Tag: chase delauter

Dolan’s Comments Seems Like Rebuilding Year For Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians celebrated their annual winter festival over the weekend, a time to look forward to the upcoming baseball season. It’s a great time for the fans, who get to see their favorite players again after three and a half months. 

The team’s resident superstar Jose Ramirez was there. Fan favorite Josh Naylor and brother Bo made an appearance, and the Guards’ new skipper, Steven Vogt, interacted with ticket payers and media people alike. 

It was a great time to talk baseball during the cold northeast Ohio winter, and of course, the weather cooperated by providing a snowstorm.

And then, someone put a microphone in front of team owner Paul Dolan. Dolan did say the team is always looking for ways to improve, but seemed to imply the improvement would come “internally and organically” with the young guys coming up from the farm system.

And thus, a wet blanket was put over the event. 

Look, we get a team like the Guardians (at least in their own head) have to have a farm system that is producing in order to field a contending team. However, even if you are going to depend on rookies and/or second year players, if you fancy yourself as a contender, you add veterans who can contribute in case the inexperienced players aren’t quite ready.

We know the Guardians need outfield help. Since the end of the 2023 campaign, they resigned Ramon Laureano, who they acquired on waivers in August, and traded with the Yankees for Estevan Florial, who was a top 100 prospect. In 2019.

We reviewed the organization’s top ten prospect list from Baseball America and we see three outfielders–

Chase DeLauter is the top prospect, but he has only played a handful of games above the High A level, and could be ready late this season. Key word there is could.

George Valera has been on prospect lists since 2020, but has had injury issues the past two seasons and has never played more than 100 games in a minor league season. If he can stay healthy in 2024, perhaps he’s another player who can be in Cleveland by the end of this season.

The third OF is 19-year-old Jaison Chourio, who played mostly in the Arizona Rookie Leauge last year. He’s aways away.

So, it’s not like the Guardians have one of the game’s best prospects ready to step in the lineup on Opening Day. In fact, there has been talk that the readiest minor league player, Kyle Manzardo, might start the year in AAA. 

Plenty of players who made these top prospect lists never pan out, and others who don’t make them wind up being real good major league players. Ramirez never appeared on the Top 100 prospect list and he has been one of the best players in the game over the last six years. 

Yes, there is still time to sign a veteran outfielder to help the team’s hitting before spring training starts, and actually, there are still good candidates remaining on the market. 

But to us, going entirely with your farm system to fill this void, and not having highly tiered prospects ready to go, reeks of a rebuilding team. The Guardians are not a team that is several years away from success, they won the Central in 2022. 

Perhaps any warmth fans received at the event over the weekend was the hot air coming out of the team’s owner. 

The public relations department of the Guardians don’t get paid enough to spin whatever comes out of the owners’ mouth.

Hopefully Bieber Injury Doesn’t Deter Moves At Deadline

The Cleveland Guardians didn’t exactly provide a lot of good news for their fans coming out of the All-Star break.

First came the news that Shane Bieber is experiencing some soreness in his right forearm and was placed on the injured list yesterday. At the very least, the former Cy Young Award winner will miss two starts.

And then the bullpen was mollywhopped by Texas in the opening game of the three game series after Aaron Civale gave Cleveland five innings. The curious thing was he was removed after throwing just 79 pitches.

The bigger news is Bieber, obviously, since the rotation is already without Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill. Yes, the rookies, Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, and Logan Allen have done yeoman’s work so far this season, but as everyone reminds us, they will all be on innings restrictions this season.

We know many people will say this is a sign that the team should be sellers at the upcoming trade deadline, but isn’t the biggest potential trade chip the Guardians have Bieber?

Our fear is that Bieber’s injury will prevent the front office from making a move to help this year’s team, which is still just a game and a half out of first place in the AL Central Division.

Standing pat would be a terrible idea.

First, and this has nothing to do with the team on the field, but attendance is up at Progressive Field, and we fear doing nothing to improve the roster will damper any excitement created during the year.

The other issue is the organization’s bloated situation in the middle infield. Cleveland continues to use free agent to be Amed Rosario at shortstop, with Tyler Freeman and Gabriel Arias still on the big league roster and Brayan Rocchio in AAA.

They haven’t really found out much about any of those players, with perhaps the exception of Arias, who has a whopping total of 154 plate appearances this season. By the way, we agree that’s not enough.

At some point, they have to convert some of these players into pieces that can help the big club win some games.

Down three starters, why not move some pieces for a pitcher who can provide some quality innings down the stretch. They could use that even if Bieber is going to be back sooner than later.

A year ago, the Guardians had one of the top farm systems in baseball, but outside of last year’s first round pick OF Chase DeLauter and Rocchio, most of their prize prospects have graduated.

Southpaw Joey Cantillo is another top prospect, and he may be here soon if the injuries on the staff continue.

In the past week, Baseball Prospectus put out their mid-season top 50 prospects plus 10 other players. No Guardian was listed. Last season, the same publication had four Cleveland farmhands listed, including Bibee and Williams. Daniel Espino and George Valera were the others.

Prospects lose their value quickly in baseball. Valera was looked upon as a big time power bat, and he still may be, but he’s hitting .187 (545 OPS) at AAA, and in his time at the highest level of the minors over the past two seasons, his OPS is 698.

The next two weeks before the trade deadline will be key. If the Guardians continue to hang in the divisional race, will the front office help out the current roster?

Or will they point toward 2024. We aren’t asking the organization to move players like Williams, Bibee, and Allen. But they have some assets they can move. Now is the time.