Tomorrow will be February 1st, and that means it’s just a matter of time before baseball fans hear the first sign of spring: “Pitchers and catchers report to spring training”.
The Cleveland Guardians filled two holes this off-season, signing 1B/DH Josh Bell and C Mike Zunino as free agents, and both figure to get a lot of playing time, at least early in the 2023 campaign.
However, there are still some free agents sitting out there and a few of them could help the Guardians, and they could probably be signed at a bargain price, which is always attractive to the Cleveland ownership.
Here are a few guys we would be interested in:
We know the organization is committed to their young outfielders: Steven Kwan, Myles Straw, Oscar Gonzalez, and Will Brennan. However, it’s tough to overlook a player who can get on base like Robbie Grossman, who actually was in the Cleveland camp a few years ago.
The veteran switch-hitter, now 33 years old, has a career on-base percentage of .346, and against southpaws in his career, has a 790 OPS and gets on base at a .377 clip. He had a tough season a year ago, split between the Tigers and Braves, batting just .209, but had a 772 OPS in ’21 with Detroit, belting 23 home runs.
If Brennan isn’t ready or isn’t getting regular at-bats, or Gonzalez is having strike zone issues, he’d be someone who could step in. And that would also allow Will Benson to get regular playing time at AAA.
Another former Tigers piques our interest in the pitching department. With Anthony Gose probably missing the entire season, the Guardians could use another lefty out of the bullpen to go with Sam Hentges. Andrew Chafin would seem to be an ideal fit.
He appeared in 64 games for the Tigers last season, compiling a 2.83 ERA and striking out 67 hitters in 57-1/3 innings. And he had a 1.83 ERA for Oakland and the Cubs in 2021.
In his career, he’s held left-handed batters to a .222 batting average and a 603 OPS and his marks vs. right-handed batters are similar (.231 average/655 OPS). He would give Terry Francona another veteran option in relief.
We get the Guards had a lot of success with players coming up from the minor leagues a year ago, but even though the Cleveland farm system is very strong, that doesn’t happen every season, so it would be nice to fill a hole here and there with veteran alternatives.
In the past few seasons, we felt the Guardians needed outfielders badly, but the performance of the young players last year filled most of the holes. And we still believe Straw will rebound with a much better offensive season than a year ago.
We also normally like to add another experienced starting pitcher, but the organization has a plethora of prospects who could make a spot start early in the season if need be. We saw most of them a year ago, hurlers such as Cody Morris, Konnor Pilkington, Hunter Gaddis, and Xzavion Curry.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt anything to take a shot at either Grossman or Chafin. They could give the Guardians a lot of bang for their buck.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 