Tuesday is baseball’s trading deadline, and this year, with the Cleveland Guardians just two games out of first place in the AL Central Division, the team should be looking to add to the roster by August 2nd.
It is funny listening to Guardians’ fans though, how many don’t want the team to be buyers, and in some cases, they want them to be sellers, accumulating more prospects.
Some of that we equate to the age of the person having that opinion. It’s easy to keep looking to the future when you are young.
However, we started following this franchise in 1965. At that time, it was only 17 years since the Indians won a World Series and only 11 seasons since they were last in the Fall Classic. At that point, we loved the players on the team (my favorite was Sam McDowell) and didn’t realize most of them just weren’t very good.
Finally, the team got to be very good, thirty years later, getting to the Series in 1995 and 1997, trying to break a 37- and 39-year drought since a world title team was in the city.
They were oh so close in both ’97 and 2016 (68 years since 1948), and to be fair, since the rebirth of the team when they moved to Jacobs/Progressive Field, the franchise has been very competitive, more often than not.
Let’s face it, it’s easy to keep building a team, it’s tougher to try to take that last step and win.
Chris Antonetti went for it in ’16, dealing for Andrew Miller and almost landing catcher Jonathan Lucroy. And as we all know, the team made it to extra innings in game seven of the Series.
We understand the Guardians have a bright future. They have perhaps the best farm system in all of baseball, and at times that’s a portent of things to come. And we certainly don’t want them to mortgage that future to go all in for 2022.
After all, they are just two games over .500, even though they are only two games out.
Still, there are clearly positions the organization could upgrade without dealing one of the systems’ top 10 prospects. By WAR, the Guardians rank near the bottom at both catcher and starting pitchers.
And even if the roster is improved incrementally, it’s still better, and really that’s all you want, although we are sure some folks would like the Guardians to deal for the best players available.
However, we find it silly to read about trading players like Shane Bieber for a boatload of prospects. The organization already has a problem figuring out who they will put on the 40-man roster this off-season, they simply have too many candidates.
And why would you pull the plug on this season? Those folks will tell you they probably aren’t getting the World Series this season, but in reality, the odds are pretty low any team will get to the Series in any given season.
Even the Yankees this season, as dominant as they have been, currently only have a 33% chance of reaching the Fall Classic.
Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have to balance trying to make the playoffs this year with the bright future the organization has. With their track record, they deserve our trust.
At some point, you have to try to win. There’s no parade for having a great farm system.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 