Trying To Make Sense Out Of Guardians’ Catching Moves

The Cleveland Guardians are not a team that makes a lot of trades, so it was certainly very surprising for them to announce they traded a compensatory draft pick and minor league pitcher Matt “Tugboat” Wilkerson to San Francisco for two-time Gold Glove winning catcher Patrick Bailey.

They also sent Bo Naylor back to AAA, although he is headed to the Goodyear facility before he reports to Columbus. More on that in a bit.

We have said for years in answering questions about the usual offensive ineptness of Cleveland catchers that the organization values defense first and foremost behind the plate. Blocking pitches and handling a pitching staff are the primary requirements of the job.

That’s why they have such a high regard for Austin Hedges, who they bring back year after year on one year deals. Getting Bailey is just another reminder of that.

Bailey can’t hit. His career OPS is 609 (keep in mind, the league average is usually around 700). His career batting average is .228, he gets on base only 28% of the time, and his career high in home runs is eight.

Again, the Guardians don’t care about that. However, we believe you need six or seven solid offensive players to have an effective major league offense and if you are punting on the catching position, that means pretty much everyone else in your lineup has to contribute offensively.

In Bailey’s debut with the Guards, he came up in a bases loaded, two out situation with Cleveland down 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth. He struck out.

The Guardians rank 10th in the AL in runs scored. Their starting pitching have struggled to provide Steven Vogt length in games. The bullpen has two, maybe three reliable arms right now.

The point is those are the areas that need help for the ’26 Guardians. Yet, the front office decided to make a deal for another defensive catcher who will likely provide nothing offensively.

As for Naylor, Vogt and the front office stressed how they haven’t given up on the former first round draft pick, but we would file that under the “BS” file. Where exactly would be the place for Naylor? The organization has pretty much handed the catching duties over to Bailey and Hedges, so where exactly does he fit in?

And at Columbus, they have one of their top ten prospects in Cooper Ingle, who is hitting .370 in AAA, albeit in 77 plate appearances. He’s a .287 hitter in four minor league seasons and is a Top 100 prospect according to MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus.

They also have Kody Huff down there, so it is difficult to see where Naylor is going to get at bats.

Perhaps they have something in the works to move Naylor pretty quick, so they didn’t want to disrupt the playing time in Columbus. We will see.

As for Ingle, we have read the reason he wasn’t a candidate to get called up is the organization wants him to work on things defensively. That’s organization speak for they just don’t want to call him up right now.

Remember when they told people James Karinchak, who was mowing down hitters in the minors, couldn’t get called up until he got better in his fielding? And that’s not the only time they discovered some weird reason for not calling someone up.

Hopefully, this works out for the Guardians. But making a deal where you use assets to improve something that wasn’t a glaring weakness seems like a waste.

Guardians Rotation Becoming A Concern

We have discussed the bullpen issues with the Cleveland Guardians recently, and the club did make a move the other day, calling up Franco Aleman, who had allowed just three hits and four walks at AAA Columbus while striking out 18 in 12 innings.

He replaces Connor Brogdon, who gave up five homers in 15.1 innings with the Guardians after allowing 11 in 47 IP with the Angels a year ago, posting a 5.55 ERA with the Halos. If you have visited this site before, you know we believe there are two things a reliever can’t do: Give up homers and walk people.

There is another concern about the Guards’ pitching that isn’t getting a lot of attention, mostly because the team is still winning. But the starting pitching has to start eating up some innings.

Currently, Steven Vogt gets that from one starter, his ace Gavin Williams. In Williams’ eight starts, he has pitched seven innings three times and six frames twice. That latter figure should be the requirement for a starter, that way, the bullpen, which we have pointed out isn’t very good, only have to cover nine outs.

Rookie Parker Messick threw eight innings, the most by any starter this year, in his near no hitter against Baltimore, and prior to that did go six in two of his starts. But since the Orioles’ game, in which he made 112 pitches (and we would have let him go that long too, not a second guess), the longest he’s went in a game is 5.2 innings and frankly, has looked like he ran out of gas in the sixth of his last three starts.

Opening Day starter Tanner Bibee’s longest outing was throwing six innings three times, and in half of his starts, he has gone less than five innings.

Besides Slade Cecconi’s ineffectiveness so far, he has a 6.15 ERA, he’s another starter who hasn’t supplied a lot of length. He’s completed six innings just once, while getting knocked out before the fifth twice.

Then we have the curious case of Joey Cantillo, who the organization has been very conservative with. It makes us wonder if he’s having a bit of an arm problem. The southpaw has one start where he went six innings, the last of three starts where he pitched into the sixth.

Since that start, he’s been on a very short leash.

In his last two starts, he has been pulled despite throwing 69 and 70 pitches in a game, and in the latter, he had allowed just one run in five innings against the Royals. He has great stuff, but one reason he generally doesn’t go deep into games is because he has some control issues. He’s walked at least two in all but one start in 2026.

It will be interesting to see how he is handled in his next outing.

Again, the lack of length from the starter’s taxes an already ineffective bullpen. Really, Vogt has only two reliable arms out there in Erik Sabrowski and Cade Smith. Hopefully, Aleman can provide a third, and Colin Holderman looks good since coming back from AAA.

Does anyone really want to see Matt Festa and/or Tim Herrin in a close game in the 6th or 7th innings?

The rotation has to get more outs or the bullpen will be on fumes as the season goes on. And it’s not like there is depth in the high minors.

When Will Cavs Play A Complete Game?

This playoff season for the Cleveland Cavaliers is becoming very frustrating to watch. Outside of Game 1 of the first round series against the Toronto Raptors, Kenny Atkinson’s squad hasn’t played a complete good game.

They won Game 2 despite not playing well and were victorious in Game 5 because Dennis Schroder willed them to a triumph in the fourth quarter and won Game 7 because Jarrett Allen had an epic third quarter. They simply have not played well, not at the level a team wanting to make a deep run in the playoffs should be.

Another maddening trend is the falling behind early. In Tuesday night’s loss in Game 1 against Detroit, they fell behind by 16 after the first quarter, trailing 37-21.

Despite all that and a slew of turnovers, James Harden being the main culprit in that area, the Cavaliers fought back and tied the game with 5:28 remaining. They had a chance to take the lead after Cade Cunningham missed a three, but Harden’s floater was blocked by Jalen Duren at 5:01 left.

By the way, we read a lot of criticism of Harden, some of it justified, but to us, without the trade, Toronto wins the series. The small backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland get eaten up by the Raptors’ length.

After Harden’s shot was blocked, Cunningham drove to the basket twice in a row and found Duren for a pair of dunks, and then after Evan Mobley missed an ill-advised three, he dunked again and with three minutes left, the Cavs were down six.

We don’t like to blame coaches too much, but there are definitely things to question. Atkinson allowed Jarrett Allen to pick up his third foul in the first quarter, so he played just six minutes in the first half. However, he only played 12 minutes in the second half and fouls weren’t an issue then.

The Cavs need Allen available because at least in Game 1, Evan Mobley seemed to be not strong enough to guard Duren. Again, the lack of size, in this case, bulk is a problem.

We understand Dean Wade is an excellent defender and a darling of the +/- crowd, but we are sorry, but when he’s on the court, Cleveland is playing with four offensive players. He played 27 minutes and took three shots, a tip in, and two threes. As for being a “connector”, he had just one assist.

In 200 minutes of play in this post-season, Wade has taken 42 shots, 29 of them threes, and has just five assists. It’s not that he can’t shoot, it’s that he refuses. And that puts a burden on Donovan Mitchell and Harden, who face double teams because opponents know Wade is not an offensive threat.

By contrast, Jaylon Tyson, who is also a solid defender, who can also pass and score, has played just 127 minutes, taken as many shots as Wade, and has 16 assists.

It’s only one game, that’s what we keep telling ourselves, but this is the playoffs, and a team can’t expect to win playing in spurts. They must be able to play well for an extended period.

Just when are the Cavaliers going to play with some force and urgency? That’s the big question going forward. They have to win one game in Detroit. Tonight, would be a good time to do so.

A Game 7 Win And A Date With The Pistons

The nice thing about the NBA playoffs is that after every series, you start with a clean slate. So, that the Cleveland Cavaliers had a tougher time than expected with the Toronto Raptors means nothing when they start the Eastern Conference semifinals tonight against the Detroit Pistons.

As for game seven, the Cavs found themselves down 47-38 with 2:58 left in the second quarter. Max Strus drilled a three, got a steal which led to two free throws from James Harden. After an offensive foul drawn by Strus, Harden knocked down another three, and after another turnover, Jaylon Tyson hit another three and the home team went into the locker room tied.

The third quarter was the Jarrett Allen takeover. Allen scored 14 points and grabbed 10 boards in those 12 minutes, and Donovan Mitchell added nine more as Cleveland outscored the Raptors 38-19 and basically put the game away.

You can’t minimize what Strus, Tyson, and to a lesser extent Sam Merrill did in that quarter although Allen was clearly the star.

Strus did a little bit of everything, the all-around game the Cavs need, scoring 12 points with 8 rebounds and five assists. And we are a fan of Tyson (and would like to see him get more time) for the same reason. He had 7 points, 9 boards, and 4 assists.

And we would be remiss if we didn’t mention Evan Mobley’s aggressiveness in the first half. He wound up in foul trouble, but he had 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists in 27 minutes. At times, his passiveness drives us crazy, but he came out to make an impact.

So, now it is on to the top seed in the East, the Pistons, who also needed seven games, and had to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the series, to defeat the Orlando Magic.

Cade Cunningham and Tobias Harris took almost half of the Pistons shots in the first round series win and were the only Detroit players to average more than 11 points per game. By contrast, Mitchell and Harden, who took the most field goal attempts for the Cavs, combined to take 41% of them and Cleveland had four scorers who average more than 11 points per game, and Strus scored 10.3.

The Pistons did not shoot the three ball well in round one, knocking down just 32.7% of them, and Cunningham and Duncan Robinson made 40 of the 68 conversions. We would point out though that Toronto didn’t shoot the three well in the regular season, but the overhelping Cavs defense provides opponents with some wide-open looks, so Detroit may do better in the series.

Another challenge will be the physicality the Pistons play with, particularly their big men, Jalen Duran and Isaiah Stewart. Duran had 28 offensive rebounds in the Orlando series and Ausar Thompson had 25 more. The Cavaliers outrebounded Toronto for the series, but that was a result of the 60-33 advantage in the deciding game.

They will have to keep Detroit off the offensive glass.

Hopefully, the Cavaliers learned a lesson Sunday night and will come out with more intensity and physicality, especially on the defensive end in this series. And they don’t have homecourt advantage, meaning they will have to win at least one in the Motor City.

For all of the complaints we had about the Cavs’ play in round one, that all gets erased. It’s a new series and a new set of challenges.

A Game Seven For The Cavs And Perhaps A Mandate?

We will repeat, before the NBA playoffs started, we were asked about the chances of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and we replied that we could see them getting to the NBA Finals and we could also see them losing in the first round.

Today, one of those things could come true.

In we were scoring this series as a prize fight, we would score it as the Cavs winning the first round (Game 1), and every other game would either be even or in favor of the Raptors. No, Kenny Atkinson’s crew hasn’t played well in this series.

We figured Cleveland had the two best players in the series in Donovan Mitchell and James Harden, but we were wrong. Scottie Barnes has been that, averaging 24.2 points, 9 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game. He has been to the line 47 times in the series, compared to just 14 for Mitchell, and that is not a complaint about the officiating. Barnes has been the most aggressive player on the floor.

And remember, Immanuel Quickley, Toronto’s starting point guard, has not even played in the series, and Brandon Ingram, who we felt would be another problem for the Cavs, missed the second half of game five and all of game six.

There is a game seven today, because the Raptors have exposed what is wrong about the Cleveland roster.

We have complained for several years about the lack of bigger wings, and certainly Atkinson has no one to really combat the 6’8″ Barnes, and really 6’6″ R.J. Barrett and 6’7″ rookie Collin Murray-Boyles have also given the Cavs fits. Although part of that could be giving their most physical wing, Jaylon Tyson, who is 6’6″, just 15 minutes per night.

Atkinson is giving one-dimensional Sam Merrill and Max Strus more time than Tyson, and frankly, we don’t understand it. Strus started out strong in the first three games but has made just 2 of his last 11 long range shots. For the record, Tyson has outrebounded and out-assisted Merrill in the series, despite playing less minutes.

And we didn’t mention all three are getting more minutes than Dennis Schroder, who saved the wine and gold in game five with a tremendous second half performance.

The other problem with the roster assembled by Koby Altman is there are too many one-dimensional players. The Raptors have much more versatility.

Dean Wade, who is 5th in minutes in the series, is a great defender, particularly on the perimeter, but an unwilling and inconsistent shooter on offense. Sometimes it appears he can’t wait to get the basketball out of his hands.

Merrill works hard defensively, but let’s face it, if he’s not making shots, he’s a liability on the floor. Strus always brings hard-nosed play and toughness, but he’s not reliable in his shooting.

And none of them have the ability to create shots for themselves, outside of Schroder, who attacks relentlessly.

Compare that to Toronto. Heck, Jamal Shead is scoring just 8.2 points per game, and shooting just 37% from the field, but he’s made an impact with his defense. Ja’Kobe Walter, who averaged just 7.4 points per game in the regular season, is scoring 10.8 per game in the series.

There is simply more energy off the Raptors’ bench.

Part of this is the style of offense used by Cleveland since the Harden trade, which features more isolation and one-on-one play. Toronto is basically double teaming the ball, figuring no one else can make a play. And it’s working.

Can the Cavaliers win today and advance? Sure. But, the next round, be it against Detroit or Orlando will likely present the same challenges.

And by the way, we didn’t even talk about the lack of toughness…