Well, on the first day of the official name change of the Cleveland baseball team, the Guardians made a bevy of roster moves, designed to get the squad ready for the Rule 5 Draft.
Several of the minor leaguers were no brainers to be added, notably INF Tyler Freeman, OF George Valera, and INF Brayan Rocchio, all among the top 10 prospects in the organization.
Others figured to be added, like C Bryan Lavistida, two players making a name for themselves in the Arizona Fall League, INF Richie Palacios and Jose Tena, who won the batting title in the prospect oriented league, and P Cody Morris, who could pitch in the major leagues next season.
You wonder if Tena would have been added had he not had such a great AFL season.
What is very curious is that 14 of the 40 players on this roster have no major league experience, so you have to wonder are more moves in the works, if and when moves can be made due to the absence of a collective bargaining agreement.
The most notable players designated for assignment were OF Harold Ramirez and Daniel Johnson.
Ramirez received 339 at bats with the team in 2021, hitting .268 with 7 HR and 41 RBI (703 OPS), decent numbers, but was a defensive liability. Johnson, who was acquired in the Yan Gomes trade with Washington, hit .221 with 4 home runs, in just 77 at bats.
With all of the problems the Cleveland outfield had offensively in 2021, why Johnson didn’t get more of a chance was a head scratcher. In fact, we was sent down in the midst of a period where he was 8 for his last 28.
Out of the remainder of players released, the biggest surprise here was Kyle Nelson, who had a 3.72 ERA over his minor league career, but pitched just 10 innings at the big league level. We would guess the emergence of Anthony Gose, aced out Nelson.
We were happy that Steven Kwan was added. The left-handed hitting outfielder is an on base machine, getting on base at a .380 clip in the minor leagues. We were hoping he would have been added to the big league roster in September.
However, Oscar Gonzalez was not added. Gonzalez, who will be 24 years old next season, belted 31 homers at the AA and AAA levels this past season, and our guess is he is a good candidate to be drafted by another organization.
Somehow, Bradley Zimmer and Oscar Mercado survived this purge. We hope Gonzalez isn’t lost because of the blind loyalty to two players who really haven’t been productive for awhile.
Zimmer got his biggest look since his rookie year of 2017, and still had the same problems that have plagued him throughout his career, namely, he can’t make contact.
He fanned a whopping 122 times in 348 plate appearances, hitting .227 with a 669 OPS. In his career, totaling 754 at bats, the soon to be 29-year-old former first round draft pick has a 658 OPS.
We get that his tools are enticing. He has tremendous speed and good power when he connects, but that isn’t often. He’s a great athlete, but he’s just not a baseball player. And it’s not like he has age on his side as a prospect.
Mercado will be 27 next season, and had a very good rookie season in 2019 with a 761 OPS. Since then, he is 59 for 300, a .198 batting average. He did walk 21 times in ’21, but hit just .224, so his on base percentage was just .300. His OPS was just 669.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 