Guardians Could Look To Add Another Starter

The Guardians traded their most established healthy starter to the Rays yesterday, sending righty Aaron Civale to Tampa Bay in exchange for top first base prospect Kyle Manzardo. However, while many imagined that to be something of a white flag on their 2023 season, the team views things differently. President of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said following the trade last night that the Guardians could now replace Civale’s innings with an acquisition from outside the organization (link via Mandy Bell of MLB.com).

“We do believe we will be able to address that void both through our internal options and potentially maybe even with some external acquisitions … [that] might transpire between now and the end of the day tomorrow,” said Antonetti.

That may sound perplexing to some onlookers, but it’s a sensible enough approach to take. The Guardians have long been in the market for controllable offensive talent, and Manzardo is among the best pure hitting prospects in the game. He’s currently mending from a shoulder injury, but his plate discipline, at least average power and excellent bat-to-ball skills fit the Guardians’ mold. The Civale trade largely amounted to capitalizing on a thin market for controllable pitching, adding six-plus years of a young hitter who’ll help in the long run at the expense of some already shaky 2023 playoff hopes and two additional years of control over Civale.

Adding a lower-cost starter, perhaps a rental arm, to backfill the rotation could offset some of the present-day value lost by trading Civale. The Guardians are hopeful of getting Cal Quantrill back before too long and could have Shane Bieber return at some point in the season’s final month. They’ve already added one veteran, Noah Syndergaard, to help take some of the pressure off young arms like Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams and Logan Allen. A similar acquisition could replace some of Civale’s innings — and that might be all the Guardians need to stay afloat in an awful AL Central division. Neither Minnesota nor Cleveland has stepped up and run away with the division, despite the fact that three of baseball’s six worst records are floundering below them in the standings.

While a good bit of the starting pitching expected to change hands this summer has already done so, there are still some veteran options available. Pirates lefty Rich Hill is playing on an affordable one-year deal. Cardinals righty Jack Flaherty and Tigers righty Michael Lorenzen are perhaps the two highest-profile pure rentals left on the market. The Mets would surely move old friend Carlos Carrasco as well, though he’s struggling quite a bit in 2023. Teammate Jose Quintana, signed through 2024 at $13MM per year, has also been mentioned as a possible trade candidate. The Giants have reportedly garnered interest in their pitching depth, and someone like Alex Wood could make sense to help fill out Cleveland’s rotation.