Cleveland Sports Forum

Terry Francona trying to keep trade deadline frustration from bleeding onto the field: Guardians takeaways
Updated: Aug. 01, 2023, 9:27 p.m.|Published: Aug. 01, 2023, 9:12 p.m.
Guardians vs. Astros





By Joe Noga, cleveland.com

HOUSTON — Guardians manager Terry Francona said addressing his players after the team traded Josh Bell was one of the hardest meetings for which he has had to prepare. But in typical Tito fashion, the skipper was straight with the team and told them like it is.

“I just told ‘em that, hey man, if you are frustrated, if you’re angry, OK,” Francona said. “But if that trickles into our play on the field, that doesn’t help anybody.”



The Guardians dealt starting shortstop Amed Rosario to the Dodgers on Wednesday and sent veteran pitcher Aaron Civale to Tampa Bay on Monday. As time was winding down on the Major League Baseball trade deadline they traded Bell to Miami in a deal that netted a former Marlins top draft pick.



Francona said what’s important is that group in Cleveland’s clubhouse continues to give the team a chance to win against some opponents that may have more resources.

“We’re trying to stay competitive because of (the players in the clubhouse), that’s why,” Francona said.

Francona used the term “unsettling” on Monday after telling Civale he was heading to Tampa. Tuesday’s conversation with Bell was equally jarring.


“You show up for a game and all of a sudden you’re saying goodbye to people that you care about,” Francona said. “I tought Josh Bell was unbelievably professional, which is not a shock, because that’s how he is.”

After a tremendously slow start, Bell had shown signs over his last 30 games of breaking out with four home runs and 16 RBI. But Francona said for whatever reason, he was not able to sustain productivity.

“It looked like he was going to get going and he’d have moments, but it just wasn’t maybe as much as we had hoped. That said, he didn’t shortchange anybody on effort or being a teammate though, I guarantee you that.”


Thunderstruck: Francona said starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard looks like he is going to be OK after taking a hard ground ball off his right leg in Monday’s series opener against the Astros.

Syndergaard left the game in the sixth inning after he was struck by Jeremy Pena’s grounder.

“He’s sore,” Francona said. “If we have to make some alterations during the week, we might do that anyway. With the day off and with us having some unknowns moving forward, we probably need to work through things. Things are happening too fast now, so we will get to it, but he’s going to be okay.”

Right away: Josh Naylor was a late scratch for the Guardians on Tuesday after reporting soreness in his right side when he arrived at the ballpark. Francona said Naylor felt the issue before Monday’s game, and when he went to the batting cage to hit Tuesday it flared up again.


“When he went into the cage to try to hit, he was just favoring it,” Francona said. “Seeing some of his swings, the last thing we want him to do is take one of those swings and get set back. So their doctor will come over here in a little bit and check him out and we’ll go from there.”

How would you expect to the players to feel about management support when
1. Not just are several of their good friends shipped away
2. But no upgrades are provided unless a pitcher with an ERA of over 7 is an upgrade.

“It's frustrating, for sure,” Guardians catcher Cam Gallagher said. “We're going to come back tomorrow and try to fight back and try to salvage another series."

The Guardians needed to clear some space on their active roster to make room for younger players to get more opportunities. They did that by moving Amed Rosario and Bell. But if the club wanted to try to reclaim the AL Central title, considering it's just two games back of the first-place Twins, it needed to get some offensive help.

Instead, the Guardians picked up starter Noah Syndergaard and two prospects who will not see the Majors in 2023, and it was clear the morale wasn’t as high as it had been over the last few weeks in the clubhouse, as players tried to cope with losing some of their closest friends to trades.

“It’s tough,” Gallagher said. "We love everybody in here, we got a really good relationship, really good core of guys and it’s tough losing friends, teammates an

needed to clear some space on their active roster to make room for younger players to get more opportunities.

That excuse again. Need to clear space in the pitching staff for Hunter Gaddis?
Need to clear space at 1b/DH for the kid we got for Civale who's hardly excelled in AAA and is hurt now?
Need to clear space for Oscar Gonzalez and Bryan Rocchio: true

some selections from MLB.com story quoting the Boss

The Guardians will now add another middle infielder into their Minor League system. Watson ranked 11th in Miami’s Top 30 prospects list, according to MLB Pipeline and was a first-round pick in the 2021 Draft. He hasn’t quite hit his stride in professional baseball just yet, hitting .234 with a .743 OPS in his two-year career, but Cleveland is optimistic that his quickness and athleticism will be solid additions to its system. In the coming days, he’ll be joining High-A Lake County’s roster.

“He’s a really athletic, dynamic player that’s got a great set of skills,” Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said. “He can really impact the ball, he can run, as I said, he’s very athletic and we’re excited to add him to our system.”

It’s clear the Guardians think it’ll be challenging to win in 2023, which is why they’ve started building more for the future. And if the young players get hot down the stretch, then they can have some fun in 2023. But the big offseason signings in Bell and Zunino certainly weren’t the answers the club thought they could be.

“I think in trading Josh,” Antonetti said, “clears an avenue for some young players to step up and contribute and hopefully, [they will] help us win games as they’re developing.”

[and saves them next year's salary commitment by the way]

Injuries & Moves: Freeman leaves game with shoulder soreness
Freeman felt soreness in his left shoulder as he grounded out in the fourth inning against the Astros. Although he remained in the field for the bottom half of the frame, he was replaced by Andrés Giménez in the fifth. Guardians manager Terry Francona said Freeman's examination was encouraging, but he still felt pain. The Guardians will have to monitor the situation over the next few days.

So that's why Rocchio is coming up. Plus they need to find someone for the final roster spot and there's no one else at AAA who's ready to help out particularly to fill Bell's role as a man without a position who can at least try to hit homeruns.

J. Noel has been hitting well of late, but still awfully raw talent.
Valera has briefly not been injured and is flirting with 200
Manzardo is on the IL and hasn't done very well in AAA either

Bleacher Report grades all the trades

Marlins and Guardians Swap Jean Segura [and Kahlil Watson] and Josh Bell
The Trade: Miami Marlins get 1B Josh Bell; Cleveland Guardians get 3B Jean Segura and INF Kahlil Watson

For the Marlins: D

Segura was nothing short of disastrous for the Marlins in the first year of a two-year, $17 million deal, hitting just .219 with three home runs and lousy defense at the hot corner. Simply getting rid of him is addition by subtraction.
Of course, Bell is hitting only .233 and he's all but certain to exercise his $16.5 player option for 2024. The Marlins would thus end up taking on money in this deal, which would be puzzling enough even if they hadn't also sent a former top-100 prospect to Cleveland. The gamble, it seems, is on Bell reverting to his former All-Star and Silver Slugger-winning self.

For the Guardians: B

This trade looks like the Guardians waving the white flag even though they're not totally out of the AL playoff picture, but it nonetheless signals that they're realistic about their actual chances of playing in October.

The Guardians have already released Segura, so the future of this deal is all in Watson's hands. Much will depend on the 20-year-old improving his poor hit tool, but if he does, he stands to become a solid regular with speed and good defense to offer.

The Trade: Tampa Bay Rays get RHP Aaron Civale; Cleveland Guardians get 1B Kyle Manzardo

For the Rays: A

The Rays gave up a prospect ranked at No. 37 by MLB.com and at No. 49 by B/R's Joel Reuter to make this deal, but it's no great loss. Manzardo is a first baseman all the way, a position the Rays will have covered by Yandy Díaz through at least 2025.

In exchange, the Rays are getting a starter who featured in our list of the market's hidden gems. Civale isn't overpowering, but he has very good command and has been hot with a 2.24 ERA since June 2. He's precisely what the Rays' injury-ravaged rotation needed, and it's a nice bonus that he's also controlled through 2025.

For the Guardians: B

We thought about giving the Guardians an A but stopped short for two reasons: They didn't necessarily fleece the Rays in this deal, and Manzardo has been out of action since July 6 with a shoulder injury.

All the same, this is a trade of an excess arm for a badly needed bat, albeit one that might not be ready to help until 2024. Manzardo showed a plus hit tool in batting .327 in the minors last year. He's now Cleveland's second-best offensive prospect after powerful outfielder George Valera.

Bleacher Reports contradicts itself in this story, listing Cleveland among

all eight of these teams should have been able to do more with the chance to alter their trajectory for the rest of the season.

Of all the teams that blew it at the deadline, the Guardians take the WTF cake.

The initial trade of Amed Rosario for Noah Syndergaard was nothing short of baffling.

Yes, it opened up an everyday job for Gabriel Arias, and Rosario was almost certainly going to walk for nothing at the end of the season as a free agent. But trading him for a pitcher with a 7.16 ERA, a $13 million salary and who spent the past seven weeks on the IL makes no sense. (The Dodgers reportedly included some money in the deal, but unless they sent Cleveland the full amount still owed to Thor, I don't get it.)

Next, they sent Aaron Civale and his 2.34 ERA to the Rays in exchange for an injured prospect who wasn't even having a good season at the Triple-A level (Kyle Manzardo). Manzardo does immediately become one of Cleveland's highest-rated prospects, but why in the world is a team one game back for a division crown trading away its top performing pitcher—with two additional years of control—for a prospect?

The Guardians continued their inexplicable selling approach right before the deadline, shipping Josh Bell to Miami for Jean Segura (who was immediately waived, at a cost of roughly $13 million) and another injured prospect (Kahlil Watson). Yes, it saves them from paying Bell's $16.5 million player option for next season, but unless they got cash from Miami in the deal, they end up barely saving any money after factoring in buying out Segura.

Watson was a first-round pick in 2021 and does have legitimate long-term potential...

But, again, why is a team one game back for a playoff spot eating salary and trading for injured prospects?

Guardians get: INF Jean Segura, SS Khalil Watson

Marlins get: 1B Josh Bell
Josh Bell. (Joe Nicholson / USA TODAY)

The Marlins’ decision to move Cooper coincided with another trade, in which the Guardians made a clever move in sending Josh Bell to Miami for infielder Jean Segura and former first-round pick Khalil Watson, an intriguing shortstop talent with a low floor and high ceiling. The Marlins are seemingly so in need of offense they’re rolling the dice with Bell, who has a .701 OPS in 347 at-bats. It might constitute an upgrade. It might not.

Guardians: B+
Marlins: B-

Guardians’ trade of Josh Bell closes the book on a front office failure CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JULY 30: Josh Bell #55 of the Cleveland Guardians reacts after the fifth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on July 30, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)
By Zack Meisel
Aug 1, 2023

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HOUSTON — Mike Zunino lasted in Cleveland until June 16. Josh Bell made it another 46 days. Neither of the Guardians’ noteworthy free-agent additions will don a Cleveland uniform in August or September.

The Guardians severed ties with Zunino a couple of months into the regular season, and they traded Bell to the Marlins in the final moments before the trade deadline Tuesday. This has, uh, not been the most fruitful year for Cleveland’s front office.

“Didn’t work out,” team president Chris Antonetti said about the club’s two signings. “When you make those investments, you hope that they work out and have productive seasons. … That’s part of the risk when you venture into free agency.”

Bell was in the clubhouse playing cards with teammates ahead of a team meeting scheduled for five minutes after the 6 p.m. ET deadline. The Aaron Civale trade already created some unrest in the clubhouse on Monday. Manager Terry Francona described the group session Tuesday as “one of the hardest meetings to prepare for.”

“I don’t ever want to BS any player,” Francona said. “Can’t do that. I just told them that, ‘Hey, if you’re frustrated, if you’re angry, OK. But if that trickles into our play on the field, that doesn’t help anybody.’”

The Guardians acquired veteran infielder Jean Segura and infield prospect Kahlil Watson from Miami, but they plan to release Segura before he ever tours the home clubhouse at Progressive Field. They’ll be on the hook for the prorated amount of Segura’s 2023 salary ($6.5 million), plus his 2024 salary ($8.5 million) and the buyout on his 2025 salary ($2 million). In all, they’ll save about $9 million, provided Bell exercises his 2024 player option.

Cleveland’s most pressing need following their surprising surge to the ALDS last October was an increase in power. To address that, they turned to Bell, a former All-Star who earned a Silver Slugger Award last season and figured to benefit from the league’s new defensive shift restrictions.

The Guardians awarded him a $16.5 million salary for 2023, and they tacked on a player option worth another $16.5 million, an incentive they almost never offer free agents. Bell failed to find his footing, though, as he compiled a .233/.318/.383 slash line, with 11 home runs in 393 plate appearances. He and hitting coach Chris Valaika spoke regularly about his point of contact suffering during his cold spells. He was late on pitches, resulting in a lot of harmless ground balls. His advanced metrics paint somewhat of a more promising picture, but four months of evidence spoke loud enough, too.

Bell’s OPS, by year

2016: .775 in 45 games
2017: .800 in 159 games
2018: .768 in 148 games
2019: .936 in 143 games
2020: .669 in 57 games
2021: .823 in 144 games
2022: .784 in 156 games
2023: .701 in 97 games

As his struggles at the plate persisted into the summer months, it became more apparent he’d probably be stuck in Cleveland on a hefty salary in 2024. When the Guardians dealt Civale to the Rays for first base prospect Kyle Manzardo on Monday, it only increased their motivation to find a taker for Bell. Manzardo could factor into the first base plans as soon as next season, to pair with Josh Naylor, who has cemented himself as a middle-of-the-order hitter.

“I think (Bell) showed some signs of being a really good offensive player,” Antonetti said, “but he had a tough time maintaining that momentum for any long stretches. I still think there’s a good hitter in there.”

Watson, once widely considered a top 100 prospect, will report to High-A Lake County. He was Miami’s first-round pick in 2021, and MLB Pipeline ranked him the No. 25 prospect in baseball entering the 2022 season. His bat, though, hasn’t yet clicked. He owns a .728 OPS this season in A-ball. He has improved his walk and strikeout rates this season, though Antonetti acknowledged Watson has had some maturity issues.

“We’ve done the due diligence there. The best I can say is it’s a work in progress,” Antonetti said. “Kahlil joined professional baseball right out of high school and there maybe have been some bumps along the way in maturation and development, but we’re encouraged by some of the progress he’s made recently.”

The Guardians’ front office clearly has its sights set on 2024, and shipping Bell to Miami offers Francona more flexibility to grant regular playing time to the likes of David Fry, Tyler Freeman, Oscar Gonzalez and Gabriel Arias. They played with a 25-man roster on Tuesday; they’ll need to add another position player prior to Wednesday’s series finale against the Astros.

There’s also the AL Central-sized elephant in the room. The Twins stood pat at the deadline. If no one actually wants to win the division, can MLB just award a playoff berth to an extra wild-card team?

Playing in some semi-meaningful games down the stretch certainly can’t hurt, given the inexperience on the roster. The Guardians won’t know for another few weeks whether Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie can offer a late-season lift. In the meantime, they’ll carefully monitor the workloads for rookie starters Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen and Gavin Williams, and they’ll patch together the rest of the rotation with Noah Syndergaard and some combination of Xzavion Curry and a host of candidates at Triple-A Columbus.

This isn’t the position anyone in the clubhouse or front office anticipated the club being in as the calendar flipped to August. Zunino and Bell being banished before the trade deadline certainly wasn’t part of the script.

“We’re going to play with the guys that are in here, so there’s no excuses, there’s no looking for answers,” Guardians catcher Cam Gallagher said Tuesday after the club was no-hit by the Astros. “We have the answers right here in this clubhouse. This is what we’re going to have going forward. This is what we’ve got and this is what we get paid to do and we’re going to go out there and play and give it everything we got. So we’ll look past this one and look forward to tomorrow and try to salvage a win.”

Lloyd: Pining for Aaron Civale? No need to get worked up over Guardians making ‘sell’ move Jul 25, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Aaron Civale (43) delivers a pitch in the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
By Jason Lloyd
Aug 1, 2023



The Guardians couldn’t have made this trade in April. Or May. Or June. They probably couldn’t even have made it two weeks ago.

An organization that thrives on maximizing value is doing it again. Aaron Civale’s current share price on the MLB ticker is like buying a two-by-four during the pandemic. You’re paying premium cedar prices for crooked builder’s grade pine.

So Civale is headed to Tampa Bay and Guardians team president Chris Antonetti is left to delicately explain why he just traded his team’s best remaining healthy starting pitcher when the Guardians began the night a half-game out of first place.

You can understand why Antonetti may not be the most popular figure in the clubhouse these days after shipping off one of their leaders in Amed Rosario and now Civale for a pitcher with an ERA over 7 and an injured minor-league hitter who likely won’t even arrive in Cleveland until next year.

The Rosario move, however, was necessary and long overdue so they could finally start to get clarity on identifying their long-term shortstop. The Civale trade certainly wasn’t necessary, but it was absolutely leveraging the market to charge cedar prices for pine. And Civale is most certainly pine.
go-deeper

GO DEEPER

What the Guardians' trade of Aaron Civale means for Cleveland now and in the future

He’s on a tear right now. While Triston McKenzie, Shane Bieber and Cal Quantrill continue to nurse injuries, Civale kept the Guardians in “contention” or whatever you call this pitiful division by pitching to a 1.45 ERA in July when opponents managed just a .458 OPS against him. (Myles Straw, by comparison, began the week with a .599 OPS for the season).

None of Civale’s work this month seems sustainable. There are legitimate durability concerns. He just turned 28 and has yet to make more than 21 starts in any season. He couldn’t get out of the first inning in his lone career playoff game in last year’s deciding Game 5 at New York. He’s been a good but not great middle-of-the-rotation starter for much of his career.

There’s certainly value in that, particularly with 2 1/2 years of control remaining and an arbitration salary of likely no more than $6 million next season. In baseball’s pitching aisles, $6 million doesn’t go very far.

Martín Pérez has been a .500 pitcher with pedestrian numbers throughout his 12 years but enjoyed a career season last year and leveraged it into a one-year, $20 million contract in free agency over the winter.

You get the idea.
go-deeper

GO DEEPER

MLB trade grades: Rays swing deal with Guardians to add arm in Aaron Civale

That doesn’t mean this deal was easy or without risk. An organization already bulging with prospects just added one more in first baseman Kyle Manzardo, who projects to be the type of high-contact doubles machine the Guardians seem to covet.

We’ve been writing and talking for years about the glut of prospects the Guardians are carrying and how they need to bundle some of them together for an impact hitter eventually. The 40-man roster is stuffed. It has forced them to evaluate and move on from some hitters quicker than maybe they would have previously.

Now they’ve taken away one of their best pitchers this year and added yet another minor-league hitter to the pile — another lefty-swinging first baseman, no less. Manzardo isn’t even an outfielder, which remains the most pressing need on the roster.

There is always concern when dealing with the Rays. I made it more than 500 words without mentioning the last time the Guardians traded for a left-handed hitting first baseman out of Tampa’s farm system who was a top-50 prospect and a former second-round pick, no less. Jake Bauers was an absolute disaster in Cleveland while Yandy Diaz, whom Cleveland sent away in the deal, has flourished into an All-Star. Given the Rays’ sorcery with pitchers, it’s not unreasonable to believe they could unlock even another level with Civale the pitching-conscious Guardians couldn’t reach.

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit Bauers was one of my first thoughts when the deal was announced. But the Rays also dealt first baseman Nate Lowe to Texas and that has worked out well for the Rangers. Nevertheless, the Rays seem to rarely miss on these deals.
go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Law: Rays' trade with Guardians for Aaron Civale is the most interesting deal of deadline

Josh Naylor is down to two years of control after this season. If the Guardians can’t reach an agreement with him on a long-term deal, now they have a backup plan at first base/DH. Manzardo is probably the better defender in the long term, anyway.

As for Josh Bell … (emoji shrug) … he’s been a massive disappointment. If he exercises the option for next year, maybe they can attach him in another deal to a big-market team and wipe away the expense.

I can’t get worked up over the Guardians making a “sell” move when they’re only a half-game out of the division. This isn’t a good baseball team. We have four months of proof. I’m more interested in acquiring high-end talent in a lost season than holding onto a mid-rotation starter just so Cleveland can lose in the first round again.

If you were counting on Aaron Civale to save your season, you’re building your hopes and dreams out of crooked pine two-by-fours.

Somehow Lloyd went even more words without mention the Rays' steal of Junior Caminero, now rated among the Top 10 of Prospects in the entire Minors for a worthless left handed pitcher Tobias Myers who didn't survive one spring training with the Guardians.

BA analysis: this story is from 2017 but still has value]



To trade your prospects or not trade your prospects? That is the dilemma teams face every year at trade deadline, and this season is no different.
Sometimes an unheralded prospect traded at the deadline comes back to haunt an organization, as Corey Kluber, Nelson Cruz, Josh Donaldson, Ben Zobrist and Jose Bautista have.

Other times well-known and highly regarded prospects, such as Adrian Gonzalez, Carlos Santana, Elvis Andrus and Scott Kazmir, end up having the long big league careers expected. But those positive outcomes are exceedingly rare.

As part of an examination of the trade deadline and team behaviors, Baseball America reviewed every July trade from 2003-12 that involved a prospect. (Trades from 2013-16 were not considered because many prospects involved are still climbing the minors.)

The finding? Only 69 of 366 prospects—or 18.9 percent—traded in deadline deals those 10 seasons went on to have productive MLB careers.
Year Prospects Traded MLB Careers Pct
2012 48 13 27.2%
2011 42 6 14.3%
2010 43 13 30.2%
2009 43 5 11.6%
2008 30 8 26.7%
2007 27 7 25.9%
2006 36 5 13.9%
2005 21 1 4.8%
2004 27 4 14.8%
2003 49 7 14.3%
Total 366 69 18.9%

The harsh truth, history tells us, is those efforts most often end up being for naught.

This one is from today
Ranking The Prospects Traded At The 2023 Trade Deadline

Here is this year’s ranking of every prospect traded at the 2023 deadline. Prospects traded for players who were designated for assignment were not included.

1. Kyle Manzardo, 1B, Guardians (from Rays)

Manzardo is a pure lefthanded hitter who rarely swings out of the strike zone and drives the ball to all fields. His power is light for a first baseman and he’s limited athletically, but his ability to hit and control the strike zone give him a chance to be an everyday first baseman who gets to just enough power.

21. Khalil Watson, SS, Guardians (from Marlins)

The 16th overall pick in the 2021 draft, Watson is tooled up but has yet to deliver any meaningful production as a pro. He’s a high-risk player who has significant maturity issues and a low motor. A fresh start in a new organization may help unlock his raw ability.

Out of a total of 58

Where do the Guardians go after a season-altering 72 hours?


By Zack Meisel
8m ago

HOUSTON — Guardians president Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff boarded a 6:30 a.m. flight to Houston on Wednesday, a quick day trip geared toward damage control.

Rather than wait until Friday when the club returns to Progressive Field, the executives attempted to ease tensions in the clubhouse prior to the team’s series finale against the Astros. Houston completed the three-game sweep to seal a season-altering 72 hours for the Guardians that included a pair of trades no one on the roster — including the players dealt away — had anticipated.



Aaron Civale walked into Minute Maid Park on Monday preparing for his day-after-start arm-care routine when Guardians coaches informed him he was a Tampa Bay Ray. Josh Bell was wrapping up a card game ahead of a team meeting two hours before first pitch, with his name in the starting lineup, when the Guardians completed a last-minute deal that made him a Miami Marlin.

For Cleveland’s front office, it’s a nightmare scenario when a roadtrip coincides with the trade deadline. Antonetti has said it’s much more efficient for those in the front office to operate from the same room when navigating the various negotiations unfolding in the hours and days leading up to the deadline. That said, what wound up transpiring left certain players miffed and frustrated, which convinced Antonetti and Chernoff to make a post-deadline visit.

Antonetti met with team leaders, including José Ramírez and Josh Naylor, to smooth things over. The executives welcomed other players to vent to them. Naylor and Civale were particularly close; their families vacationed together in Jamaica over the winter. Rusty asks so did Josh Naylor sit out in protest ?

“It’s a really hard balance,” Antonetti said Wednesday. “In an ideal world, we would have been able to be here (Tuesday). But, practically, it just wasn’t possible.”

Here are some Guardians thoughts now that the deadline is in the rearview.

1. The Guardians rarely follow the framework of swapping one well-regarded big-leaguer for one well-regarded prospect. In recent years, they have sought quantity over quality. But they weren’t actively shopping Civale until the Rays floated the idea of Kyle Manzardo, and the two sides agreed upon a one-for-one exchange. A year ago, both teams would have laughed at such a proposal. A couple months ago, both teams would have laughed at such a proposal. Civale boosted his value with an excellent July and, more than anything, the market favored the few sellers who had something intriguing to dangle


Cleveland has struggled to develop hitters of Manzardo’s ilk. They’re confident the underlying metrics that suggest Manzardo has been better than his 2023 Triple-A numbers indicate portend a bright future. The club’s track record in trades with the Rays is not lost on Cleveland’s front office, either. The Yandy Díaz–Jake Bauers tentacle of the Edwin Encarnacion-Carlos Santana trade didn’t benefit Cleveland beyond Santana’s 2019 season. Hunter Wood and Christian Arroyo, acquired from Tampa in 2019, never contributed much.

The Junior Caminero-for-Tobias Myers deal could prove especially painful. Caminero keeps climbing prospects rankings; The Athletic’s Keith Law rates him the No. 5 prospect in the sport. Myers never amounted to anything with the Guardians, and he’s since struggled in the minors for the Giants, White Sox and Brewers. The Guardians liked certain qualities about Caminero, but at the time of the trade, he was an 18-year-old lottery ticket. Now, he’s a 20-year-old excelling at Double A after obliterating High-A pitching.

2. The addition of Manzardo obviously made Bell expendable, and not so much in terms of the team having too many first basemen, but more so in that the club wanted to ensure it wouldn’t be on the hook for his $16.5 million salary for the 2024 season. There’s no guarantee anyone would have claimed him if they placed him on waivers, so they hunted for a taker in a trade.


Josh Bell batted .233 with 11 home runs and 81 strikeouts in 97 games with the Guardians. (Kamil Krzaczynski / USA TODAY Sports)
For absorbing Jean Segura’s contract — they’re on the hook for about $12.5 million — the Marlins tossed them another middle infield prospect in Kahlil Watson. The Guardians rated Watson as one of the top players in the 2021 draft and top prospects at the start of the 2022 season, but they understand he has some maturing to do, both on and off the field, if he’s ever going to sniff his potential. Low risk, high reward.

3. The Mike Zunino addition flopping in such dramatic fashion was always a possibility. He was a streaky hitter coming off a significant injury. He was 32 and playing a demanding position. It was the perfect cocktail to lead to his downfall, and it wasn’t the end of the world with Bo Naylor waiting for a chance. Whether they should have swung a deal for Sean Murphy is another question.


But they desperately needed Bell to serve as a middle-of-the-order threat and it just never translated. And to compound that failure, they didn’t have any alternatives who could provide the sort of thump they were banking on him to supply, especially once Oscar Gonzalez was demoted to Columbus in early May.

4. As for free agency, well, there’s always risk involved, especially when limiting the options to guys signing one- or two-year deals. Cleveland hit on Mike Napoli and Rajai Davis in 2016, but their free-agent expenditures, for the most part, have produced underwhelming results. For every Napoli or Davis or Austin Jackson, there are a handful of duds, such as Brett Myers or Domingo Santana or Eddie Rosario or Boone Logan or Juan Uribe or Nick Swisher or Michael Bourn or Marlon Byrd or Hanley Ramirez or Carlos Gonzalez. It’s not even the money that’s the problem; it’s the fact that the money earns the veteran a longer leash, so any extended period of disappointing results is doubly detrimental.

“It’s unpredictable,” Antonetti said, “and you can do all the due diligence you possibly can on guys and think it might make sense and sometimes it just doesn’t work out. So we’ll continue to look at things and examine if there are things we can do better. But I think if you just look around the league, that’s the nature of it. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. The difficulty in our market is, when it doesn’t, it has an outsized impact and so that’s why we have to be super deliberate.”

5. Welcome to the AL Comedy Central, where the bottom-feeding Royals did some minor selling, the White Sox did some major selling, the Tigers attempted to trade their ace but failed, the Guardians dealt away their top-performing starting pitcher and the only remaining member of their Opening Day rotation and the Twins did… just about nothing.

Had Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie been healthy, the Guardians likely would have held onto Civale and held a potential path to the postseason in higher regard. The Guardians have one of the most difficult strength of schedules remaining, with an upcoming series against the Dodgers, Giants and Angels and multiple series ahead against the Blue Jays, Rays and Reds. The Twins, meanwhile, have one of the softer remaining schedules. Cleveland and Minnesota have six games against each other.

6. So, where does the team go from here? There are two central themes I’ll be monitoring the rest of the way. (You know, aside from wondering whether the Twins will let this group of kids hang around in the division race.)

First, I’m really looking forward to watching Tanner Bibee and Gavin Williams gain confidence as they grow more comfortable in the big leagues. Bibee has already taken steps in that direction the last six weeks, with a 1.96 ERA over his last seven starts. If he can solve a way to get ahead against hitters, not nibble as much and induce some early contact — all goals of his — he can pitch deeper into games more consistently.


How could you not love this self-evaluation of his start Wednesday, in which he labored through five innings (seven hits and four walks), but limited the Astros to two runs?

“For as bad as it was,” Bibee said, “it was pretty good.”

Williams was overshadowed by his no-hitter-twirling Astros counterpart, Framber Valdez, on Tuesday, but he flashed his best stuff, with his fastball touching 99 mph. He said he made some tweaks to clean up his delivery, which fueled the velocity boost.

The Guardians’ decision-makers say there’s no hard innings cap for Bibee, Williams or Logan Allen, but they’ll be mindful of the quality of their stuff and how they recover from each outing. If Bieber and/or McKenzie can return in September, that could ease the burden on the rookies.

7. The other pressing question to consider throughout August and September: How can the Guardians assemble a more formidable lineup next year? Steven Kwan is fine in the leadoff spot. Ramírez is the third baseman. Naylor and Manzardo figure to partner as the first base/designated hitter combination. Bo Naylor is the catcher, and David Fry seems like an optimal backup/utility guy. Andrés Giménez is locked into one of the middle infield spots.

Gabriel Arias, Tyler Freeman and Brayan Rocchio will likely battle for the other middle infield spot. The club has been stressing more consistency on defense from Rocchio, but it’s his offensive profile that has completely flipped at Triple A. Rocchio’s home run total has plummeted, but he has made massive improvements with his walk and strikeout rates and, in turn, boasts a higher OPS than he did last season. Antonetti did note the quality of his contact has suffered a bit this year.

That leaves one or two outfield spots plus another middle infield spot open to competition or an outsider. Oscar Gonzalez and Will Brennan should receive plenty of chances to prove their merit the next two months. Otherwise, will George Valera or Jhonkensy Noel or Johnathan Rodriguez or Micah Pries force the issue?


How else can they address the outfield? They could dangle Bieber on the trade market this winter, but he’ll have only one year of team control and be returning from an elbow injury, which probably won’t inspire other teams to overbid. They could package some prospects, too, a familiar refrain from the last 24 months.

There’s a lot for the Guardians to solve this winter in order to flush the 2023 season.