Thoughts For A Snowless Christmas Eve

 When you live where I live, cloudy and below average temperatures are about as close as you get to a white Christmas.  

That being said, the prevailing weather still gives me a chance to look outside and reflect on what has transpired so far in the Guardians' off-season...and to look ahead at what this SHOULD mean for the rest of the off-season.

Guardsfest

The off-season started with the Guardians cancelling the next 2 winter festivals, claiming that it is what fans said they wanted.  That, of course, is not true and it came to light that the move was totally based on them trying to save money.   That was not a good way to start the off-season if you were a Guards fan who realized how much extra money the team made this year from increased attendance and making it to the ALCS.

Trading Eli Morgan

While this wasn't a huge move, it signaled that management thought we had an excess of relievers and, so, they were comfortable with dumping Morgan as they felt we had a lot of depth in the reliever core AND WILL NOT NEED TO TRADE FOR RELIEF PITCHERS.  This was re-emphasized by the fact that our return from this trade was an outfielder who was 3-5 years away from playing in the majors, if he ever makes it at all.  

Rule 5 Draft

I mention this so I can once again say that I will never, ever doubt the FO in who they choose to protect or not protect in the Rule 5.  Frankly, there was no way this could have gone better for Cleveland.

Trading Gimenez and Sandlin to Toronto

The reason for this trade was a salary dump.  Looking at the trade we also had to throw in Nick Sandlin to dump the remaining 5 years of Gimenez's salary, indicating that we were very motivated to dump money and, once again, signaling that the FO thinks we have more than enough RH ML relief pitchers.  The return on this trade was a 27-year old 1B/2B with one real season of ML experience and a minor league OFer likely of the same pedigree and ability as Joe Lampe.   Clearly, the return for Gimenez and Sandlin were not important and the FO, by their own admission, believes that our internal options can provide as much value, or more, than Gimenez.

Trading Horwitz for Ortiz and Two Pitching Prospects

Horwitz, the centerpiece of the trade that cost us Gimenez and Sandlin, was traded to Pittsburgh for a ML SP, Luis Ortiz and two decent pitching prospects.  This, on the surface, looks like an incredibly good deal for Cleveland.  The two pitching prospects they received have lots of control left before they reach Rule 5 eligibility and Ortiz had a really good year in 2024, including a dominant start against Cleveland.  Still, you have to wonder how Horwitz could be worth this much.  When I look at this trade I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.  No way is Pittsburgh that stupid to give up a guy like Ortiz for Horwitz, let alone two pitching prospects.  The peripherals surrounding Ortiz's 2024 season suggest he is set for a downturn in 2025.  This matches the fact that he was included as one of three pieces for Horwitz.  

Trading Josh Naylor and signing Carlos Santana

As I have said previously, trading Josh Naylor is NOT the problem.  Clearly everything poionted to them dumping him.  The issue was, as with the Cubs and Toronto trades, was how the return on those trades was going to help the Guardians in 2025.  As with both the Gimenez and Morgan trades, that return is non-helpful to 2025.  The acquisition of Santana ONLY makes sense if we can fill other needs on our roster.  We needed more starting pitching who could immediately improve our rotation in 2025.  We needed a corner outfielder with power.  We needed a quality LH reliever.  None of those needs were addressed in ANY of these three trades.  Hey, signing Santana as a replacement for Naylor is not the issue.  It is the combination of the return for Naylor PLUS Santana that has to be a win for Cleveland in 2025.  Sadly, it is not even close, leaving the FO supporters on the internet grasping for indications on how Slade Cecconi is really better than his 6.66 ERA in 2024 would indicate.  Well, maybe they can make him better but let's face it.  There is little or no chance that Cecconi was highly valued by Arizona and there is little to no chance that he will be able to fix whatever is mechanically wrong with him by 2025 opening day, meaning that his use in the majors at that moment will likely lead to mostly losses where he buries his team so badly that they will never be able to score enough runs to offset his bad performance.  And our offense is hurt by substituting Santana for Naylor.  How much is a question.  Clearly the FO believes that Santana's overall game is = or > Naylor's in 2025 as the return on this deal actually did nothing to help the team in 2025 IF Santana, at 39 years old, has a downturn in his performance in 2025.

Summary

Hey, this off-season can still be saved if we sign Anthony Santander and Roki Sasaki.  But right now our team is weaker than it was at the end of the 2024 season.  Also, if we thought that it was a good idea to trade away position players with good resumes for essentially nothing, there should be ZERO need to trade valuable prospect assets to backfill positions you just vacated or failed to fill when you traded away the players you have this off-season.  So, to me, the only path left is free agency.  The Guardians have to open their wallets and sign quality hitters and maybe a quality SP.  They need to do this without having to dump other salaries. 

This fanbase and the players on this team deserve the best effort possible by management to make this a competitive team. So far this off-season, that has not happened.

I am waiting for the other shoe to drop and, unlike to this point in the off-season, it should clearly be a good next move instead of a continued series of contradictory, non-sensical movess.  

We deseerve better than that.