The Guardians kept their longtime ace but traded their everyday first baseman ahead of his final season of club control. Their offseason featured a blend of creative trades to trim payroll and acquire controllable talent, plus some short-term spending on veterans to replace some of the big leaguers they traded away. It was a vintage Cleveland offseason that should keep them in the mix in what'll be a tightly contested AL Central.
Major League Signings
- Shane Bieber, RHP: Two years, $26MM (opt-out after 2025 season)
- Carlos Santana, 1B: One year, $12MM
- Paul Sewald, RHP: One year, $7MM (includes buyout on 2026 mutual option)
- Jakob Junis, RHP: One year, $4.5MM
- Austin Hedges, C: One year, $4MM
- John Means, LHP: One year, $1MM (club has $6MM option for 2026, no buyout)
2025 spending: $37.5MM
Total spending: $54.5MM
Option Decisions
- None
Trades and Waiver Claims
- Acquired RHP Slade Cecconi and Competitive Balance Draft Pick (Round B) from D-backs in exchange for 1B Josh Naylor
- Acquired 1B Spencer Horwitz and OF Nick Mitchell from Blue Jays in exchange for 2B Andres Gimenez and RHP Nick Sandlin
- Acquired RHP Luis Ortiz, LHP Josh Hartle and LHP Michael Kennedy from Pirates in exchange for 1B Spencer Horwitz
- Traded RHP Eli Morgan to Cubs in exchange for OF Alfonsin Rosario
- Traded RHP Peter Strzelecki to Pirates in exchange for cash
- Traded OF Myles Straw to Blue Jays in exchange for PTBNL
Notable Minor League Signings
- Vince Velasquez, Kolby Allard, Parker Mushinski, George Valera (re-signed), Luis Frias, Riley Pint, Dom Nunez
Extensions
- None
Notable Losses
- Josh Naylor, Andres Gimenez, Matthew Boyd, Alex Cobb, Nick Sandlin, Eli Morgan, Myles Straw, Peter Strzelecki, James Karinchak (non-tendered), Pedro Avila (outrighted, elected free agency)
The Guardians entered the 2024-25 offseason looking to bolster a roster that made an unexpected run to the American League Championship Series. Cleveland faced decisions on some players with dwindling club control and, as is always the case, some notable payroll limitations. In a departure from most offseasons, however, the Guards found themselves in an unfamiliar position: needing to acquire starting pitching.
Cleveland has emerged as one of the industry leaders in maximizing its rotation output. At times, it feels as though they have an almost magical ability to produce quality starting pitchers out of thin air. In fact, when the Guardians signed righty Ben Lively to a one-year, $800K deal in the 2023-24 offseason, it was the first time they'd signed any free agent starter to a major league contract since inking Gavin Floyd back in 2014. Midway through the 2024 season, they did so again, signing Matthew Boyd to a major league contract.
Both moves worked out splendidly. Boyd started eight games down the stretch and produced a sub-3.00 ERA. Lively finished second on the club with 151 innings and notched a 3.81 ERA and stuck with the club as an arbitration-eligible player. He'll be back in the 2025 rotation. Boyd, however, hit free agency and did so alongside former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber and trade deadline acquisition Alex Cobb.
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Getting out of the Gimenez and Straw contracts and netting Ortiz from it was genius. If only they reinvested more of that $ into players.
It certainly wasn’t because of $. A lot of good 5 million and under players this year. Must feel they are set with what they had.
Yup, good general management, great player development, and weak ownership support… vintage Cleaveland.
Except, oddly enough, all these excellent organizational soldiers, evidently chained to their desks by mean, unsupportive owners, remain loyal and work like the devil to shrewdly churn out one winning baseball team after another.
When will the sports world in general, and ignorant CLE fans in specifically, come to terms with the fact that when an organization succeeds like this one does, it’s due to the culture established by ownership, and that CLE wins, not in spite of ownership, but because of it. It’s Business Administration 101.
“organizational soldiers” keep doing their jobs because that’s what everyone does that likes pulling down a paycheck.
“when an organization succeeds like this one does”
What success? Their only accomplishment is sometimes stumbling their way out of the weakest division in sports to make the playoffs and get eviscerated by the better funded playoff-worthy teams they’re forced to face in the postseason.
Just one more ignorant fan who clearly missed that three teams in the division made the playoffs last year, one of whom knocked off the Astros, and the other two went toe to toe with a team with three time the revenue and payroll.
You can dismiss sustained success in baseball as meaningless, but it only demonstrates how clueless you are.
Stinky water Drew Carey and Mimi too. ALCS (at least)
Offensive Production:
The trade of Josh Naylor, and the addition of Carlos Santana creates a question mark. Santana is a veteran, and his production is projected to decline. This area would likely receive a C to C- grade.
Middle Infield Stability:
The Guardians are relying on internal options, and young players to fill the void left by Giménez. This creates a large amount of uncertainty. Therefore, this area would likely receive a C- to D+ grade.
Starting Pitching Depth:
The Guardians have added pitching depth, but the overall quality of the rotation remains to be seen. The health of Shane Bieber coming off of injury is a large question mark. This area would likely receive a C+ to B- grade.
Bullpen Maintenance:
The Guardians have reinforced their bullpen, which is a strength. This area would likely receive a B+ to A- grade.
Overall Evaluation:
Based on these assessments, the Guardians’ offseason would likely receive a grade in the C range. This indicates that while they addressed some areas, significant questions remain about their offense and middle infield.
I predict a 75-80 win season.
All these evaluations miss the fact that Cleveland has an extraordinary amount of young talent with either a fair amount of MLB experience or on the cusp of MLB. Most of them have a strong prospect pedigree.
Gavin Williams, Logan Allen, and Luis Ortiz were all top 100s, and have some experience.
Among position players, Brayan Rocchio, Bo Naylor, Kyle Manzardo, Gabriel Arias, and Tyler Freeman were all top 100s, all now with some experience under their belts. An org should expect a natural improvement from its highly thought of kids as they gain experience.
Then, Juan Brito, Travis Bazzana, and the since injured again Chase Delauter are all top 100s on the verge of making their debuts.
While an org can’t count on any one of the kids to improve, it can make plans based upon several of them doing so. But if you dont play them, it can’t happen.
The loss of Josh Naylors offense probably won’t be offset by Santana, but improved production from Manzardo would fill the gap. The other kids may not break out, but a slight bit of improvement across the board would give the Guardians an improved overall offense…and that kind of minimal improvement should be expected.
High off season grades are passed out for major, or multiple, free agent signings. But Cleveland, even if they did have a bigger budget, probably didn’t need to make outside player position additions, because the improvement is already in house.
On the pitching side, everybody knows by now that young, cost controlled starting pitching is the hardest thing to acquire. Cleveland managed to acquire four of them, two with MLB experience.
That, all by itself, gets a very high grade.
WhoAzcue says CATS with the win…yet again.
C
Did what was needed. Enough to contend for division. Smart to get out of those contracts. Had to trade Naylor. Instantly replaced Santana. Moves look brilliant only because there’s so many awful ran teams. It’s sports management 101.
Bieber got an incredibly player friendly contract. Risky for team. See how it works out. He could be good but will he play enough to justify contract. Their drs know better than anyone.
I never question Cleveland, but I didn’t understand the Bieber contract. He’s guaranteed $14M for this season in what might be a half season of pitching, plus what amounts to a $12M player option in 2026 if things go wrong.
As a RS fan, I’d have been glad to sign him to a 4-year contract at decent money, but the CL contract doesn’t look like it has enough upside.
? Any and every team. They all make mistakes.
Josh Bell signing? Straw extension? Paredes trade? Lane Thomas wasn’t too good for them.
I think they think Bieber will be really really good and this is what it took. Some other team was willing to do this so they did as well. It’s not awful. Just ok. You get at least 1 and are rooting for 1 highly motivated year. He will opt out and you get a draft pick. That’s actually awesome. But if he is bad you are stuck with him another year but another motivated and again could get draft pick. Risk is he is toast and you just wasted $. They seen the medicals and know the player so he should work out just fine. But a awesome contract for the player.
F.
A slam dunk Hall-of-Famer about to enter his prime was freely available to all 30 teams, and they didn’t sign him. “We don’t want to spend” is not a valid excuse here. “We don’t have $800 million” if anything would be a worse excuse.
Drop the F to like 20% from 50% for trading Naylor for a 6th Starter and replacing him with Carlos Santana, a noticeably worse player, and paying him the same amount. Unless Cecconi makes the All-Star team, this trade made the team worse. No amount of “depth” or “future potential from the Comp Pick” doesn’t excuse trading the one (1) bat that put any semblance of worry in the opposing pitching staff’s mind unless Slade Cecconi takes three steps forward.
There’s a chance Cecconi does all that since Cleveland knows how to maximize pitching, but that happening only gets their off-season to a 40/100. A better outcome would have been had by paying Naylor (possibly less in Arbitration, if they’re going to be cheap) and giving him the Qualifying offer next off-season and getting a draft pick anyway.
What slam dunk HOFer just entering his prime was ignored by every team?
Don’t say a certain 34 yr old pitcher whose career stats aren’t anywhere close to HOF level….and weren’t at the time he was no longer in MLB.
One season with a fWAR over 3.5, and another that would have been if it wasn’t for Covid. A career ERA of 3.79. Those don’t hack it.
As for Naylor, let’s see if Arizona makes a qualifying offer that will be north of $21 mil for a 2.5 fWAR player with little defensive value.
I imagine the this dodo thinks Cleveland should have signed Juan Soto away from Stevie Cohen…how clueless can you get?
Okay, Avory, I’ll bite.
What part of not signing Juan Soto makes the Guardians a better team, or at least better off enough that not being a better team is excusable?
No small market team has ever spent more than 130m. Can’t or won’t doesn’t matter. They simply don’t. Soto would put them over that. And if they upped it to 140 to have him it doesn’t allow $ to spend elsewhere if need be. And 800m isn’t enough he would still pick NY. More playoffs more possible championships better endorsements. Would take a billion to bribe him to go to somewhere he doesn’t want to go. And if he was worth his contract he would be a Dodger.
It was quite obvious that no small or mid market team was going to land Soto, or even be a serious consideration.
OK. My turn to bite…
If Cleveland would have signed Soto for over $50 mil a season for the next 15 years, they would be forced to sell off most of their better players for the next 15 years.
That would be about twice as much as Detroit paid Miguel Cabrera, which killed that franchise for almost decade.
Cleveland would be the cutrent White Sox plus Soto until 2039, when the Guards could finally begin its rebuild.
Soto is getting paid MORE than Cleveland will get in TV revenue this year.
Signing Soto would have been a disaster for any organization outside of NewYork and LA. Putting that much money into one player would destroy any franchise let alone a fiscally prudent team. As mentioned they’d have to cut the entire team and have Soto play all 9 positions including pitcher. A ridiculous idea
You mean Soto can’t play every position at one time? Even then they’d come up short
@Troy Soto was not available to all 30 teams. It was his choice where he went and a handful of competitive big market teams were willing to spend. All the mid and small market teams had no realistic shot of signing him.