The Guardians have made four free agent acquisitions this offseason. They retained Austin Hedges as their backup catcher. Shane Bieber re-signed to finish his Tommy John rehab and return to the rotation midseason. Cleveland brought back Carlos Santana to play first base -- a move made in tandem with the trade sending Josh Naylor to Arizona. Last week, they added Paul Sewald to an already excellent bullpen. Cleveland also brought in Luis Ortiz and Slade Cecconi via trade to deepen the rotation.
They've yet to address the outfield. Steven Kwan is one of the game's top left fielders. The other two positions are far less settled. Cleveland tendered Lane Thomas a contract for his final year of arbitration. Barring a late trade, he'll be back to play regularly somewhere. For now, that looks like center field by default.
The Guardians started nine different players in center field last year. Three of them -- Ramón Laureano, Myles Straw and Estevan Florial -- are no longer in the organization. Six others, including Thomas, remain on the 40-man roster. Yet none of them should be playing center field regularly for a team trying to defend its AL Central title. Top prospect Chase DeLauter is the hopeful long-term answer, but he has only played 42 games above High-A. It's tough to bank on him breaking camp.
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Fans will fantasize of a Roberts trade and rebound.
MAT realistic option.
Didn’t you hear? Jackson Merril is being shopped too.
Padres trying to emulate the Marlins and trade everyone.
Let’s see the Marlins shipped out Stanton, Christian Yellich(MVP), Ozuna and Realmuto and proceeded to finish near the bottom of their division for almost a decade. One exception being 2020.
Don’t copy the Marlins.
I have no idea who they got for any of them either. Sixto Sanchez, who broke, and a bunch of never was prospects.
Some kid named Alcantara or something. Was underrated. Other than that they didn’t work out too well I don’t think. Goal was to get out of Stanton contract. Yelich they got a high rated outfield prospect that was really overrated. Sixto was highly rated and overrated as well.
For some reason, I thought about Alcantara but wasn’t sure if he came from that deal or not. Rare win for them.
Did well at trade deadline so hopefully brighter future.
The Marlins also got Zac Gallen who they later flipped for Jazz Chisholm. Everybody gets something when they trade with Mo.
Merril haven’t heard. Doesn’t make sense to trade him. Would be incredibly expensive. Possible if AJ would rather have starting pitcher and prospects. Trade Cease and King to dump salary then trade Merril for a pre arbitration minimum wage pitcher. A few teams were previously willing to trade these pitchers and need outfielders. Will wait for the mlbtr article on it though because I haven’t heard anything about it.
towinagain never has any idea what he/she is talking about. Perpetually hyperbolic liar.
Who have the Padres traded?
They can have Masataka Yoshida. Move him over to center. I’ll personally drive him from Boston to Cleveland.
Fat chance, FatChance!
Why? Yoshida is fine.
truth – Some people have no patience for players who have had injuries and are trying to adjust to a new country and league.
Yoshida had a better rookie season than Seiya. But while Cubs fans understood Seiya would need some time to improve, some Sox fans wanted Yoshida gone.
And Yoshida is making only $1M more annually than Seiya.
Yoshida is a platoon hitter, that played bad defense, then had surgery that will further degrade his defense, and makes $18 million AAV for 3 more years.
The Red Sox have young OF in abundance. Duran, Abreu, and Rafaela have outproduced Yoshida in last 2 years. Plus we have the best OF prospect in MLB ready Anthony waiting for his shot with nothing to prove in the minors. Last but not least, we need to find a way to move Devers to DH. He hurts the team each and every time he sits up and plays 3B.
Yoshida is the odd man out.
Abreu could be a fit for the Guardians.
Yoshida in CF would be entertaining for everyone but the Guardians and Guardians fans.
JBJ ain’t doing anything
I guess no one wants Bader
They have a Bader in Straw.
They traded Straw to Toronto.
Oh dang. Good looks. I missed that. Past tense then.
Bader isn’t a good hitter but he’s way better than Straw at this point.
I would like to see The Cardinals bring Bader back. He fits our need for a RH hitting, CF capable outfielder perfectly.
The master Bader!
They will find one in their farm system, duh
I think Mickey Moniak could be decent. Jo Adell was poor RF and GG finalist in 2024. He brings power and amazing athleticism. Hes on the up. I think either of those are decent CF options if options are limited
How long have you been an Angels fan?
Searching for a centerfielder… did you look out towards the middle of the outfield?!?
“Searching for a centerfielder”…He’s gotta be somewhere..Who was he with when last seen?
If we cannot locate this guy soon, we may have to bring in the police.
“Mom, this guy on the milk carton looks just like Myles Straw…”
Please take springer! Lol cleveland owes the jays
Take Straw back! Please
How about a Big trade with the Mets ? Jose Ramirez for Jett (CF), Mauricio (3b), Clifford, Tidwell and McNeil.
Than the Mets don’t need to resign Alonso.
lol
Even WFAN would hang up on that call.
The Mets already don’t need to re-sign Alonso, it’s why they haven’t already
@jvent It’s an interesting thought. (The Mets don’t need to re-sign Alonso and won’t be, fwiw.) That’s primarily Jett and Clifford for Ramirez, while Mauricio and Tidwell are secondaries in this deal. As for McNeil, he’s fairly neutral at that salary (which also means the Guardians are only picking up about 7m per for 2025-2026), and the Mets have a lot more use for him until one of their prospects break out at 2B than Cleveland does.
Given the 2/$31.5m Squirrel has remaining, the Guardians would either tell the Mets to keep him or they’d have a plan in place to flip him for some team’s #14 prospect given his last 172 PA in 2024 and .899 OPS over that stretch.
Pretty easy deal for a big money team like the Mets to say yes to, though I have no idea why CLE would send packing their franchise cornerstone on a cheap contract even for them, a beloved and genuine star and future HOFer still putting up peak seasons.
Pretty certain JRam has a full NTC and no desire to waive it. They’ll retire his number one day.
He even took what was widely understood to be a very below market deal to stay there.
He was two full years away from free agency. He got tons of present-day dollars GUARANTEED, and avoided the worst free agent winter in a decade (ask Scott Boras) after having a major thumb injury and suffering accelerations in his chase rate and declines in his walk rate over the ensuing two years. Any “very below market deal” is a fantasy Cleveland fans enjoy indulging in when the deal was an equal risk on each party in the deal. Ramirez got guaranteed generational wealth…so what guarantees did the Cleveland baseball club get?
No trade clause in Jose contract. He will retire from the guardians pedro.
James Outman and/or Andy Pages are probably available.
I doubt Pages will be traded.
So do I but make the right offer and he could be. Dodgers have a 40 man roster crunch and Andy has no plath to playing time any time soon.
Pages will get plenty of playing time this season. The Dodgers only have 15 position players on the 40-man.
came to say the same thing @Dodger. More Outman than Pages. Outman for a couple minor leaguers with control. Frees up at 40 spot.
Jake McCarthy or Alek Thomas from the D’Backs?
The Cardinals will most likely have one to trade in either Siani or Scott by midseason.
I was thinking just this. Trading one for a controllable BP arm would make some sense, especially if Arenado is still on the roster, creating domino-effect logjam in the OF.
Should try to get Frelick or Perkins from Milwaukee
Frelick would cost them far more than Perkins. Do they have anything MIL wants?
They have something for Perkins for sure. Milwaukee has no need for him with Garrett Mitchell back.
yeh, Mitchell works too like Jbigz said, they have a glut of CF options so just seemed a natural trading partner
Giants have Grant McCray and he’s blocked for the moment. Also Yaz but he’s probably only a strong side platoon now and will need rest.
There’s probably a fit there for both sides.
Billy Hamilton!!! He is fleet of foot.
You must have stolen that from the back of Billy’s baseball card.
The rangers will give u leody taveras. No return, just take him
@butch the Rangers would even through in Victory+ if the Indians would take Leody.
They seem to have been trying to figure that out since Grady Sizemore…
This is true, it has all been stop gaps or prospects that never delivered since Sizemore
We’ll trade you Jake Meyers in Houston!
Byron Buxton !!
They can have Straw …and we will pay them IFA money.
Both the Cleveland team in the MLB and NBA are very curious; they lack superstar power and an oversized payroll, but somehow play better than most teams in the league.
Jose Ramirez is absolutely a superstar.
Here sure is. Seven Top 10 MVP finishes in the last eight years, including five times in the Top 5. The latter ties him with Mike Schmidt and Brooks Robinson for most TOP 5 finishes by a third baseman. Schmidt has 9 TOP 10 finishes, followed by Robinson and Ramirez with seven apiece.
More fans need to understand that Ramirez is a future Hall of Famer. I love watching him play.
The video of that plane/helicopter collision near Reagan Airport is brutal.
The INDIANS, you mean! Kenny Lofton is available!
Huh?
I understand why this article was written, but it could be written about the vast majority of teams in the major leagues. It has gotten to the point where a competent all-around centerfielder is an endangered species. Look around and count the number of teams possessing a CF who is above league average with BOTH the stick AND glove. Heck, it’s even difficult to achieve that on a platoon basis. That Cleveland is actually willing to allow a lousy defender like Lane Thomas (who also can’t hit RHP worth a lick) to play every day out there is testimony to the difficulty of finding a guy worthy of patrolling centerfield in the major leagues anymore. Where have you gone Willie Mays? Ken Griffey Jr? Andruw Jones? Heck, Devon White!
It’s amazing, the fringe CFers who can hang on at 30, 31 when they’re putting up a 50 OPS+ with declining defense—but still get the call for a few PA here and there.
Juan Lagares was Trout’s caddy for half the 2021 season despite being sub-replacement level, and even got a few PA at age 33, giving the Angels a negative 0.9 bWAR in 62 PA. It would make more sense to play your DH in CF.
The Guardians biggest organizational hole is centerfield. IMO they don’t have a true CF prospect above rookie ball.
You would think that out of the glut of young shortstops they have purposely acquired over the past 6/7 years, the org would have converted several to CF full time. They have looked at a few as super util types, but not dedicated any of them to learning the nuances of center.
A couple upper level youngsters were given a look out there, but learning a new position at the MLB level is not a great way to go. On the job training while trying to contend seldom works.
Cleveland moved on from Straw, but the value in CF actually dropped…which should illustrate how bad the situation is.
Tyler Freeman started about half the games in CF in 2024, and looked okay, but didn’t hit much. He’s probably the best defensive option, but since he and Thomas are both RH, Freeman won’t be a platoon option.
Freeman puts up a .630 OPS both ways and might well give you 2.0 WAR in a full season, just pro rating his 2024 numbers and giving him a modest bump for reaching the prime age of 26.
It’s highly unlikely Freeman can approach the level of mediocrity which league average defense and league average offense will confer. Although, as I’ve discussed, in today’s CF environment, that might make Tyler a star.
I think it’s more likely Freeman snags the opening day job at 2B as we wait to see if Juan Brito can play the position defensively.
Tyler likely won’t stick anywhere if he can’t stop hitting hard one-hop groundballs to third, which so often turn into easy rally-killing doubleplays.
A lot of their middle infield prospects have been tried in CF (like Freeman as you mentioned), but it’s hard to see any of them become everyday players unless they also learn to hit
Isn’t Chourio a centerfielder?
They can have Robert’s but never happen
Harrison Bader
Angel Martinez, like Freeman, can play center. Like Freeman, this is the year his hitting takes a step up or he will no longer be a viable option. At AAA they’ve got Petey Halpin, who is on the 40 because he’s got some defensive chops, but has yet to look like a major league hitter.
At AA the Guards have fast-rising teenager Jaison Chourio, as well as Jake Fox.
To me it looks like they stumble along with Thomas & the switch hitting Martinez until July, & then re-assess the situation.
In today’s game, given that teams don’t want players putting full effort on defense (Acuña Jr for example), it doesn’t matter who they put in CF. Just double down on guys throwing extra hard and burn through the arms. If a few balls fall for hits in CF, who cares…