or a previous outright have the right to reject outright assignments and elect free agency, with Gose meeting both of those criteria. Last week, he passed through waivers unclaimed and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Columbus, so perhaps that sequence of events will take place again in the coming days.
Guardians Place Alex Cobb On Injured List
The Guardians announced that right-hander Alex Cobb has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a fractured nail on his right hand. Left-hander Anthony Gose was selected to take his roster spot. Lefty Sam Hentges was transferred to the 60-day IL in order to open a 40-man spot for Gose.
Cobb, 36, has dealt with his share of challenges over the past year. While with the Giants last season, he finished the campaign on the IL due to left hip inflammation. He underwent surgery on that hip in October, which was going to put him on the shelf to start 2024, but it was hoped that he could be back some time in May. The Giants seemed to have some belief in that timeline, as they picked up a $10MM club option for this year.
As he was ramping things up in March, it seemed he had a chance to beat that projection and come back earlier than expected, but then he hit some snags. Right shoulder inflammation delayed his return and he was transferred to the 60-day IL in mid-April. Even at that point, it was still hoped that a late May return was possible, but his throwing program was shut down in the middle of May due to discomfort in that shoulder.
He was able to get back on the mound and start a rehab assignment on June 30 but was traded to the Guardians a month later, just ahead of the deadline. The Giants had strengthened their rotation by welcoming Robbie Ray and Blake Snell off the IL, while getting encouraging results from rookies Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong.
The Guardians, meanwhile, had far less stability in their rotation. Shane Bieber required Tommy John surgery in April and is done for the year. Gavin Williams missed the first half of the season due to right elbow inflammation and has posted a 5.02 earned run average since being activated. Guys like Triston McKenzie, Logan Allen and Carlos Carrasco have also posted ERAs north of 5.00 this year. Carrasco is now on the IL with a strained hip while McKenzie and Allen have been optioned.
Getting a veteran like Cobb was therefore a sensible move but he’s now back on the IL after just two starts. The club hasn’t yet provided any information about what kind of absence they expect but it’s less than ideal regardless. Even if the finger issue is relatively minor and clears up in a few weeks, it’s yet another hurdle that will make it challenging for Cobb to get into a groove after so many stops and starts this year.
The Guardians have been in first place for a large chunk of the season but the standings have tightened up on them lately. They are now just two games up on the Twins and just three up on the Royals in the Central. Teams like the Red Sox and Mariners aren’t far behind, so it’s possible the Guards find themselves in a tight battle for a playoff spot in the coming weeks.
For now, they will have to try to stay afloat with a rotation that still has lots of uncertainty apart from Tanner Bibee. They recently welcome Matthew Boyd back from a lengthy Tommy John absence and he looked good in his first start of the year, but it’s his fourth straight season of missing time due to a serious injury, so it’s anyone’s guess what he can provide in the coming weeks and months. Ben Lively has a 3.68 ERA on the year but with a .255 batting average on balls in play and 83.6% strand rate. His 4.90 FIP and 4.51 SIERA are less optimistic. As mentioned, Williams has an ERA over 5.00 this year.
The Guardians are off today but then play ten games in nine days starting tomorrow, thanks to a double-header against the Royals next Monday. With Cobb now out of the picture for the next little while, they will have to reach into their depth to fill out the rotation alongside Bibee, Boyd, Lively and Williams. Neither McKenzie nor Allen have been especially strong in the minors this year. Joey Cantillo has a 2.97 ERA in Triple-A but had a 6.23 ERA in his three major league starts earlier this season.
In the meantime, they’ve added another arm to their bullpen by selecting Gose. The lefty was just outrighted off the roster a week ago but accepted an assignment to Triple-A Columbus. The former outfielder has strikeout stuff on the mound but also notable control issues. In 39 Triple-A innings this year, he has a 3.46 ERA and 32.9% strikeout rate but he has also walked 15% of batters that came to the plate.
He missed the 2023 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery and the Guards called him up earlier this month, but he was squeezed off the roster a few days later when Cobb was reinstated from the IL. Now that Cobb is back on the shelf, Gose has his roster spot back. However, Gose is out of options and could potentially be nudged off yet again in the coming days as Cleveland will need to figure out their rotation plans.
Hentges has been on the 15-day IL since July 11 due to left shoulder inflammation. He’s now ineligible to be activated until 60 days from that date, which would be the second week of September. He started a rehab assignment in early July but hasn’t pitched since August 7. A few days after that, Zack Meisel of The Athletic relayed on X that Hentges was slated for more testing. His current status isn’t publicly known but the Guardians apparently don’t expect him to be able to return in the next few weeks.
Guardians Outright Anthony Gose
The Guardians announced on Monday afternoon that reliever Anthony Gose accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Columbus. He cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week.
Gose was only on the major league roster for three days. He allowed two runs while logging an inning and a third in his lone appearance. That was Gose’s first MLB work in two seasons. He tossed a personal-high 22 frames for Cleveland back in 2022, turning in a 4.71 earned run average with an excellent 30.4% strikeout percentage but a lofty 15.2% walk rate. Gose has posted similar rate stats with Columbus this season, fanning upwards of 34% of batters faced while issuing walks at a 14.3% clip.
A former outfielder with the Blue Jays and Tigers, Gose has focused exclusively on pitching for the past few seasons. He can run his fastball into the mid to upper 90s and clearly has significant bat-missing potential, though he has still yet to dial in his command consistently. Gose is out of options, so other teams passed on taking a flier. That’s to Cleveland’s benefit, as he’ll head back to Triple-A and remain on hand in case the Guards need additional lefty bullpen depth down the stretch. Gose will again have the ability to become a minor league free agent next offseason if Cleveland doesn’t call him back up before then.
Guardians To Activate Matthew Boyd
The Guardians will reinstate left-hander Matthew Boyd from the 15-day injured list prior to tomorrow’s game, reports Mandy Bell of MLB.com. He’ll make his team debut when he starts for the Guards on Tuesday evening against the Cubs. Cleveland will only need to make a corresponding active roster transaction involving a pitcher, as Boyd is already on the 40-man roster.
Cleveland signed Boyd to a big league deal earlier this summer. He’s spent the season to date rehabbing from Tommy John surgery performed last June and is now ready to step back onto a big league mound. The longtime Tigers southpaw has been sensational during his minor league rehab stint. In 21 2/3 innings across three levels — Rookie ball, Double-A, Triple-A — he’s pitched to a 0.83 ERA with a mammoth 35.1% strikeout rate against a minuscule 2.6% walk rate. We’re looking at small samples against far, far less experienced competition, but Boyd certainly hasn’t shown much in the way of signs of rust.
Boyd’s appearance tomorrow will be his first major league outing since June 26 of last year. The elbow procedure ended what had been a return stint in Detroit. Boyd looked the part of a mid-rotation starter at times during his first run with the Tigers. The first stint also unfortunately concluded with an arm surgery, as Boyd required a flexor repair in September 2021. He was limited to 10 relief outings late in the ’22 campaign as a member of the Mariners. Boyd returned to the Motor City the ensuing winter, signing a $10MM free agent pact.
Even before the Tommy John surgery, Boyd didn’t get the results he wanted last season. He was tagged for a 5.45 ERA across 15 starts. An abnormally low 62% strand rate was the biggest culprit. Boyd had solid strikeout (24.1%) and walk (8.3%) numbers and induced swinging strikes on an excellent 14% of his pitches. He had a hard time keeping the ball in the yard, though, especially against right-handed opponents. That has been an issue throughout Boyd’s career. It’s perhaps the biggest reason he only has one full season with a sub-4.00 ERA despite a consistently strong strikeout and walk profile.
The Guardians signed Boyd in late June, one year to the day after Detroit announced he was headed for Tommy John surgery. The 33-year-old started a minor league rehab stint just after the All-Star Break. He built up to six innings and 63 pitches during his start with Triple-A Columbus last Wednesday. He’ll presumably be on a pitch count for his first couple appearances, but Cleveland will happily take whatever contribution they can get.
Cleveland took the final two games of their four-game weekend set with Minnesota, earning a split in the process. That pushed their division lead back to 3.5 games on the Twins and four up on the Royals. That’s despite their patchwork rotation. Tanner Bibee and, more surprisingly, Ben Lively have been their most reliable starters this season. Gavin Williams has made eight starts since returning from an extended IL stay to open the year. The Guardians welcomed deadline acquisition Alex Cobb back from injury for his team and season debut on Friday. Boyd can step into the rotation spot opened when Carlos Carrasco landed on the shelf that same day. Bibee, Williams and Cobb would probably line up as the top three in Cleveland’s ideal playoff rotation, but Boyd has a chance to push Cobb or Lively for a start in the middle of a series come October.
Guardians Designate Anthony Gose For Assignment
The Guardians announced that right-hander Alex Cobb has been reinstated from the injured list, a move that was reported earlier today. In a corresponding move, left-hander Anthony Gose has been designated for assignment.
Gose, 33, was selected to the club’s roster just three days ago. He has made one appearance since then, which was in the first game of Cleveland’s doubleheader against the Diamondbacks on Wednesday. He pitched an inning and a third, striking out one but also allowing two earned runs thanks to a walk and a home run.
Not much can be gleaned from such a small sample size, but Gose was likely not a big part of the club’s long-term plans. Though he has just 29 innings pitched, that’s mostly due to his circuitous route to being a big league pitcher.
Gose was an outfielder at the big league level from 2012 to 2016 but never hit much and eventually tried a move to the mound. Incredibly, he succeeded in this late-career conversion, tossing 27 2/3 innings for the Guards over the 2021 and 2022 seasons with a 3.90 ERA, 31.9% strikeout rate and 13.8% walk rate. Unfortunately, Tommy John surgery in September of 2022 put the feel-good story on ice.
He was non-tendered by Cleveland at the end of that season and re-signed on a two-year minor league deal to cover his recovery period. On his rehab assignment this year, he showed that he still has some strikeout stuff, punching out 34.2% of Triple-A hitters. However, the lack of control was still an issue, as he walked 14.3% of batters faced. In his small sample of major league work, his velocity was down a bit. His fastball averaged 99.3 miles per hour in 2021 and was at 97 in 2022, but that was down to 94.5 mph this week.
Though Gose has a nice story and the Guards have stuck by him for a while, he’ll turn 34 years old tomorrow and still has some wildness. Cleveland has the best bullpen in the majors this year, with their collective 2.68 ERA being far ahead of second-place Atlanta’s 3.20. They’re also in a tight playoff race right now, just 2.5 games ahead of the Twins in the Central and only 3.5 clear of the Royals, so taking on a bit of a project like Gose maybe isn’t in the cards.
With the trade deadline now passed, the club will have to put him on waivers in the coming days. Perhaps some other club will be enticed by his strikeouts and put in a claim, hoping that more reps as he distances himself from the surgery will help him harness his command. If someone does put in a claim, he has over three years of service time and would pass the four-year mark if he stays in the majors for the rest of the year. He’s out of options but could be controlled via arbitration for two seasons beyond this one.
With over three years of service, he will have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency. Since he has less than five, doing so would mean forfeiting whatever money he’s still owed on his deal, but it’s likely a minimal amount since it was a minor league pact.
Marlins Claim Xzavion Curry, Designate Shaun Anderson
The Marlins have claimed right-hander Xzavion Curry off waivers from the Guardians, the teams announced Friday. Cleveland designated Curry for assignment earlier in the week. In order to open space on the 40-man roster, Miami designated righty Shaun Anderson for assignment.
Curry, who recently turned 26, was the organization’s seventh-round pick back in 2019. He made his big league debut in 2022 and has ranked as highly as No. 22 in the Guardians’ farm system on Baseball America’s prospect rankings. Despite that, however, he’s yet to find much success in the majors. He’s logged 129 innings and yielded a 4.53 ERA, including a particularly tough 5.84 mark in this year’s 24 2/3 innings. Curry has a strong 7.3% walk rate in the majors but a lackluster 15.2% strikeout rate. He’s seen both his 92-93 mph fastball and his curveball hit hard by big leaguers — particularly the latter (.321/.355/.607).
He hasn’t fared particularly well in Triple-A either, but Curry had solid numbers up through Double-A, has good command of the strike zone and is in the second of three minor league option years. He’ll give Miami some length in the bullpen or an option to step into a rotation that’s been depleted by myriad injuries and the deadline trade of southpaw Trevor Rogers.
Miami acquired the 29-year-old Anderson in a cash swap with the Rangers back in May. He’s been up and down a couple times with the Fish but been tagged for an ugly 13 runs in just 10 2/3 innings. The well-traveled righty has fared far better in Triple-A this season, with a 2.42 ERA and 45-to-11 K/BB ratio in 48 1/3 frames. The Marlins are Anderson’s seventh big league club. He’s pitched 149 2/3 innings in the majors but struggled to a 6.19 ERA in that time. Anderson has a nice Triple-A track record (3.66 ERA, 20.7 K%, 7.4 BB% in six seasons) but hasn’t managed to carry that over to the big leagues yet.
Now that the trade deadline has passed, Anderson will be placed on outright waivers or release waivers by next week.
Guardians Place Carlos Carrasco On Injured List
The Guardians placed right-hander Carlos Carrasco on the 15-day injured list Friday with a left hip strain and optioned infielder/outfielder Angel Martinez to Triple-A Columbus, per a team announcement. In their places, Cleveland recalled outfielder Will Brennan and reliever Peter Strzelecki from Columbus. The Guards also called up left-hander Joey Cantillo as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader against the Twins.
Cantillo will start Game 1 of today’s twin bill. Zack Meisel of The Athletic tweets that righty Alex Cobb, acquired from the Giants at the trade deadline, will start Game 2 for Cleveland. He’s on the 60-day injured list, so they’ll need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move between games one and two today.
It’s the second IL stint of the season for Carrasco, who opened the year on the 15-day injured list due to neck spasms. He signed a minor league deal to return to Cleveland over the winter, made the rotation in spring training, and is currently second on the team in games started, trailing only right-hander Tanner Bibee.
While Carrasco has been a consistent presence in Cleveland’s rotation this year, his results have paled in comparison to his peak years. The now-37-year-old righty has eaten up 103 2/3 innings but been clobbered for a 5.64 ERA. His 19.9% strikeout rate is a couple percentage points shy of league-average, while his 7.4% walk rate is better than average. However, Carrasco is working with a career-worst 91.8 mph average fastball velocity and has been extremely homer prone, yielding an average of 1.65 long balls per nine frames. A bloated 17% of the fly-balls he yields have left the park. He’s hit a particularly rough patch of late, surrendering 17 runs (on the strength of five homers) in his past 17 2/3 innings.
Carrasco clearly isn’t performing well at the moment, but his placement on the IL further tests the depth for a Guardians club that lost Shane Bieber for the season (Tommy John surgery) back in April and has seen young pitchers Logan Allen and Triston McKenzie struggle to the point that they’ve been optioned to Columbus. The Guards acquired Cobb prior to the deadline and signed veteran left-hander Matthew Boyd to a big league deal as he wrapped up his rehab from 2023 Tommy John surgery. Cobb will make his Guardians debut tonight, and Boyd isn’t expected to be too far behind him.
That could potentially give Cleveland a rotation of Bibee, Cobb, Boyd, Gavin Williams and journeyman Ben Lively down the stretch. There’s potential for a solid group there, but it’s anyone’s guess right now how Cobb will perform coming off hip surgery and how Boyd will perform on the back of last season’s ligament replacement procedure. It’s not the dominant Cleveland rotation we’re used to seeing, but the Guardians boast one of the best bullpens in baseball, which helps to offset some of the uncertainty.
As for Cantillo, today will mark his third big league start. He’s been tagged for six runs in 7 1/3 innings thus far and will face a tough task in squaring off against a Twins team that has thrived against left-handed pitching this year. A former third-round pick, Cantillo has ranked among the Guardians’ more promising young arms since being acquired from the Padres back in the 2020 Mike Clevinger trade. He’s had some command troubles in the upper minors and missed a significant portion of the current season on the injured list, but Cantillo has a 4.21 ERA and 27.1% strikeout rate in 124 career Triple-A frames — albeit against a 13.4% walk rate that’ll need to improve if he’s to sustain success in the majors.
Guardians Select Anthony Gose, Designate Xzavion Curry For Assignment
The Guardians made a few roster moves today, with Mandy Bell of MLB.com among those to relay them on X. Left-hander Anthony Gose has been selected to the roster with fellow lefty Logan Allen optioned in a corresponding move. Righty Xzavion Curry was designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for Gose.
Gose, 33, has had one of the more remarkable career arcs among current big leaguers. Originally a second-round pick back in 2008 and a longtime top prospect as an outfielder, he was traded several times early in his career (most notably to the Astros in exchange for Roy Oswalt) while struggling to find his footing at the plate. Gose never did establish himself as the type of top-of-the-order speedster many felt he could become — though certainly not for lack of opportunity. In 1252 plate appearances between the Blue Jays and Tigers, he batted just .240/.309/.348 with a 28.2% strikeout rate.
After years of struggles in the batter’s box, Gose — a two-way star in high school who also drew draft attention as a pitcher — moved to the mound in 2017. By 2018, he’d become a full-time pitcher in the Rangers’ minor league ranks, and he landed with Cleveland on a minor league pact heading into the 2019 season. He spent several years working with the Guards’ highly regarded pitching development program, honing his mound skills and making it back to the big leagues in 2021, this time as a reliever brandishing a sizzling triple-digit heater.
From 2021-22, Gose pitched 27 2/3 innings with a 3.90 ERA, 31.9% strikeout rate and 13.8% walk rate. Command was still an issue, but Gose averaged 97.6 mph on his four-seamer, frequently topped 100mph and posted a tantalizing 15.1% swinging-strike rate in his new role. Unfortunately, he’s also become acclimated with one of the most grueling aspects of life as a pitcher: rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Gose suffered a torn UCL in 2022, had surgery, and inked a two-year minor league contract to return to the Guardians that winter.
Gose missed the entire 2023 season while recovering from surgery. He’s been healthy in 2024 though, logging 38 1/3 frames with a 3.29 ERA in Columbus. Command is still an issue for him, evidenced by a sky-high 14.3% walk rate, but Gose is also still missing bats in droves; he’s fanned 34.2% of his opponents and registered an eye-popping 17.8% swinging-strike rate. With Sam Hentges currently on the injured list, Gose will give manager Stephen Vogt a second southpaw option alongside Tim Herrin in what has been the best bullpen in Major League Baseball this year.
As for Curry, he was a 2019 seventh-rounder who pitched his way up the organization’s prospect rankings and made his way to the big leagues in 2022. While he was never touted as one of the best pitching prospects in the sport, he did climb to No. 22 within Cleveland’s system as recently as last year, per Baseball America.
However, the results in the majors haven’t been there for Curry, who recently turned 26. He’s pitched 129 MLB frames and been tagged for a 4.53 ERA overall — including an ugly 5.84 mark in 24 2/3 innings this season. He’s displayed good command (7.3% walk rate) but struggled to miss bats (15.2% strikeout rate) against more advanced hitters, which was part of the concern with how he’d fare in the big leagues. Curry’s fastball generally sits 92-93 mph, and opponents have feasted on his curveball (.321/.355/.607). He’s also struggled in Triple-A (5.59 ERA in parts of two seasons) but posted strong run-prevention and K-BB numbers up through the Double-A level.
With the trade deadline having passed, the Guardians have no choice but to place Curry on waivers or release him. He’s in the second of three minor league option years, so a club in need of some optionable depth on the starting staff or in a long relief role could place a claim and hope that a change of scenery brings out a new gear. Granted, few organizations have better track records of optimizing pitcher performance than Cleveland, so perhaps it’s not reasonable to expect another team to unlock a new tier of performance. But there’s also little to no cost in rolling the dice, particularly for one of the many deadline sellers that saw several spots on the 40-man roster open up when trading veterans for young prospects.