Recent Trades and Signings - Part 2 - What EXACTLY Can We Expect From Guys We Got In Recent Trades?

 Let's start by listing the guys that we got and lost in these recent trades.  The guys in bold are still in the Cleveland organization.  The guys with asterisks played in the majors for their new team after the trade:

Lost                                                 Gained
Bell*                                              Kahlil Watson

Bauers *                                          Damon Casetta-Stubbs

Eddie Rosario*                                Peyton Battenfield*

Jordan Luplow*                               Myles Straw*

DJ Johnson*                                    Konnor Pilkington*

Phil Maton*                                    David Fry*

Yainer Diaz*                                   Tobias Myers

Cesar Hernandez*                          Anthony Castro*  

JC Mejia*                                       Juan Brito

Kyle Nelson*                                 Ross Carver

Junior Caminero*                           Justin Boyd

Bradley Zimmer*                           AJ Hajjar

Yu Chang*                                     Noah Syndergaard*

Nolan Jones*                                 Kyle Manzardo

Carlos Vargas*

Jose Fermin*

Owen Miller*

Will Benson*

Konnor Pilkington

Richie Palacios*

Amed Rosario*

Josh Bell*

Aaron Civale*

There you have it.  Since the Clevinger trade the Guardians have made trades where they sent away 23 players with 22 of them appearing in the major leagues after the trade.  The Guardians recieved 14 players back in those trades, 6 of whom played in the majors with Cleveland after they were acquired but only 2 of those 6 are still with the team.  Another 6 are prospects (2 in our top 10, and 3 in our top 30).    23 guys out the door, 22 making some contribution for their new team and we only got 6 guys back who made contributions to our ML team and another 6 who might play in the majors in the future.  Seems like a waste of a lot of resources we had for very little return and almost no return to the performance of the Guardians ML team since July of 2020.  The obvious answer to me is bad trading by our FO.

So, if you want the Guardians to make any trades this winter just look at the lists above and maybe you might reconsider that wish.

But it is what it is.  We have what we have left from those trades.  Let's take a look at the prospects we obtained and see what we have in them.

Kyle Manzardo - When you think of Manzardo you have to think of Josh Naylor.  With any luck they will be clones except, of course, that we hope Manzardo avoids any future injuries.  Manzardo is likely to be at least a solid major leaguer albeit limited to DH and maybe 1B, if necessary.  He is at best an aversage first baseman defensively but the hope is that his bat carries him.  Keeping him and Naylor on the same team means that, like Josh Bell, the rotation through the DH position started under Francona to give players a rest will be less likely to be used.  He is either a trade chip or will be in Cleveland sometime this summer, maybe even on opening day depending on their acquistions this winter.

Juan Brito - His floor is as a solid major leaguer, sort of Cesar Hernandez-like.  His ceiling is being a Jose Ramirez clone.   He is an average, at best, defender at 2B but has improved over the past year so there is hope there.  He should have a minimum of 10 HR power which could grow to 25 HR power with a good OBP.   He is either a trade chip this winter or will be in Cleveland sometime in 2024 in some capacity.

David Fry - Given the respect he deserves, Fry will be the best, cheapest 26th man in baseball.  He would be best as the 3rd catcher but could be a backup although that would kill the advantage of his bat as you can't have your backup catcher playing other positions in case he would get hurt.  You don't need to say more than that.

Khalil Watson - The typical 5 tool HS player who either develops or flames out, Watson did not endear himself to Miami fans and I didn't see one article or post bemoaning that they lost him in the Bell to Miami deal.  In fact, a lot of the posts were like "He's Cleveland's problem now".   Remember they said the same thing when we got Joe Carter so there is that and Albert Belle came with his issues as well.  Both turned out to be very good players in Cleveland so let's hope Watson does, too.  Still, he is all potential at this point and it would be nice if we can calm him down and get him focused and going in the right direction, i.e., on the steep part of his learning curve.

Justin Boyd - At first when we got Boyd AND a PTBNL for Benson I was pleasantly surprised.  Then I started to ask myself why would Cincinnati send their 2022 second round pick to Cleveland just months after they drafted him?  Well Boyd was hurt most of 2023 but when he played his 2023 numbers and 2022 numbers, combined, shows that he might indeed just suck.  This would explain why the Reds would dump him like a hot potato, wanting to get a mistake of a draft pick out of their organization before he flames out.  We will see but their quick trade of Boyd combined with his performance since turning pro makes me wonder if we just took on someone else's problems in exchange for Benson.

AJ Hajjar - Anyone who watched him pitch this year would have to say, WTF?  The last thing he looks like is a relatively highly drafted college pitcher.  He looked more like a thrower that some team took in round 12 with the hope they could turn him into a pitcher.  When you are in A+ ball walking almost a guy and inning your career is in trouble.  Was this bad scouting by the Guardians or bad coaching by them or just a blip in his development?  Not sure but there are organizational, roster-filelr pitchers in the Guardians organization who have a much better chance than Hajjar to play in the majors.

Ross Carver - Carver came over in the Vargas trade as an interesting curveball pitcher who, under the Guardians tutelage, could add enough to his fastball to become a successful ML pitcher in the ilk of Aaron Civale.  His 2023, which did include significant time on the injured list, was anything but encouraging.  Hopefully 2024 will be a healthy, productive one for him and he will approach his Aaron Civale-like upside.  If he doesn't improve dramatically in 2024, he will likely go the way of Damon Casetta-Stubbs.

Look, people say our bullpen needs to be better, our hitting needs to be better, etc., etc.  The one thing that will fix everything is that our FO needs to be a hell of a lot better than they have been and turn some of this excess into talent.  I have no faith in that FO right now.  And we have all this minor league talent that has been beaten down and devalued by not giving them a chance to show what they are worth.  THAT is the next wave of Cleveland prospects who could go on the left hand column with little or maybe marginal returns for their prospect capital while our prospects go on and have good careers elsewhere.

The FO sucks at trading and my opinion is that the one, single area that needs to improve the most for our team to be successful is the FO ability to make useful trades where we get back short-term and long-term, as much or more than we give up.  Heaven knows we are due for a few of those trades to make up for the pathetic FO performance over the past 3.5 years.