Three Major Weak Spots For Guardians

In a little over a week, the Hot Stove season will start in earnest for baseball. Teams all over the sport will be looking to get better, shore up weaknesses, and even make room for hot prospects.

The Cleveland Guardians aren’t a team that generally makes big splashes in terms of acquiring talent. They made two major deals a year ago, but both were more about dealing players who were going to make big money soon (in the case of Andres Gimenez) or were going to hit free agency soon (Josh Naylor).

Despite their September run, the Guardians have a lot of holes on the roster. It has been well documented how bad their offense was, they were third worst in the sport, ahead of just Colorado and Pittsburgh, meaning they were the worst in the American League.

They were also second worst in team OPS, on base percentage, and in slugging percentage.

Where do the Guardians have to get better? If you look at WAR (wins above replacement), it is quite clear where the improvement needs to be. Cleveland had the worst centerfield play in the majors.

Who played there in 2025? Angel Martinez played 114 games, followed by Lane Thomas (38) and Nolan Jones (35). Martinez is still young (he will be 24 next season) and was very good vs. LHP, batting .279 with a 792 OPS. He’s still young enough to develop against right-handers, although he batted .197.

We would guess the Guards will move on from Thomas, who is a free agent, and Jones, who frankly just wasn’t good.

They were third worst in rightfield. Again, Jones got the bulk of the playing time there, appearing in 101 games, followed by Jhonkensy Noel with 60 games.

Noel’s struggles at the plate, mostly involving making contact, are well documented. His OPS was under 500 in 2025.

The third position where the Guardians were near the bottom, 27th in this case, was shortstop, with Gabriel Arias playing 106 games and Brayan Rocchio playing in 72 contests.

Arias received a career high in plate appearances in ’25 and his numbers were pretty much the same as before. He batted .220 (career mark .215), his on base percentage was .274 (same as career) and he slugged .363 (.356).

He has a tremendous arm, perhaps the best in the game, but let’s be truthful, he struggles going to his left. We feel Rocchio has more range by far.

So, what can the team do about these trouble spots?

We don’t know if Cleveland will deal Steven Kwan this winter, but if they don’t, shouldn’t they consider putting him in CF? He’s a great defensive outfielder, so why not put him in the most important position?

That would open up LF for players like Martinez, Juan Brito, and maybe even Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana.

With DeLauter’s injury history, it seems weird to mention him in center.

Besides RF needs shoring up as well, and we don’t want to forget George Valera there, but as we have said before, the organization cannot just depend on all young players. They still need a right-handed bat, and preferably a veteran one. A “professional hitter” as they say.

And at short, we just believe Rocchio is a better choice. We think he’s a better hitter and as noted earlier, has more range.

The 2025 Guardians don’t just need improvement at those spots, they need to not be the worst on those positions, and two of them are key defensive spots.

Upgrading at CF, RF, and SS will help make this team a lot better in 2026.

Guards Need Hitting And More Hitting This Off-Season

Well, it’s all over.

After a furious comeback, an MLB record for the Cleveland Guardians, coming back from a one-time 15.5 game deficit to win the American League Central Division title, the Guards lost two games to one in the Wild Card Series to their division rivals, the Detroit Tigers.

The season ends with another post-season appearance, but with the championship drought now at 78 years.

We are not celebrating because they failed. They didn’t even get as far as Steven Vogt’s crew did a year ago, when they got to the AL Championship Series. And you know what, the Vogt and his team aren’t celebrating either.

The Guardians should take satisfaction from the fact they did not lay down when faced with the huge deficit, something that other teams have done. And frankly it was something of a miracle for Cleveland to win the division because this was one of the worst offensive clubs in Major League Baseball, ranking 28th in runs scored and 29th in team OPS.

Cleveland batted .226 as a team the lowest in club history. The previous low for a full season was in 1968, a year the sport refers to as “The Year Of The Pitcher”. Baseball changed its rules, lowering the pitchers’ mound after that season.

The last time they had a team OPS this low was in 1991. The then Indians’ record that year was 57-105.

We have said it all season long. This club has three good hitters: The incredible Jose Ramirez, Steven Kwan, and Kyle Manzardo. Everyone else is frankly bad.

How bad was it? Well, the organization brought Chase DeLauter, who hasn’t had a big-league bat in his life, up to start the last two playoff games. And DeLauter wasn’t alone. In those games, the Guardians also played George Valera, who had 48 plate appearances and C.J. Kayfus, who had 138.

Remember, the Guardians traded one of their best hitters from a year ago because he was entering the last year of his contract. So, the organization did this to themselves.

As the organization enters the off-season, there simply has to be an emphasis on getting more hitting. Certainly, DeLauter, Valera, and Kayfus figure into the mix, but the Guardians should not put all their eggs into the “rookie” basket. And those four, along with another top prospect, Travis Bazzana, all hit from the left side.

They need a “professional” hitter, preferably right-handed to add depth to the lineup.

They also need to be truthful to themselves about some of the players on the roster. We heard several times on telecasts about the “breakout” year from Gabriel Arias. He batted .220, right in line with his .215 career mark, and although his OPS was a career high at 638, it is still way below league average.

Daniel Schneemann, at age 28, received the 7th most plate appearance on the roster. He had a very good month of May, but after June 1st, he hit just .188. Again, that’s over a four-month span.

Angel Martinez received the fourth most plate appearances on the team and his OPS was just 628. The problem was there weren’t any real alternatives and to be fair, Martinez was pretty good vs. lefties, with a 792 OPS.

More emphasis has to be put on getting on base. Cleveland ranked 29th in on base percentage in the major leagues. Only four players with more than 100 plate appearances got on base at even a 30% clip. Carlos Santana joining the Ramirez, Kwan, Manzardo trio.

Why do they need to be better offensively? On the top ten teams in the majors in runs scored, eight made the playoffs. Only the Diamondbacks and Mets didn’t get there, and both of those teams were in the mix in the last week of the regular season.

The Padres (18th) and the Guardians were the two teams making the post-season without having a good offense. Normally, the top run scorers get to play in October. The Guards can’t tempt fate in 2026.

Let’s hope ownership opens their wallets and the front office doesn’t rely solely on rookies to help.

Although Highly Unlikely, Guards Still In It

We repeat this all the time because people think we are overly critical of the Cleveland Guardians, but we want them to be good. Nothing from a sports standpoint would give us more pleasure than to see a Cleveland player catch the last out of the World Series and trigger a celebration that is now 77 years in the making.

It still even brightens our day just a bit knowing the Guardians won last night. We have followed this franchise from the time we were six years old, and believe me, that’s a long time ago.

It seems we have written them off several times this season, but after their come from behind win against Tampa Bay last Wednesday, which brought them back to .500 at 66-66, we could still see a path to the playoffs.

On social media, we said the Guards had 30 games remaining and likely needed to go 20-10 in those contests to have a legitimate shot at the post-season. We did have one caveat, we felt with this offense, it would be very difficult to achieve.

And then, on Friday night, perhaps the most improbably win of the season. Against Seattle, a team vying for a playoff spot, just like Cleveland, the Guardians fell behind 4-0 in the first inning. They followed that by pretty much doing nothing for five innings on offense.

Then, Kyle Manzardo homered in the 6th. Nolan Jones, who was stuck on three homers before tying Wednesday’s game with one, hit another to make it 4-2. They scored again on a ground ball by Angel Martinez that sawed him off badly to make it 4-3.

And then Jones started a ninth inning winning rally with a double, some weird baserunning, and eventually Steven Kwan hit a sacrifice fly to win the game. We imagine a Mariners’ fan watching this and thinking “what the heck?”

The Guardians are still hovering around .500 even though their record, based on their runs scored and runs allowed says they should be at 61-74, which would put them well out of the race.

The league average OPS in 2025 is 721, Cleveland has two hitters, Jose Ramirez and Manzardo, over that mark. That’s it.

Ben Lively, a man who hasn’t pitched since the middle of May due to elbow surgery, still ranks 12th on the team in WAR. And Parker Messick, who has made just two starts on the season as he was just called up, is 11th.

Steven Vogt’s squad is doing it with smoke and mirrors. The team is determining the #2 and #5 spots in the batting order based on production in the past week. Jones, because he had five hits in three games last week, batted after Manzardo, a player in his first full season in the big leagues, on Sunday.

By the way, those five hits are the only hits by Jones since August 19th.

Rookie C.J. Kayfus is 0 for his last 15 and 4 for his last 31, and the organization released Carlos Santana (a move we agreed with) to get him more at bats.

Will Wilson, who was hitting under .200 since being sent down to AAA last month, was recalled when Daniel Schneemann went on paternity leave. He’s hitting .192 with a 511 OPS at the big league level.

And it’s not as though the pitching has been overwhelming either. The Guards are 8th in the AL in team ERA at 3.92 and the bullpen is nowhere near the dominant group they were in 2024.

Yet here they are. And although our brain says this team doesn’t have the horses, our heart tells us there is still a chance.

And if you grew up in the 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s, that’s progress.

The Times Should Be A-Changing For The Guardians

We talked about the Cleveland Guardians needing to do well heading into the stretch in the schedule that started this past weekend against the Texas Rangers. They had nine games against the Marlins, Braves, and Diamondbacks.

At the time, they were 61-56 and just six games behind the Tigers in the AL Central, and more importantly were just a half game behind New York for the last playoff spot in the American League.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t hold up their end of the bargain, going 3-6 in those series and then following that up by getting swept in a three-game set at Texas. Losing nine of twelve isn’t conducive to staying in a playoff chase.

So now, Steven Vogt’s crew is 12.5 behind Detroit and has fallen into third place in the Central behind the Royals, and they are now six games out in the wild card chase and behind Kansas City and the Rangers in the standings.

In a week, we will be in September and to us, they can’t be more than five games out at that point to be considered on the edge of the playoff hunt, so they are going to need to have an excellent homestand against the Rays and Mariners.

The offense had been feasting on some of the less accomplished pitching staffs in baseball, but that production ran out in the series against Atlanta and Arizona. All three National League teams on the schedule ranked near the bottom of the ERA standings, and the Guardians did put up 17 runs vs. Miami.

But the Braves held Cleveland bats to five runs in the trio of contests, and the Guardians only scored 10 runs vs. the D-Backs. Texas has the best ERA in the AL, so it shouldn’t be a surprise Steven Vogt’s crew tallied just three runs in Arlington.

We have been saying for some time now that this team only has three legitimate bats, and one of them, Steven Kwan, hasn’t been very good since the All-Star break, hitting just .231 with a .285 on base percentage.

It doesn’t take calculus to tell you if you only have three decent hitters out of nine and one of those guys isn’t hitting, a team is going to have trouble scoring runs.

If this team has any chance to pull off a winning streak, the organization shouldn’t be clinging to any hope the group currently on the roster is going to be able to put something together.

Doing that is grasping at straws looking at the best outcomes for some of these guys instead of looking at five months of numbers.

C.J. Kayfus has been solid since coming up to the majors and his 705 OPS, while not great, is better than anyone on the team not named Jose Ramirez, Kwan, or Kyle Manzardo. It’s a low bar, granted, it’s also 100 points higher than Nolan Jones.

We have seemingly heard about George Valera for years as a prospect, and he had a delayed start to the season because of injuries, but he’s hitting .278 with a 893 OPS at Columbus in 24 games, why not see what he can do?

The same is true with the bullpen, do we really need to see more of Matt Festa and Kolby Allard? Why not take a look at some arms at Columbus?

Isn’t doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result one of the definitions of insanity? That’s what is feels like for a supporter of the 2025 Cleveland Guardians.

First Step For Guardians Offense? Get On Base!

Baseball is the one major sport that is not governed by time. There is no clock. Games can last for 1:55 or for 4:05. As the great Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver once said, in this sport, you can’t run out the clock.

What is the timing mechanism for baseball? Each team gets 27 outs. It’s not over until they use all of them. If someone ever asks what is better, a 1.000 slugging percentage or a 1.000 on base percentage, the correct answer is the latter.

Slugging 1.000 simply means goes 1 for 4 with a home run, while is a team gets on base 100% of the time, the game never ends.

We point this out because as of today, the Cleveland Guardians rank last in the American League in on base percentage at .297, and if you are not getting on base, guess what you are doing? Making outs.

It’s kind of a trend as well. Last season, the Guardians were 8th in the league in OBP. In 2023, they were 10th. The year prior, it was 6th place, but in ’21, they ranked 13th. In the shortened season, they were 9th.

The last time they ranked in the top five in the AL in this category? That would be 2018, when they had four players who got on base more than 35% of the time: Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor, Michael Brantley, and Yandy Diaz.

Diaz was traded after that season, and the company line was he didn’t hit for enough power. That was the first time we felt the Cleveland organization did not value getting on base.

If you’ve seen Moneyball, the movie and of course before that the book chronicling the Oakland A’s success without a large payroll, you can certainly remember the scene where Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, talks about players, and if backed up by Peter Brand (really Paul DePodesta) played by Jonah Hill, who keeps repeating “he gets on base”.

Right now, the Guardians have one player with an on base percentage over .350 and that’s Ramirez. Steven Kwan is next at .334, followed by Carlos Santana at .319, Kyle Manzardo at .317 and Daniel Schneemann at .308.

By the way, the league average is .314

In a sport governed by the counting of outs, the Guardians fill their lineup most nights with players who make a lot of them.

We have people who wonder about our obsession with walks, and really, it’s quite simple. If you are drawing a walk, guess what you aren’t doing? Making an out.

Ramirez is 16th in the AL and Santana is 17th in drawing walks, and frankly if Ramirez didn’t feel the responsibility to carry this lineup offensively, he would draw a lot more. He swings at pitches out of the zone because his job is to drive in runs.

Kwan is next and he’s 33rd, and with his knowledge of the strike zone and bat control, that’s too low. He should not have any problem having an OBP over .350.

The top five teams in runs scored in the AL are the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Tigers, and Mariners. Four of those teams are in the top five in getting on base, and the Mariners are currently sixth.

So when the Guardians’ front office discusses what they can do to help the offense in 2026, maybe they should call the Browns and get DePodesta on the phone so he can repeat “he gets on base”.

Series Sweep Points Out Guardians’ Warts

When you are in a race for a post-season spot, the prevailing wisdom is that if you just keep winning series, you will be just fine. And from the middle of July until last week, the Cleveland Guardians did just that, winning nine of the previous ten series they played.

It’s unlikely any team can continue to win each series, so occasionally losing two of three to an opponent isn’t a killer. However, getting swept by a team that is clearly out of the race, at home no less, is a blow to your playoff hopes.

Can it be overcome? Of course, there are still 39 games to play and frankly, if Steven Vogt’s squad rips off six or seven wins in a row, this past weekend’s performance against the Atlanta Braves will be forgotten.

But for right now, it felt like every weakness this ballclub has showed up over the weekend.

The offense didn’t show up with the Guardians scoring just five runs in the three games. On Friday, only two players, Steven Kwan who had two hits and Kyle Manzardo, who walked twice reached base.

Saturday, the Braves started lefty Joey Wentz, already on his third team this season, and allowed just three hits in six innings. The struggles vs. southpaws returned at an inopportune time. Brayan Rocchio homered to provide the only run, while the pure right-handed hitters went 0 for 11 in the contest.

And in Sunday’s finale, the defense played a part. Angel Martinez played second base for the first time since July 24th and made two errors and Manzardo lost a pop up in the sun.

The starting pitching was shaky. Joey Cantillo, who sent to AAA prior to Sunday’s game, went five innings Friday night and allowed just one run, but he walked it in. No Cleveland pitcher has completed six innings in a start since Gavin Williams’ almost no-hitter vs. the Mets.

That was on August 6th. That’s a week and a half ago.

As we said, Cantillo walked in a run and had four free passes in his five innings. Logan Allen walked three in his 4.2 innings on Sunday. Tanner Bibee has walked four hitters in each of his last two outings.

Besides putting men on base, the walks drive up pitch counts and increases the toll on a bullpen that is leaking oil.

Nic Enright, who has pitched well, gave up a game winning home run in the series finale. Kolby Allard has given up runs in his last two relief stints. Carlos Hernandez came into a 1-0 game on Friday in the ninth and allowed an insurance run.

He also got battered in the 13-4 loss to Miami last Wednesday.

And weirdly, despite the starters not going deep in games and some of the relievers not getting the job done, one pitcher, Jakob Junis has appeared in just one game over the last ten days.

It appears Vogt is going to have to pull another rabbit of his hat to put together another run.

It doesn’t help that the front office has dealt him a shorthand. Think about how many players currently on the 26-man roster, who probably aren’t major league caliber players.

We think about players like Santana, Nolan Jones, Hernandez, perhaps Matt Festa. Talk about replacement level.

But does the organization have anyone ready in AAA to replace these guys? That’s the sad commentary.

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.

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.