The Major League Baseball season has passed Memorial Day, which is traditionally been the quarter pole of the campaign, but now it is more like the one third point of the season.
Last season, as we all remember, the Cleveland Guardians had a tremendous season, winning the American League Central Division and winning the Division Series, losing in the AL Championship Series to the Yankees.
You would think the franchise would try to build on this success, but this is the Guardians, and you would be wrong. As the calendar is getting ready to turn to June, it’s fair to analyze the off-season for the front office.
The first move was trading Eli Morgan to the Cubs to minor league outfielder Alfonsin Rosario. Morgan was moved because of the bullpen depth the organization has, and Rosario has pop, although he arrived with a poor strikeout to walk ratio. We have no issuce with this move.
Nor do we have a problem with the Andres Gimenez deal. Yes, Gimenez is a fabulous defender at second base, but his offense has fallen off since 2022 and the Guards owed him over $23 million per year starting in 2027.
Ultimately, they received Luis Ortiz, a starter badly needed by Cleveland. He’s had control issues but has taken his turn regularly and had some tough luck in terms of run support.
We thought the front office would reallocate the money saved in the transaction, and the same in the Josh Naylor trade, but sadly, we were fooled again. We felt the same way when Corey Kluber was dealt to Texas, but they didn’t use that cash at the major league level.
We know Naylor was going to be a free agent. We also knew the Guardians didn’t have a real strong offense and they traded one of their three best hitters. That didn’t seem to add up.
They signed Carlos Santana to replace Naylor, but let’s face it, at 39-years-old Santana is not the same offensive threat as the player he replaced.
Paul Sewald and Jakob Junis were signed to help the bullpen, but Sewald is hurt, and Junis has been getting hit like a pinata as of late. The former did get some high leverage situations early in the year before he was put on the IL, but he certainly wasn’t a difference maker.
And the last move, made right before the season started, was getting Nolan Jones, who is the darling of the analytics’ people because he hits the ball hard, but the results-oriented folks see a .194 average and a 568 OPS.
After dealing Gimenez and Naylor, perhaps a veteran bat would have helped. Instead, manager Steven Vogt has to work around a roster with a bunch of below average offensive players. Rightfield continues to be a vortex of suck.
There have been curious roster moves as well. The Guardians just sent Joey Cantillo to AAA to get stretched out as a starter, but we felt it was weird they didn’t have him start right from the get-go. Logan Allen won the fifth starter job, and he hasn’t exactly been the model of consistency.
Cantillo would have provided immediately rotation depth.
But it is what it is. We felt coming into the year this team had a lot of holes and we stand by that.
It’s okay though. Cleveland won a World Series in 1948.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 