Too Bad Ownership Didn’t Believe In This Year’s Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians have come roaring out of the All-Star break. winning 14 of their 20 games, and they’ve won 9 of their last 10, including a three-game sweep of the Mets on the road.

Steven Vogt continues to say his team is resilient and that’s an understatement. After a 10-game losing streak at the end of June, most people thought this team was done, but Cleveland has put together a 21-7 record since then.

Yes, the schedule got easier, but don’t forget, in addition to the sweep in New York, the Guardians also took all three games against the division leading Astros too.

Vogt has this team believing in themselves. It’s too bad the front office, and we mean ownership here, didn’t share that feeling.

The Guardians made two moves at the trade deadline, and both were basically done to shed salary. dealing the balance of the $10 million owed to Shane Bieber and the rest of the $6 million owed to oft-injured reliever Paul Sewald.

To be fair, neither pitcher had helped the Guardians to date, and the front office did net a solid prospect for the former Cy Young Award winner, and much like last off-season, highly paid players were moved and very little salary was picked up in their place.

Cleveland did sign reliever Carlos Hernandez, who was DFA’d by the Tigers. FYI, he’s making $1.16 million this year.

The point is this team, which as of today, sits just a half game out of a playoff spot, and has closed the gap behind the division leading Tigers to six games, didn’t get any help at the deadline, and they still need some added offense and the bullpen could’ve used another arm, especially with the suspension of Emmanuel Clase.

We have seen a lot of statistics talking about the Guardians’ offense since the losing skein and how it ranks among the best in baseball since then. However, it is still the third worst in the AL, ahead of just Chicago and Kansas City.

In that span, they’ve also faced three of the worst pitching staffs in the game, the A’s, Orioles, and Rockies. They also have only three batters with OPS+ over 100 in Jose Ramirez, Steven Kwan, and Kyle Manzardo, although Daniel Schneemann is very close at 99.

They finally called up C.J. Kayfus from AAA and he has helped so far, but he had only 23 at bats.

And let’s not forget the team still has Nolan Jones on the roster, and his playing time seems to be shrinking.

Not doing anything to help the relief corps after the Clase suspension might wind up being a bigger problem. Even with Hunter Gaddis not pitching like he did a year ago, you had to feel good if Cleveland had a lead after six innings with Gaddis, Cade Smith, and Clase ready to go.

To their credit, Erik Sabrowski (1.15 ERA, 23 K in 15.2 innings) and Nic Enright (1.96 ERA in 23 innings) have done well, but again, it still wouldn’t have hurt to get some relief help.

We would like to imagine that Vogt has a poster of Paul Dolan in the clubhouse and instead of tearing a piece of Rachel Phelps’ clothing off, they do something to it after every win to show the owner he should have had faith in the team.

That isn’t true, but it shows again that profits mean more than wins to Dolan. Oh, and by the way, 1948.

Guardians’ Starting Pitching With Surprises

The strength of the Cleveland Guardians’ organization is developing pitchers and even in a up and down 2025 season, that has still been the case.

They are hovering around the .500 mark with an offense that ranks near the bottom of the American League in most statistical categories, but the pitching staff still has an above average ERA at 3.87, compared to the league average of 4.04.

However, how they have got there is a different story. We all know that one of the starters, Luis Ortiz, acquired from the Pirates over the winter has been out for about two months now under an MLB investigation.

If not for a case of food poisoning, Tanner Bibee would have been the Guardians’ Opening Day starter, but because he couldn’t go, Ben Lively took the mound. Unfortunately, Lively went down with an elbow injury that needed Tommy John surgery following his start on May 12th.

You can make the argument that Bibee has been the most disappointing pitcher on the team, non-suspension related. His hits/innings pitched has increased by a hit per game from a year ago, and his walk rate is also up while his strikeout rate is down, and his ERA is up over a run per game from last season.

He’s also giving up a ton more homers. Last year, for the entire season, he allowed 22 long balls. This year, he ranks 6th in the AL allowing 21 of them, and 13 of those have been with men on base.

We aren’t giving up on Bibee, but he needs to get back to throwing more strikes, getting ahead in the count more often and keeping the ball in the park.

Gavin Williams was the #2 starter, and by and large, he has been solid this year with a 3.33 ERA, a number which drops to 2.92 since May 1st. He’s only allowed 95 hits in 116.1 innings with 117 strikeouts.

His problem? Walks. He leads the AL in that negative category. Besides putting men on base, it limits how long he can stay in games. We have always thought Williams has the look of a #1 starter, and we still think that. If he can command the strike zone better, the Guardians have an anchor for their rotation.

And then we have Slade Cecconi. We made fun of Cecconi’s numbers in Arizona, where he compiled a 6.06 ERA, and because he was the return for Josh Naylor, who of course hit 30 HR and knocked in 100 for the Guards last year.

But to date, we were wrong. First, Cecconi is kind of a throwback in that he doesn’t strike out batters, but lately just keep inducing weak contact. That has allowed him to pitch at least six innings in his last five starts, allowing three runs or less in four of them.

He’s only fanned more than five in one of his last seven starts. We understand that irritates the new age fans who only value strikeouts, but if he keeps doing what he’s been doing over the last six weeks, he will be quite fine.

The great Bill James said a good pitcher allows less hits than innings pitched and strikes out twice as many hitters as he walks. Cecconi has done that. You know who else has? Logan Allen.

Allen seems to still have people irritated by his poor season a year ago (5.73 ERA), but that number is down to 4.06 this year and he has given Steven Vogt six innings per start since the beginning of June. He’s been solid and for a 4th starter, that’s not bad.

The starting pitching has still been good even though the guy who was supposed to be the anchor, Bibee, hasn’t pitched up to his standards. At the worst, these guys keep the Guardians in the game, which isn’t easy considering the offense output of the team.

Much Like The Off-Season, Inactivity Is The Word For Guards’ Front Office

The trading deadline came and went. The Steven Kwan rumors were hot and heavy. Ultimately, the Cleveland Guardians pretty much stood pat on Thursday, and the inaction confused us.

First of all, even with Emmanuel Clase now suspended, the Guardians were still just 2.5 games out of the third wild card spot in the American League. Yes, losing Clase was a blow, not only to the team, but because he was reported to be a huge trade chip, but still, it’s not as though the bullpen didn’t have depth. They could and can stay in the race without their closer.

We continue to reiterate the Guardians biggest problem is their offense and really, it dates back to last season. The front office did nothing to address this problem and that’s what makes the deadline a frustrating one to us.

The Guards did make two moves, trading Shane Bieber, who has been out all year recovering from Tommy John surgery last year, to Toronto, for the Blue Jays’ fifth ranked prospect in right-handed pitcher Khal Stephen, who has spent most of the year at the Class A level, but was recently promoted to AA.

He is currently on the IL with what is reported to be a minor shoulder issue.

In 17 starts in the minors this season, he has a 2.06 ERA with 99 strikeouts and just 18 walks in 91.2 innings. Considering Bieber hasn’t pitched with Cleveland this year, and if he pitched well, he would most certainly decline his option for next year, you can’t fault the front office for the move. It’s a solid return.

They also traded reliever Paul Sewald to Detroit for a player to be named later or cash. He’s been hurt of most of the season and reportedly the Tigers picked up the contract. It’s the kind of move the Guardians’ ownership loves to make.

When 28-year-old right-hander Carlos Hernandez was designated for assignment by the Tigers, the Guardians did sign him. He has struggled this season with the Phillies and Detroit, pitching to a 6.69 ERA, and in his career has a 5.17 mark.

Control has been an issue for him with 144 walks and 262 Ks in 292.2 career innings pitched. Hopefully, the Guardians’ pitching coaches can work their magic.

Both moves saved money, but management didn’t use the savings to help the current roster. The same formula we saw last off-season.

So, Guardians’ fans will get to see the same putrid offense they have seen all season long, filled with players who have below average OPS.

They did call up prospect C. J. Kayfus (finally) yesterday. Between appearances at Akron and Columbus this season, the left-handed hitter hit .300/.390/.539/930, with 14 HR and 54 RBI.

Johnathon Rodriguez was sent back to AAA. He didn’t show much again, but the move seems to make a bigger logjam on the roster, which has been a problem all year.

Kayfus is a first baseman but has been getting time in the outfield at Columbus. This gives Steven Vogt three options at 1B/DH in Carlos Santana, Kyle Manzardo, and Kayfus, and another player on the roster who can only DH in David Fry.

His options in RF are Kayfus and Nolan Jones, both left-handed hitters. He also has a catcher he definitely has to pinch-hit for in any meaningful late game situation in Austin Hedges.

That’s tough on him.

Again, this was created by the front office when they signed Santana in the winter. They knew about Manzardo’s position inflexibility and Fry’s injury situation then.

Hopefully, Kayfus provides an offensive spark these last two months, because despite the inaction at the deadline, the schedule isn’t difficult in August, and the Guardians should still be in contention on Labor Day.

There were bats that could have helped on the market. Randal Grichuk isn’t great, but he’d be an upgrade in the outfield. So would Mike Yastrzemski. Both went to the Royals.

Oh yeah, the Royals are owned by John Sherman, remember him?

Will Guardians Take Easier Path Again?

It appears it is a foregone conclusion around baseball that the Cleveland Guardians will be sellers at today’s trade deadline. More of that speculation came about after the suspension of closer Emmanuel Clase on Monday.

Look, it is easier to teardown a team that build it up. And it’s an easier decision for the front office to justify. They simply use the reasoning that they didn’t feel the team was a World Series contender, so that decided to trade assets in order to get younger players.

The Guardians, by and large, are already a young team. Among the position players, they are about league average, but that is skewed by having 39-year-old Carlos Santana on the roster, and to a lesser extent, 32-year-old Jose Ramirez.

So, if Santana were replaced by say a 25-year-old player, the Guards would be among the 10 youngest teams in the sport among position players. And their pitching staff is already the most youthful in baseball.

The question is why the Clase suspension has anything to do with a decision of not trying to make the playoffs this season? Let’s say the Guardians were currently in the third wild card spot and the relief pitcher got injured, would they sell then?

We identified Clase as the best trading chip for Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff about a month ago. Mostly, because Cleveland has some depth in the bullpen, despite the blow-up on Monday from Cade Smith and to a lesser extent, Hunter Gaddis. We felt they could have received an MLB ready hitter and another prospect at the least.

The question remains how the Guardians improve their offense without Clase as a trade chip? Apparently, the front office is looking at moving Steven Kwan but would have to get the proverbial “offer they can’t refuse” to move the two-time All Star.

We also speculated about a Kwan deal about a month ago because he fits the profile. He has not signed a presumably club friendly contract extension and he has value.

Here’s one thing we don’t believe people think about, and they need to think about it from Kwan’s (or any player’s) perspective. You played on a team that went to the ALCS a year ago and made the decision to decrease the payroll. Would you sign an extension to play with that organization?

There’s only one Jose Ramirez.

Remember two years ago when the Guardians dealt Aaron Civale and then Josh Bell at the deadline. Yes, we know they received Kyle Manzardo for Civale, and he’s one of the three players who can hit on the current team.

But Antonetti and Chernoff had to fly to Houston after those trades to calm down a clubhouse that was upset by the moves, since the Guardians were still very much in contention. Reportedly, Josh Naylor was very upset.

The tougher move is to try to get in the tournament. And we know by looking at the past, that at least five of the players currently on the Guardians’ top ten prospect list won’t pan out.

The front office should be willing to move one or two to acquire a bat that can help the 2025 team, which is made up of a bunch of guys who were three games away from the World Series a year ago.

And once again, let’s remind everyone, 1948

Guardians’ Front Office Needs To Be Honest. With Themselves

The worst thing any business can do is lie to themselves. The world is constantly changing, and smart people learn to adapt and change. If you don’t it’s a matter of time before you get stuck in the mud and your competition passes you by.

Professional sports is no exception, and the front office of the Cleveland Guardians have a chance to reexamine their evaluation of certain players before the trade deadline this week. We hope they have not started this process today.

We trust that they haven’t, but we also hope they are taking an honest look at the current roster.

If they do, then they will see a position player roster made up of two all-star caliber players in Jose Ramirez and Steven Kwan, a player with some pop and promise in Kyle Manzardo, and seemingly a bunch of journeyman players.

Their job would be to figure if any of that latter group can become everyday players.

We think the two players who could do this would be Angel Martinez and we also believe Brayan Rocchio could do that as well.

We have said before that Martinez, a switch-hitter, has a concerning strikeout to walk ratio, which is currently at 71:13. In AAA, it was a much more manageable 85:35 and in AA it was 101:49. Perhaps he is giving too much credit to big league pitchers.

He’s also fourth on the team in extra base hits, behind Ramirez, Kwan, and Manzardo. If he can walk more often, he will be a solid everyday player.

As for Rocchio, we realize we are going out on a limb here. Last year, he had a 614 OPS and this year, it’s even worse at 559. We think the approach Rocchio has taken at the plate since returning to the big leagues can be sustainable, and that’s a 735 OPS.

And if he doesn’t work out, you have Angel Genao, who is hitting .272 at Akron and is one of the top 100 prospects in the sport.

Moreso, they need to take an honest look at players like Nolan Jones, Daniel Schneemann, and Johnathan Rodriguez.

Schneemann looks like a solid utility man. He can play 2B, 3B, and SS (serviceable, but he scares us) and the OF. He has a little pop too, with 14 HR in 489 plate appearances. But he’s not really a good hitter (679 OPS) and his on base percentage is around .300.

Jones’ fans still point to the 20 home runs he hit with Colorado in 2023. His critics point to his almost 600 plate appearances since with six long balls. We jokingly referred to him as Will Brennan who walks more.

Brennan’s issue is he’s a singles hitter who doesn’t walk, which makes him kind of a useless offensive player. But Jones doesn’t get on base enough to offset the lack of pop. He has just 15 extra base hits on the year. Rocchio has 14 in 115 less times at the dish.

Rodriguez has received the least chances of the trio with just 106 plate appearances over two years, but has just a .161 batting average, a 533 OPS and 33 whiffs. He hits the ball on the ground a lot, 68.3% of the time. It’s hard to get extra base hits doing that.

He’s been great at the AAA level, with a 925 OPS, 47 homers and a decent K/BB ratio. But he has to start hitting the ball on a line or in the air more often.

And we’ve already addressed the issue with Carlos Santana. He’s been an excellent player over the years for the Guardians, but right now, he’s blocking a lot of players, including Rodriguez.

We are sure the offices on the corner of Ontario and Carnegie are very busy this week. Hopefully, the folks still think a playoff spot is attainable this year.

Any Deadline Move Needs To Help The Offense

The Cleveland Guardians have rebounded nicely from their 10-game losing streak a few weeks ago by winning 11 of their next 14 contests.

The offense has perked up scoring 4.5 runs per game since July 1st after averaging less than three a game in June. Part of that is the schedule. Cleveland hitters have faced two of the worst pitching staffs in the American League as of late (Athletics and Orioles), and another that ranks in the bottom third in the league in the White Sox.

Despite the recent surge, the Guardians still rank 13th in the AL in scoring. That’s third worst.

So, if the Guards want to make a run at a post-season spot, the front office needs to address the hitting.

Right now, the league average OPS is 718 and to date, Cleveland has three hitters who are above that figure, and we are sure everyone knows they are Jose Ramirez, Steven Kwan, and Kyle Manzardo.

We also think to have a solid batting order on most nights, a team needs at least six, and hopefully seven hitters can put together solid at bats. Right now, Steven Vogt doesn’t have that luxury.

In Thursday’s loss to Baltimore, the only game the Guardians dropped in the series, Vogt used Will Wilson (since sent back to AAA) and Austin Hedges, because Bo Naylor needed a day off.

Wilson and Hedges are terrible hitters. And since you only get 27 outs in a game, you have to figure the pair will account for 6 of those, two innings worth, meaning you better get some runs from the other 21 outs.

As a comparison, let’s look at the Houston Astros, who rank 7th in the AL in runs scored. They have six batters with over 250 plate appearances and OPS over the league average. The Los Angeles Angels are eighth in runs scored and they also have six hitters with that many plate appearances and an OPS over 718.

One more team to look at, the Yankees, who lead the AL in runs scored, have seven guys that qualify under this criterion.

To be fair, Angel Martinez has been hot, and his OPS is up to 687. We like that he is showing more pop, but our concern is his walk to strikeout ratio, which is currently at 13 walks vs. 69 strikeouts.

That’s not the profile of a good offensive player, but if he can develop some patience and strike zone judgment, he could fill one of the three spots needed.

The question is will the front office go out and get a solid bat this week before the deadline. They have prospects at the A level that could draw some interest to a team out of contention, but would the organization be willing to do that?

We saw folks on social media heralding the return of Gabriel Arias from the IL, but he’s a below average bat, his 658 OPS is below Daniel Schneemann.

And speaking of Santana, it appears he is showing that Father Time remains undefeated, but knowing how the organization feels about him, we ask if the team has the stomach to move on from him?

We hate to depend on a rookie, but we would like to see if C. J. Kayfus can be more productive than the veteran.

And we will repeat, the profile of this front office is they do not add to stay in contention, but on the other hand, do they have anyone another team will be interested in come Thursday?

We know about guys like Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee, etc., but the Guardians are not in a position to deal them. And we don’t think teams have an interest in Lane Thomas either.

If the Guardians want to stay in contention for a spot in the tournament, they need to add to the offense. They simply don’t have enough hitting for the last two months.

Does Guardians’ Front Office Have A “Hate To Lose” Mindset?

In our coaching days, we used to say there was a difference between wanting to win and hating to lose. Our favorite players were the latter.

Some people might think that is the same thing, but they are not. Everyone likes to win. It’s more fun, your peers love it, everybody is happy. But if you hate to lose, that means you will do everything you can to avoid having that feeling.

That means putting in extra work, studying the game, recognizing something your opponent does that you can take advantage of. It’s taking the extra step, so you don’t have the feeling you have after a loss.

We bring this up because recently there have been conversations on the sports talk shows around town about the ownership of the city’s three professional sports teams.

Some fans of the Cleveland Guardians have been upset because it has been suggested that the owners of the franchise don’t have the same attitudes as the Haslam family and the Gilbert family.

The first thing to point out is this has nothing to do with the success of the franchise. We know of the three teams, the Guardians have been the most consistent winners, making the playoffs seven times in the last 12 completed seasons.

The Cavaliers have won the only title northeast Ohio has seen in the last 61 years, hanging a banner after the 2015-16 season. They have been wildly successful since drafting LeBron James in 2003, and even without James, they have made the post-season the past three years and had the best record in the Eastern Conference this past year.

We all know about the woeful history of the Browns since they returned to the league in 1999. They have had three playoff seasons, but also 18 double digit loss years, including the infamous 0-16 in 2017.

The argument isn’t who has had the most success though, it’s what group would do the most to get a championship for the franchise and city?

We know Dan Gilbert did everything he could to win a title when James was here both times, and he spent all he could after the superstar returned, trading draft picks to put together a roster to achieve the title in ’16, and he has said he has no problem paying a tax to win again.

You have to know he would love to get a second title and one without James.

The Browns have made many ill-fated moves in order to get to the franchise’s first Super Bowl since the Haslam family bought the team. But you can’t say they aren’t passionate about getting to the championship game.

And we have every confidence that if the Browns were in that “one piece away” situation, the ownership would step up and do what it takes to get there.

We are sorry but we do not feel the same way about the Dolan ownership of the Guardians. There is a feeling they are in the class of being happy when they win, but if they don’t, well they don’t like it, but they don’t hate it.

With all the success the Indians/Guardians have had since 2013, the only time the franchise really “went for it” was in ’16 when they traded for Andrew Miller and don’t forget they had another deal in place for catcher Jonathan Lucroy that he vetoed.

Also remember, that team went to the World Series.

If they do have a burning desire to win a championship, they don’t communicate it to their fans very well. The attitude that surrounds the franchise is that of we hope we can get in the playoffs, and we’ll see what happens then.

We understand baseball has the flukiest post-season of the major sports, but the most recent example of last off-season echos. The Guardians were three wins away from getting back to the Fall Classic and decided to allocate less money to the front office than they did the year before.

We have said it before, and we will say it again. 1948 should ring throughout the bowels on the offices on Ontario and Carnegie.

Time To Rebound From A Disappointing Off-Season For Guards’ Front Office

There are a lot of people who think professional sports’ front office should never make a mistake. The reality is no general manager is perfect, they all error at times. If they make more good decisions than bad ones, they are doing fine.

We say that because there are many Cleveland Guardians’ fans calling for a change after the team’s recent 10 game losing streak.

Look, we have been on record as saying Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff didn’t have the best off-season but throwing them out with the bathwater seems a bit extreme.

After all, the Guardians entered the season having made the playoffs in two of the last three seasons, and in the last ten years, they have made six post-season appearances. By all measures, they are running a successful operation.

We also have to understand (although we disagree with the premise) the financial constraints put on the duo by ownership. If ownership tells them they have less money to spend on players, they head into each off-season with an arm tied behind their collective backs.

They spent $6 million and $4.5 million respectively on two relievers, Paul Sewald and Jakob Junis. If Sewald was healthy, which he hasn’t, he could have been a late inning option for Steven Vogt. He has done that when active, but he just went on the IL again on Monday.

Junis is a middle reliever/mop up man. Vogt generally only uses him when the Guardians are trailing in game.

We have said many times we understood the trade of Andres Gimenez, whose offense is not commensurate with the salary he was going to be paid following this season, and although we said at the time moving Josh Naylor, the third best hitter on an average offense team a year ago, was questionable, we know Naylor is a free agent at the end of this season.

Signing 39-year-old Carlos Santana and giving him $12 million was a curious move to say the least. Santana had a bad year vs. right-handed pitching in ’24, and this year he regressed to the point he is no longer even a league average hitter.

But the front office can redeem themselves in the next two weeks at the trading deadline, regardless of whether or not they consider themselves buyers or sellers.

If they are sellers, moving off of Santana opens up a spot to look at C.J. Kayfus and give more at bats to Kyle Manzardo, two young players who could be major contributors to next year’s team.

And if you can move Emmanuel Clase for a major league ready bat, that’s a move we would seriously have to consider. Even if the two young players mentioned pan out and Chase DeLauter and Juan Brito prove to be as good as advertised, this organization needs more depth offensively.

It also wouldn’t hurt to admit mistakes on Junis or Sewald to allow more young arms to come up from Columbus.

And one more thing. It may be time to reconsider the whole defense above everything behind the plate. Other teams are getting offense from the catching position, perhaps it wouldn’t be the end of the world to take a step back defensively there in favor of someone who is a threat with a bat in their hand.

A bit of a rebound from a bad off-season would help greatly.

If Guards Want To Move Up, They Need To Score More

There is a logjam for the wild card spots in the American League and the Cleveland Guardians are in the midst of it.

The Seattle Mariners currently hold the sixth spot in the AL with a 51-45 record, and there are six teams within 5 games of them, including Cleveland who is 4.5 out with a 46-49 record.

How jumbled are the standings? If the Guardians win Friday night when they return to action at home against the Athletics, they could be in the #8 spot, able to jump the Royals, Angels, and Twins.

It’s no mystery how they can climb back in the race if they so desire. They have to score runs. They are currently third from the bottom in putting runs on the board, ahead of just the Royals and White Sox.

They are also ninth in ERA, but their team mark of 4.02 is better than the league average of 4.07.

If the Guardians’ front office wants to take care of the offensive problem, they will likely have to make some very difficult decisions.

They would have to take some risks, but since we belong to the “can’t be any worse” mindset, we would be willing to take the chance.

The toughest decision might be what to do with Carlos Santana. Clearly, the organization loves him, he has been traded for once and signed as a free agent since leaving originally after the 2017 season. He has been in the trade rumor mill over the past few weeks.

But really, what will you get for the 39-year-old first baseman? Since June 1st, Santana has batted .189 with 4 HR and 12 RBI. And perhaps what is worse, he has walked just 13 times with 30 strikeouts.

If the front office cannot find a trade partner, will they have the stomach to just release him? The Guardians have to start making the transition to have Kyle Manzardo, who has a much higher OPS than Santana, play first base, and also to look at C.J. Kayfus, who has a 921 OPS at Columbus.

The other obvious choices to upgrade would be at catcher, shortstop, and two of the outfield spots.

We doubt any change is coming behind the plate. The organization values defense and handling pitchers very highly, but even with that, the offense they are getting from the position is ridiculous. It’s getting to the point when Bo Naylor or Austin Hedges takes a walk, it’s a victory.

Angel Martinez has shown some pop lately (slugging .481 over the last month) playing mostly CF, but his 61:9 strikeout to walk ratio doesn’t bode well.

Another option would be to have Nolan Jones, who has hit .267 since June 1st, play more in CF with of course the people’s choice, Chase DeLauter coming up to play some rightfield. Jones has also drawn 13 walks in this period with 26 strikeouts.

Of course, the obstacle there is the health of DeLauter and also Juan Brito, who would provide a better bat than Will Wilson.

As for shortstop, although Brayan Rocchio has hit better since his recall (.257 batting average with a 783 OPS), we would bet when Gabriel Arias is ready, he will take over at that spot.

Of course, they could also move a bullpen arm for some immediate offensive help. In the regular season, you have to score runs to make the playoffs. Improving on the third worst offense in the AL is a necessity if the Guardians are going to climb back in the wild card race.

That is if the front office is interested in doing that.

Buyers Or Sellers? That’s the Guardians’ Big Quandry

The All-Star break arrives for the Cleveland Guardians and all other major league teams following today’s game. And with the trading deadline on the horizon at the end of this month, teams have to decide if they are buyers or sellers.

Of course, the Guardians’ front office, like most organizations won’t admit to being one or the other, they will reason they are trying to improve their teams for this year and the next few seasons.

Because of the wild cards in both leagues, the Guardians are still in the race for a playoff spot, sitting just 4.5 games out of the last playoff position. On the other hand, since June 1st, Cleveland is just 14-23.

The schedule seems to be favorable for a while. As it currently stands, the Guardians don’t play a team over the .500 mark until they travel to New York to play the Mets. Until then, resume the schedule with the Athletics, Orioles, Royals, Rockies, and Twins.

They will also enter the break having played 52 games on the road, compared to just 43 at Progressive Field. That of course means, they will play 38 of the final 67 contests at home. The bad news there is right now, the Guards are under .500 on the shores of Lake Erie.

We have reviewed in the past how the Cleveland front office kind of only adds to the roster when they are ahead in the standings. They generally don’t try to get better when they are trailing in the standings.

So, it would seem the first 10 games out of the break will be key for Steven Vogt’s crew. Winning seven or eight of these games would probably narrow the gap between Cleveland and the current team with the sixth seed, the Tampa Bay Rays.

If they do fall out of contention, the Guardians need to make deals for major league ready prospects, getting players who are 2-3 years away should not be an option.

Why?

First, they have to maximize Jose Ramirez who is 32 years old. The front office should be thinking about how long Ramirez will remain one of the games’ top players. Second, the biggest issue with the current roster is the hitting.

We would all like to see Chase DeLauter with the big club, and C. J. Kayfus deserves a promotion as well. But the system isn’t loaded with hitters, particularly from the right side. And if the team wants to be a contender again in 2026, they need to add some offense.

And while the Guards still are the youngest pitching staff in the AL, they are only the 7th youngest team among the hitters, although that ranking is due in part to Ramirez and 39-year-old Carlos Santana.

Antonetti and Chernoff are in a tough place. No matter what they decide, buying or selling, they are going to irritate fans and possibly players.

So maybe the best course of action is to maybe move a couple of veterans to make room for some youngsters and also deal from a strength (bullpen?) to get some young bats that can help right now.

That’s why that duo gets the big cash, to make decisions like the one coming up.