Over the winter we made a number of trades:
1. Owen Miller to Milwaukee for a PTBNL
2. Will Benson to Cincinnati for Justin Boyd and Steve Hajjar
3. Carlos Vargas for Ross Carver
4. Nolan Jones for Juan Brito
The bottom line is that none of these trades are actually helping the 2023 Guardians roster and, in fact, none of those trades look like they were fair returns on the players we traded away. The only player who appears to be a viable prospect obtained in these trades is Juan Brito and, while he is a good hitter, he had to be rostered last winter to avoid being subject to the Rule 5 draft even though he had not played about A ball, meaning that the Guardians are likely to have to use all 3 of his minor league options before he even makes his ML debut, meaning he likely won't be able to be sent back to the minors without clearing waivers. Even if he manages to stay in the majors, at this point he has no basestealing speed and is only a marginal defender at 2nd and 3rd base with his ability to take walks being his best hitting-related tool followed, in order, by his ability to hit for average then his ability to hit for power.
The reason we made these trades was that we needed roster space and the organization decided that Miller, Jones, Benson and Vargas were not going to be players who could help our ML team in 2023 or in the future. There was significant disagreement among fans and media at the time as to whether this was true, especially with Jones doing OK during his time in Cleveland but then being sent down after a month never to return. It was frustrating watching Miller get playing time when he was hurting the team offensively and Benson had serious strikeout issues over his career although 2022 was, in Columbus, a breakout year for him that did not translate into ML success in his cameo with Cleveland last year. Supposedly the manager and the front office felt that the strikeout issues of Jones and Benson made it unlikely that they would help the team in the future, a point that is being contested right now. In Miller's case, the way he is being used by Milwaukee plus his natural improvement due to his experience has led to better stats for a contending team in 2023
In summary, our manager could not or chose not to use the these players or to use them in ways in which they would be effective and, when presented with this situation, the front office was incapable of trading these players for equal value in return, either in players who would help the major league team in 2023 or prospects who would help the team in the future. That doesn't even consider the possibility that these players could have been bundled to obtain better talent instead of being traded separately.
The reason for this walk through recent history is two-fold:
(1) To demonstrate the ineptness that our front office has in making good trades when faced with a situation where a trade HAS to be made and
(2) The inability of our manager to use young players effectively, which has been demonstrated this year by his ineffective usage of Tyler Freeman and David Fry and allowing Oscar Gonzalez to languish at AAA while Gabriel Arias has been pathetic offensively and determining that our offense could have benefitted by a platoon of Will Brennan and Oscar Gonzalez in RF.
So all this brings us to the upcoming trade deadline.
Months ago I suggested that early season performance suggested that the LA Dodgers could be a good trade partner for us. It was pretty much a certainty that we were not going to sign Shane Bieber or Amed Rosario to new contracts and it was becoming more apparent that we needed more offense from centerfield and catcher than we were getting.
Well, now our best deadline trade chip Bieber is hurt. Given the above-mentioned history it is not likely that, piecemeal, our front office will be able to get much for Rosario or Straw.
So this is the point where I get scared as I see some things that really bother me with the way we appear to value players:
1. Oscar Gonzalez should have returned to the majors by now and he hasn't. I am afraid that he is going to go the way of Nolan Jones and Will Benson, being traded for less than their value.
2. I am afraid that Brayan Rocchio is not being valued highly enough by the front office and is in danger of being given away for a handful of magic beans.
3. I am afraid that Gabriel Arias, despite all evidence so far, is overvalued by our manager and the front office and will be unfairly be given playing time that should belong to Rocchio and Gonzalez.
4. I am afraid that we will not be able to get value for Rosario and will, essentially, do a salary dump for him, helping the team we trade him to MUCH more than helping this franchise.
5. I am afraid that Myles Straw will continue to be used as a starter instead of being moved to being a 4th outfielder or, even worse, be traded for peanuts, again not maximizing his value.
6. I am afraid that the FO has moved on from James Karinchak and will trade him away for peanuts, repeating the mistakes they made when they moved Jones, Benson and Miller.
7. Finally, while I don't think this will happen, that the franchise will punt on this season and trade Aaron Civale. This would put way too much pressure on our young starting pitchers and, unless we can pull another Mike Clevinger trade out of the hat, won't provide us with parts that can help the franchise this year or next year, if those parts are viable at all (see Boyd, Hajjar and the cash we received for Miller, not to mention clogging our 40 man roster with Brito, a guy who won't help this team in 2023 and likely not until 2025, if then.
I am afraid. I am afraid that the manager will, once again, cause us to move on from players who he SHOULD be able to get performance out of and will continue to play players who are not helping this team win. I am afraid that, knowing Francona's wishes, the FO will be ineffective at getting value for the guys Francona won't play and will also allow him to continue playing the ineffective players that he is so in love with.
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