The other day we talked about the possible trade of Cleveland Guardians’ starting pitcher Shane Bieber. One of the reasons some folks say the Guards should deal Bieber is that they always do well in these types of trades.
Do they? Let’s take a look at the last three major transactions the Cleveland front office has made.
When evaluating the move, we aren’t going to focus on the performance of the player the Guardians traded away, simply going to talk about the return.
The latest move was dealing Francisco Lindor to the Mets along with Carlos Carrasco for Andres Gimenez, Amed Rosario, and two minor leaguers, Isaiah Greene and Josh Wolf. At the time of the deal, we said the key for Cleveland was Gimenez, who turned into an All-Star last season, and seems like a very good player at the least.
Rosario is a journeyman, likely playing his last season with the Guards. He’s a starter here, but there has been plenty of debate as to whether or not he should be.
We’d give Cleveland a slight edge, mostly because Gimenez has emerged as a potential star.
Then we have the Mike Clevinger deal, which considering he was probably Cleveland’s third starter (behind Bieber and Carrasco) at the time of the deal, was a tremendous haul.
Two of the pieces acquired, Austin Hedges and Owen Miller, have already moved on. Josh Naylor has been excellent, an everyday middle of the order bat, and a team leader. Cal Quantrill is currently out with a shoulder issue, but he’s a solid third or fourth starter on a good team.
We have our doubts about Gabriel Arias, tremendous with the glove, but struggles at the dish. Perhaps another solid piece is coming in lefty Joey Cantillo, currently at AAA, but at the AA level had a 2.13 ERA in 93 innings with 134 strikeouts.
This was a big win for the Guards. They got an impact bat, and solid starting pitcher and possibly more to come in Cantillo
The other trade was moving Trevor Bauer in a three team move to Cincinnati. The return was Yasiel Puig, Franmil Reyes, and two minor leaguers, pitchers Scott Moss and Logan Allen (not the one currently with the Guards).
At the time, we thought the deal was made more for the following season than it was for 2019, a year Cleveland won 93 games and missed the playoffs.
Just four years later, there is nothing left from this deal.
Reyes provided pop for two and a half years here, but we are sure the organization wanted him to be the middle of the order slugger the Guardians are still looking for. He experienced a drastic fall off in production last year and is currently with Washington at the AAA level.
Puig finished the season with Cleveland and moved on. We don’t think Terry Francona and he hit it off. Although he didn’t hit for the power that was expected (slugged just .423), he did get on base to the tune of a .377 OBP.
Allen was a solid prospect but had a 5.45 ERA in 69.1 innings with the Guardians. He’s currently with the Rockies organization and has a 6.70 ERA in AAA. Moss isn’t pitching in professional baseball to date this season.
The Guards certainly didn’t win this one.
Our conclusion? The Guardians have done alright for themselves in these deals but haven’t “killed it”. Gimenez and Naylor are big parts of the current team, with the former having the possibility of being a multi-time all-star.
Make no mistake though, the Cleveland front office has done a solid job getting back good players for potential free agents they have no plans to sign. However, they still haven’t received the slugger they seem to have trouble developing, nor have they received a top-of-the-line starting pitcher.
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