Stories about the Cleveland Guardians Major League Baseball team
A: Nope. I usually don’t unless Cleveland is playing.A: That’s what I thought about when the playoffs began. The Guardians finished with a 92-70 record. They did it with a roster that was the youngest in the majors.
They had the fewest strikeouts and most infield hits in MLB. They were fun to watch, knocking off Tampa Bay in the wild card round and losing to the Yankees in five games in the division series.A: Terry Francona was American League Manager of the Year. Chris Antonetti was the Sporting News Baseball Executive of the Year. GM Mike Chernoff also was a big part of why Cleveland was being praised as a model organization with an exciting future.What to do when the awful ‘Why, God ... why?’ question hits – Terry Pluto’s Faith & You A: Francona is retiring. The Guardians finished with a 76-86 record, the worst in the 11 years of the Francona/Antonetti partnership. I received an email from a reader named Larry proclaiming: “Someone has to be fired!”Guardians traded prospects Nolan Jones, Will Benson, Yanier Diaz and Junior Caminero. The front office added veterans Mike Zunino, Josh Bell, Lucas Giolito, Matt Moore and Reynaldo Lopez at various points this year. They made little impact, although I really like Lopez and hope Cleveland re-signs him.A: Exactly. It happens, just like players have a bad year. Overall, the Antonetti/Chernoff combination has a strong track record. But this year was painful.A: No. He was an intriguing prospect with the Guardians, their second-round pick in 2016. He was rated in Baseball America’s top 100 prospects from 2019-21. But this guy goes to Colorado and306 with 10 HR and at home, .288 with 10 HR on the road. He was a career .280 minor league hitter with Cleveland. He batted .244 with a pair of homers, striking out 31 times in 94 plate appearances with the Guardians in 2022.A: They obviously didn’t project a year like that coming. But the main reason was Juan Brito. The Guardians love the infielder. Last winter, they believed Brito had a bigger upside long range than Jones., according to Baseball America. He opened at Class A and ended the season at Class AAA. In three levels of the minors,with 14 HR and 74 RBI. He has 87 strikeouts compared to 74 walks. This trade could pay off for the Guardians, but it hurts right now.A: A year ago, Guardians fans were in baseball love with SpongeBob. That’s Oscar Gonzalez. They believed he was set to play right field after he batted .296 with 11 HR and 27 doubles in 91 games.A: The manager was talking about rookies in 2022 who struggled this year. Gonzalez lost all confidence, and ended up in the minors.Q: What about Will Benson? A: I could project Jones becoming a starting outfielder. But Benson? He was Cleveland’s first-round pick in 2016, the same year Jones was selected in the second round.with 23 HR and 168 strikeouts in 646 Class AAA plate appearances. An elite athlete, Benson also was a Division I caliber basketball player out of high school. Great attitude, hard worker, but a huge swing with a lot of strikeouts.A: He still strikes out a lot . A lefty hitter, they platoon him vs. right-handed pitching. He batted .182 with 19 strikeouts in 50 plate appearances in Cleveland in 2022. He’s found a role in the majors.A: That was Francona’s point, how you often don’t find out about a player until after his second MLB season. But both players could have been an asset to the Guardians this season. Q: Don’t you think the Guardians gave away the Central Division when they traded veterans Aaron Civale, Josh Bell and Amed Rosario in late July? A: On July 31, Minnesota was 54-53 and the Guardians were 53-54. The Guardians had one of baseball’s hardest schedules for the rest of the season. Minnesota’s was much lighter. Josh Naylor suffered an oblique injury at the end of July and the team knew he’d be out at least for a month.A: They pretty much did. But let’s look at players traded by Cleveland. Bell was productive for Miami, hitting .270 with 11 HR. Rosario batted .256 for the Dodgers. Civale was 2-3 with a 5.36 ERA for Tampa Bay. Keeping those guys wasn’t going to make a huge difference.A: Because Minnesota started to play well. Starting Aug. 1, the Twins finished 33-22 for an 87-75 record. Cleveland ended up at 76-86. It wasn’t their year.A: Francona said this: “At the start of the season, I said we had to play better than last year to end up with the same record . We had all those come-from-behind wins. We caught a lot of people by surprise with the way we played. A lot went our way.”A: To some extent. GM Mike Chernoff mentioned how the Guardians lost 14 more games by one run in 2023 than they did a year ago. Their bullpen wasn’t as strong. The offense dropped from 15th to 27th in runs scored.A: It’s time to remember this front office made deals for prospects such as Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill, Emmanuel Clase and Andrés Giménez, who are key parts of the team.A: They have to find some more hitters. They need to be more patient. They can’t make another Caminero deal, which I asked Antonetti about. He saidin 171 plate appearances in the Dominican Summer League . That’s a rookie league. Cleveland traded him for Tobias Myers, who flamed out. At the time of the trade,“For more context on just how well he hit, out of the 457 hitters to record 100 plate appearances in the DSL, only two of them recorded both a lower strikeout rate and a higher slugging percentage than Caminero did … Simply put, Caminero can really hit, both for contact and for power.”A: As Antonetti said, “Bad trade.” It’s up to the Guardians to figure out why they gave up on Caminero after one impressive year of pro ball at age 18. They also have to examine how they draft, develop and evaluate their young hitters.A: Let’s look at the big picture. This organization can draft and develop starting pitchers: Shane Bieber, Logan Allen, Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams and Triston McKenzie are an entirely home-grown rotation. Add in the underrated Xzavion Curry as a possible fifth starter.A: Not sure most people appreciate it. The hardest and most expensive baseball commodity to acquire is starting pitching, especially in trade and free agency. What makes Cleveland an attractive franchise for a new manager is the young arms. Q: Do you really think Cleveland is a good job for the next manager, given how they don’t spend money? A: José Ramírez is one MLB’s premier players. Antonetti considers Steven Kwan one of the game’s top left fielders once you roll hitting, defense and baserunning into the package. Josh Naylor is on the verge of being an All-Star.A: Because the Guardians flopped around like a fish out of water for most of the season, many casual fans tuned them out. They missed the fact that Bo Naylor batted .252 with 10 HR in 174 plate appearances after the All-Star break. Cleveland fans have wanted a catcher who can hit. They have one in 23-year-old Bo Naylor. I also really like Kyle Manzardo, picked up from Tampa Bay in the Civale deal. The first baseman battedA: Of course not. The Guardians need more power, more run production, bullpen help and a couple of outfielders. And yes, another manager. It’s easy to project the Guardians having a winning season next year and contending for a playoff spot because of their pitching. But they can’t have another poor offseason from the front office.If you or a loved one has questions and needs to talk to a professional about gambling, call the Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-589-9966 or the National Council on Program Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700 or visitIf you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our
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