The Guardians have announced that they have traded outfielder Bradley Zimmer to the Blue Jays in exchange for right-hander Anthony Castro.
For the Blue Jays, this is the second trade in recent weeks where they’ve added a speedy outfielder with a left-handed bat as a complement to their lineup of right-handed power bats, with the other being Raimel Tapia. Zimmer was selected by Cleveland as the 21st overall pick in the 2014 draft and made his debut in 2017. He didn’t hit a ton, putting up a line of .241/.307/.385 for a wRC+ of just 79 in 101 games. However, he did steal 18 bases and get favorable reviews for his work in the field, which helped him earn a mark of 1.6 wins above replacement, in the estimation of FanGraphs.
Unfortunately, Zimmer has never been able to top that mark since. He started 2018 with the big league club but struggled over 34 games and got optioned down to the minors. A shoulder injury suffered that year wiped out the remainder of his 2018 and most of his 2019 as well. Over 2020 and 2021, he got into 119 big league games and showed a similar profile to his rookie year. The batting line was fairly tepid, coming in at .220/.329/.333 for a wRC+ of 88, but with 17 steals and good defense. On the other hand, he did strike out in 34.2% of his plate appearances, something that has been a persistent issue with him throughout his big league career.
As a lefty hitter, he’s better versus righties but doesn’t have drastic platoon splits for his career. With the Jays featuring a starting outfield of right-handed batters George Springer, Teoscar Hernandez and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Zimmer and Tapia will likely be competing for given those guys the occasional day on the bench or in the DH slot, giving the lineup a different look.
It seems Zimmer was nudged out of the plans in Cleveland, as he didn’t crack the lineup in today’s season opener, with Myles Straw, Amed Rosario and Steven Kwan getting the starting nods on the grass. Blue Jays president/CEO Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins were both working in the Cleveland front office at the time Zimmer was drafted and are clearly willing to take a shot that the 29-year-old can still be valuable. His defense was estimated to be worth seven Outs Above Average by Statcast last year, meaning he can be a productive player even without any offensive improvement. Though development in that department will surely be a goal of his new team. He qualified for arbitration for the first time this year and settled on a salary of $1.3MM. He can be controlled through the 2024 season.
As for the Guardians, they’ve subtracted a player who wasn’t likely to see significant playing time and is out of options, while adding an optionable reliever to their bullpen mix. Castro made his MLB debut in 2020 with Detroit but pitched just a single inning. After going to the Jays on a waiver claim, he was able to log 24 2/3 innings in the bigs last year with a 4.74 ERA, 29.4% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. The 26-year-old has an option year remaining and just over a year of service time, meaning he could be controlled by the Guardians for years to come.
hey ya’ll!
theirs more to come..!!
*they’res
*There’s
TROLLS…
Thanks Will Smith. Some people just don’t get jokes.
@InherentVice
Notice how I called you trolls…
Incredibly ironic coming from the one guy that pathetically trolls with “*spiders” every Cleveland article, and isn’t even a fan of the team.
Steven Kwan supremacy
Yep, this move was all about Kwan emerging.
Wrath of Kwan!
what does this really do for Toronto?
Depth
as opposed to Castro, who can also be depth and you can never have enough pitching?
Wondering here the same…
Gives the Jays a superb defensive OF’er (all three spots) and a really good pinch runner.. Don’t expect Zimmer to actually impact the ball with anything made from wood..
Yep, Zimmer had a horrible Spring, but if you need a larger sample to determine his lack of hitting skills just take a look at his career stats. Not surprised CLE threw in the towel on him.
They’re collecting fringe outfielders
None of their outfielders are good defenders. Zimmer is very good defensively, so he could be a a valuable late-inning substitution for them
Gives them someone who can play CF if/when Springer gets hurt
You know what this does for Toronto? One afternoon in Fenway this year in the late innings of a tight game, this guy is going. to come into the game late and do some anti-Sox stuff. Like pinch-run, steal a base and score and then play defense for one of their corner outfielders. I don’t like him already, and he should have stayed in Cleveland.
dude i legit snorted
Late inning defensive replacement and additional speed off the bench.
Clones Tapia and annoys Nathan Lukes.
*SPIDERS
This is already old
Not as old as their last championship
*STEAMERS
Nice get for Toronto. Former first round pick. Toolsy player. Can cover some ground in the OF. If they can fix his swing he could be a solid player for them.
Great athlete, but a walking stikeout
He does strike out a bit but as mentioned, I think a change of scenery and some changes to his swing under new coaching may unlock some of that talent. He’s a good player.
JSt: Non sequitur
dude hit some Thome-esque bombs when he did connect, plus he was able to get an IF single on a ground ball to the second baseman. That kind of speed kills. Met Zimmer while he was rehabbing in Akron. He took a selfie with my kid and signed his shirt (it was his birthday)! Will def miss The Machine
I’m not sure if this means Steven Kwan stays when Naylor returns, or if it means Amed Rosario is LF semi permanently. Either way, excited for Castro and happy to see Zimmer moving on as he seemed stuck here.
I would love for kwan to be permanent, Naylor to play 1rst. Would even love to get another outfielder, but so glad Zimmer is gone, can Mercado please join him? It’s a platoon pair, if you take one you get both? At no extra charge of course
I would be surprised if they gave up on Bobby Bradley so soon. I think that’s likely to happen at some point this year but based on their track record with such players I expect him to get about 2 months worth of tryout.
The question then is do you replace him with Naylor or Nolan Jones?
They gave up on Jesus Aguilar pretty quickly and he’s done well in Milwaukee/Miami. Bradley could go to a team like Oakland and probably mash
The problem is that Bradley, like Zimmer, is out of options, so he needs to step up his game this season or he’ll be jettisoned like Bauers was last year. CLE works magic with their pitching pipeline, but when it comes to position players, most of them peter out at the big league level. Naquin blossomed in CIN after going the same route with the Tribe, but we’ll see if he can sustain that success.
Aguilar was never given a chance in CLE which I couldn’t understand. It was clear the FO didn’t think much of him which was puzzling because he tore it up in the minors. Franmil Reyes is a great comp who they plugged into the lineup when they got him from SD, and he’s been there ever since.
@ solaris602;
Bradley seems seems to be one of those very good AAA players that can’t translate that to the majors.
With Jose signed and 3B taken for the future, it’s silly to put Nolan Jones in LF – he’s a corner infielder. The only thing I can think of is that they’re so LH hitting heavy that they’d like some RH balance. But playing a guy out of position often hurts his O as well as D.
Cleveland has a lot of prospects they’re giving playing time to this season. Things will be sorted out. Right now I don’t see a lot of upside in Bradley or Naylor. Obviously there will be trades made. You build a team one piece at a time. They hit a HR on Myles Straw. It looks like Steven Kwan (another LH bat) is for real, with Valera (yet another LH bat) a possibility as well.
In short – they need another RH bat, so Bradley gets a look. Can see him packaged with Naylor as the year goes on. I see them making an in-season trade for an experienced RH bat, bundling a few LH hitters to a team that wants to drop some salary and pick up some youngsters. Cleveland has a crunch on the 40 man already, and more youngsters will need to get on there before the next Rule 5 draft.
@ Rsox;
Agular had some issues with Cleveland, particularly hitting breaking balls.
He was placed on assignment in early 2017, right after Cleveland was in the WS. Obviously no other MLB team was willing to trade anything for him.
Milwaukee worked with him and squeezed a couple of above average years out of him. But he was trending down so they traded him to the Rays for a bullpen arm that never materialized; who in turn after 30-some games designated him for assignment (again, no potential trade partners willing to give anything).
Yes, he’s done OK for Miami – but like Garrett Copper (another RH 1B) he’s not really having a great impact.
Yeah it’s because they’re ballpark is a pitchers park so it helps the pitchers and hurts average or below average bats even more
You replace Bradley with Naylor, keep Kwan in RF, play Jones in LF, move Rosario back to short and slide Gimenez to 2B. Chang becomes Utility with Mercado as defensive replacement in the OF and send Bradley and his suitcase full of Strikeouts packing.
Jones hasn’t seen any real time at 1st and cannot possibly be a worse outfielder than Naylor. So there you are. But I expect Jones to get traded by the deadline
@Frozen that’s a terrible defensive lineup. Rosario is a really bad defender at SS and shouldn’t be the regular there. I’m fine with him being a super sub that rotates around SS, 2B, LF, CF, RF and plays most days to keep his bat in the lineup and everyone rested. They should have Arias or Gimenez as their primary SS by June.
Also it’s an open question who would be better as a defender in the OF – Naylor vs Jones. Jones has the better arm but Naylor has a lot more experience there and I believe is a better runner (I’ve seen Jones run at Akron and he looks really slow).
I’m really not sure why they’re still keeping Yu Chang around
Couldn’t agree more about Chang who is the poster child for jacking all trades, master of none. He really doesn’t do anything exceptionally well. CLE must value his flexibility more than anything.
I accidentally got my hopes up about Chang in spring, stupid me. Saw those pathetic half swings at balls in the opposite batters box and new I was an idiot. My dream would be to trade for Mitch Haniger in Seattle, but we have to be in contention at the deadline. Haniger replacing Rosario in the 2 spot in batting order, and let’s see Arias!!!
Off-topic but the Jays are picked to win the WS this year yet they lost Ray (Cy-young) and Semien (MVP-caliber season). Their additions do not improve enough with what they lost and the aforementioned players played a big role in their success. Overrated much?
I agree the random calls for WS favorites is a bit silly over the likes of the Dodgers or Braves but their pythag was like 100W last year. Gausman is nearly identical to Ray with a bit better a track record so at worst right now its a wash, and Semien yea they will miss his MVP caliber season at the plate but Chapman’s defense will make up a bit of the WAR (at 3rd).
It’s Semien this year vs. Chapman this year. What Semien did last year wouldn’t have helped them this year.
They have a full year of Berrios and Manoah. Springer was hurt most of the year. They have Chapman at 3rd. Bullpen is more solid with the moves they made at last years tradeline(although I wish they did more this offseason). Team is very solid!
Full seasons from Berrios, manoah, Springer, kirk and biggio. Gausman put up similar numbers to Ray, Kikuchi has just as good a chance to have an improvement with walker. Chapman will have a similar impact to semien, it will just come on the defensive side of the ball.
Also vlad is 23 and last year became only the fifth player in history to hit 45 homers with a 300 avg.
Not overrated
Wow didn’t realize that stat! Who were the other players that hit 45+ HR with an average above .300? Ruth and Mantle?
A relative ton of guys have. At least 5 Yankees alone. Ruth. DiMaggio. Gehrig. Mantle. A-Rod. Go to Giants, you have at least 4 in Mize/Mays/McCovey/Bonds. The 5th ever player thing isn’t correct.
How many of them were 24 or younger at the time?
Betting of the 5 who hit .300 and hit 45, Vlad had the lowest RBI total. His inability to hit in the clutch was embarrassing.
A humiliatingly paltry 111 RBIs, only 6th best in the league. Surely everyone in history would have more than that.
yeah i don’t know where some of these guys come from
Hitting in the clutch and RBI are a completely different thing. RBI, like ERA, is an outdated stat that the old timers use. Here it is, I found your cane. Do you need help?
Im with you on the pitching I guess but their lineup is stacked. You can’t just point out what they’ve lost & completely ignore who they’ve gained bud.
Replaced Ray with Gausman – who had an excellent year last year.
Replaced Semien’s with Chapman’s, and Chapman defensively is a huge upgrade for them over the platoon they had at 3B last year.
They have a full year of Berrios.
Kikuchi is a depth piece, but is serviceable.
Biggio had neck issues last year, and should be more productive this year.
The most important part: they are another year into the development of Vlad and Bichette.
Not only would I say they’ve improved – but which team in that division is better this year than last year?
The Red Sox didn’t do anything, lost Schwarber and Sale is out again.
The Rays will find a way to compete, but they are without Glasnow all season, and have dealt away some key pieces. Added Kluber, but his health is always a question mark.
The Yankees did nothing. A healthy Severino and LeMahieu should help. Can Stanton stay healthy again? Judge? After Cole and Severino, how reliable is anyone? That bullpen that was once a juggernaut is now very sketchy.
So of all the AL teams, the White Sox probably give the Jays the biggest run for their money. Both are good teams, but the rest of the AL is several steps behind.
I wouldn’t call signing Trevor Story “doing nothing”
My bad on not recognizing the Story signing.
Now, let’s talk about the Red Sox rotation.
How confident are you in that starting 5? If Eovaldi goes down, do they have anything worth while to help save the day? If Michael Wacha is part of your rotation, you have a problem.
So downsr, I assume you’re not concerned with the Orioles?
Matt Harvey = Cy Young
Plus Rich Hill, Michael Wacha, and at some point James Paxton. They didn’t do “nothing”
I am. Forget who said it but in the last 4-5 years team you be the Os the most wins the east. So the other 4 teams should all be “worried” about the Os
Who beats no you be
Beats what yes he are.
@downser
How confident would any team be if their #1 goes down? Toronto would not be in great shape if Gausman goes down. But he hasn’t, and neither has Evoldi.
@stymeedone The Jays would still have Berrios, Ryu, Monoah and Kikuchi. The first 3 I would say are as dependable as Severino and obviously better than the others the Yankees have. I’d say those top are also as good as Eovaldi.
Stymeedone how many clutch at bats did you see from Vlad? I love when ignorant people like you judge a player based on a couple random at bats. With risp last year Vlad had 168 PA decent sample size much more than the handful your probably talking about he had a ops over a 1000. .312 batting average if you like to use the old useless stats.
2 outs risp ops .994
Tie game ops over 1.000 yeah he’s not clutch. Where do you people come up with this crap.
dude do you even watch baseball?
If that reply was to me I watch much much more baseball then you.
I agree they are the best team on paper in the East (albeit I do not buy Gausman’s repeat); however, they didn’t make the postseason last year and they are already being placed on the WS bandwagon. A little too fast for my taste but I won’t complain if they win either.
How many regular season wins did Atlanta have? Jays had more in a tougher division, snd played in three “home” stadiums
@Taejonguy
The Braves had four huge holes in their lineup for months due to injuries. They played .667 baseball after the deadline and beat the Brewers, Dodgers and Astros all in a row without facing a single elimination game. Also, the Mets and Phillies have huge payrolls and the Nationals have spent a decent amount at times. It’s not as if the Braves are playing in a division with a bunch of small-market teams
and the Jays had Springer out for most of the year injuries in the bullpen that caused it to melt down for about a month or so, and lived on the road for most of the season.
Bichette is entering his 4th season snd has never had a home opener in Toronto.
The Braves and Jays don’t even play in the same league. The Braves won their division and then dominated two 95-win teams and a 106-win team in the postseason. They earned their title.
Just to jump on the Biggio fan wagon but also broke his finger and struggled with the constant position changes. His vision has to be one of the best in the league so his OBP should be huge. Him in the 9 hole to set up the big bats at top of lineup adds so much to this lineup
downsr30;
I keep writing…….
What looks obvious at the end of ST / beginning of the season is often proven wrong by May 1.
The Jays have some very good players. They also got career seasons out of a number of them in 2021.
The Red Sox were underestimated going into 2021. I don’t think they’ve gotten worse. The Rays are not falling apart with Glasnow out – they have deep pitching right through guys in AAA that will be sent up and down during the season, with those that produce seeing more MLB playing time. They have at least half a dozen young pitchers with huge upside potential.
I have major doubts about the Jays and White Sox. Not saying they crash and burn this year; just saying that the assumption is that they both improve in 2022. Doubt that. And each year brings improvements in players that were not expected going into the season on all teams.
Then there are injuries and in-season trades that change the direction of teams…..
It’s why I watch.
I agree on the SOX too but wasn’t going to bring it up here. They were overmatched last season against the Astros and now suddenly they are WS favorite. To be fair to the Sox/Jays, the Astros and BoSox are not better this year on paper either.
@ TrumpChop+Charles Barkley’s Guarantee;
On paper means nothing.
What I look for are players improving (or rolling back) their production. When a number of guys get better and the manager can put them in advantageous situations, the cumulative effect is what turns teams seasons.
I got dumped on yesterday writing about the Sox and their young pitching. Chaim’s way of having his coaches working with pitchers is totally different than what Sox fans are used to. They got improvement from multiple young pitchers last year. Maybe not eye-popping, but it was a major reason they surprised compared to the 2021 projections. And it’s why he knew he could let Eduardo Rodriguez go rather than pay the salary he could command elsewhere.
I’m addition to everyone else’s comments, the Jays had to play “home” games in 3 different parks last year with 2 of them not being close to MLB caliber. A full season in Toronto will be huge for them this year.
Trmp: really shallow take.
Kiss of,death getting that projection but the Jays get full years out of Berrios and Manoah. Bullpen not the tire fire it was last year. Its going to be a tough division and both NY & Boston have improved. Dont sleep on Seattle for a division run.
Someone who does not follow the Jays and only go by articles likely do not have the knowledge to know the impact of the following.
1- Full season at home- Go look at their “home ” record in Dunedin and Buffalo last year vs Toronto.
2- Full seasons of Berrios/Manoah/Cimber/Richards/Merryweather/Saucedo
3- The additions of Gausman/Chapman/Kikuchi/Garcia
4- Healthy seasons from Springer/Biggio/Kirk
This team is better then the start of the season last year and they have another impact bat that should make his debut this year ( Moreno) , ,something they did not have last year. ( A top hitting prospect debut )
In addition their run differential suggested a much better record then 91-71 .
The games have to be played but this Jays team has much less variance risk then any of the other ALE teams . Low end they are a 90 win team- high end 98-99 .
So, are they trading gurriel, tapia or teoscar now? Unless he’s going to AAA, I see no space for him on the roster
I guess they didn’t check their roster before making a trade, happens all the time
Hahah ok we got Tapia & Zimmer, let’s trade Teoscar. Sure
He’s a bench piece. If he has options than him and Collins and will swap in and out
He doesn’t have options which is what’s confusing. I’m a Guardians fan so I wish Zimmer well and it’s clear he needed a change of scenery, but it doesn’t make sense to get him after they just got Tapia.
Shapiro and Atkins know him well but that’s the only part that makes sense.
The upside is Zimmer will probably stink it up in the first few months with a .158 BA, so he should pass through waivers no problem if they want to send him down. The guy just doesn’t hit, and everyone knows it. He’s actually the poor man’s Ryan Langerhans if you can imagine that.
I think Toronto’s front office has come to realize Tapia is not an adequate replacement in center field defensively for insurance against a springer injury. Springer may need some load management this year and if the jays are winning 8-2 in the seventh, I would expect to see a guy like Zimmer come into center to spell Springer.
The question then is, how did they not know that about Tapia?
You realize it’s not 25 man rosters right?
Anthony Castro is a weak spare part to give away for Zimmer. Very good depth pickup for the Jays.
At least CLE got something for him. I really expected them to DFA the guy after the miserable Spring he had.
To be fair, Zimmer is also a weak spare part. It’s fun to look at the significance of every trade (and I do it too), but in reality this is likely just trading garbage for garbage.
To be fair jimmertree called Ray a 4 starter, Matz a 78 starter and Semien a spare part. He should be ignored completely unless you’re making fun of his evaluations.
Can teams trade after opening day…asking for a friend
Maybe he makes the team instead of Collins. The only reason for the Jays to trade McGuire for Collins was that they didn’t wanna carry 3 catchers and Collins had an option. Jays announced Collins made the team tho? So I dunno
Nice pickup for the ‘dians
uvmfiji – “‘dians”. I see what you did there. Nice.
Does he have options left?
No
nope
Castro has an option. Zimmer is out of options.
Zimmer, Bobby Bradley, and Oscar Mercado are all out of options. 2022 is a make or break for all three, but Zimmer had such an incredibly bad Spring that the FO saw all they needed to see. The other two better come smokin’ out of the gates or they’ll be on the block by June.
Late inning defensive replacement/pinch runner— nothing more. Know nothing about Castro.
What the heck do the Blue Jays want with Zimmer? Another outfielder
Zimmer is a depth bench piece, Springer won’t play more than 120 in the field even healthy. The two lefties will spell him when he is a DH. Now they also have two quality pinch runners on the bench.
I guess all glove, no stick still has value in the majors. It’s like Zimmer is getting to the point Billy Hamilton did a couple years ago – I can’t hit, and that’s not gonna change. I’ll just have to market my other skills and get as much mileage I can out of them.
Cleveland has no business running Rosario out in the grass, said it before and after today….. not his fault he’s not an outfielder he’s a shortstop
It kinda reminds me of when they tried to transition Kipnis to the OF. It just didn’t work, and at some point you know they’ll have to give it up with Rosario. He is out of his element out there, and everyone knows it.
Zimmer has ability to play 3 OF positions and has speed to run bases. Toronto must get him on base, via pinch runner. Thought he could help defensively in SF or Colorado expansive OF, only on defense. He occasionally runs into a pitch but is generally lousy at bat.
Cleveland is better off without him. Addition by subtraction.
Castro is another arm for Cleveland. he doesn’t need to be good. Just cheap. Cleveland loves cheap, and loves options.
From Cleveland’s perspective, the deal was all about roster construction. Mercado and Zimmer are both out of options. Kwan seems to be a guy they like and Naylor appears to be recovering from his leg injury.
Once the roster contracts to 26 and/or Naylor is healthy enough to rejoin the team, it would seem they’d need to move either Mercado and/or Zimmer.
They also have no minor league depth pitchers. Before this move, Tobias Myers was the only pitcher on the 40 man and not on the active roster.
I’m not saying it was a good move.. but moving a guy for a depth arm sure beats designating him for assignment.
Zimmer is kinda poor mans Kevin Pillar
A toothless starving homeless man’s Kevin Pillar.
God that starting outfield mix is brutal to look at.
Zimmer’s tools & the once in a while shockingly prodigious home run have long fooled people into thinking “if he could just figure it out,” but he is what he is. The only ones not fooled were the Yankee scouts when they insisted on Frazier over Zimmer in the Miller deal.
Surprised this inconsequential roster move garners over 100 comments. They are only clearing space for naylor.
I don’t think Zimmer will ever hit enough to be a regular but he can be a really valuable bench piece.
He can cover a lot of ground in the OF, his arm is pretty solid and has great speed on the basepaths. The best use of his talents is getting him out there routinely as a pinch runner and/or defensive replacement.
I don’t hate the value, but I question the fit. Isn’t Tapia now fairly redundant?