My interpretation of his diminishing prospect status [on the AZ list from #6 to #12 to #14 to #16] and rather poor 2024 performance. And my bad mood at the time I posted that comment

The article someone posted about the poor quality of pitching coach in AZ when compared to the well-regarded talent of the Cleveland Pitching Factory is a positive counterargument.

Supposedly the Guardians and Rays both have been trying to acquire this pitcher since the trade deadline last year. Always good to know that other orgs feel good about this guy. Guardians are trying to have as many options as possible.

Tom Withers of the Associated Press revealed more details about the contract.

“More details on Carlos Santana’s $12 million contract with Guardians. He can earn an additional $1.2 million in bonuses for plate appearances: $200,000 for 500 and each additional 25 through 650,” he posted on X.

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Each team's breakout player for 2025

AL CENTRAL

Guardians RHP Gavin Williams

Williams was supposed to take a step forward in 2024. Instead, an elbow injury sidelined him until July and he was left playing catch-up for the rest of the year. In flashes, we saw just how elite Williams can be, but he lacked consistency. His rookie season in ’23 was stellar. Now, it’s time to prove he can be the every-fifth-day workhorse this organization projects him to be. And with thin rotation depth, the Guardians will need Williams to step up now more than ever.

-- Mandy Bell

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Guardians Sign Free Agent Catcher For Upper Minors Depth

December 31, 2024

By Andres Chavez

The Cleveland Guardians were looking for organizational catching depth, especially in the upper minors.

They saw a good opportunity and pounced on Tuesday, signing former seventh-rounder Jake Anchia to a minor league deal with an invitation to major league spring training camp.

“Guardians needed to add catching depth in the upper minors. Looks like one will be Mariners 2018 7th rounder Jake Anchia, who was a minor league FA,” Guardians reporter Justin Lada posted on X.

Anchia was a part of the Seattle Mariners organization from 2018, the year he was drafted, until 2024.

According to his agency, Anchia was ranked by Baseball America as their Best Defensive Catcher prospect.

Major league teams are always in need of catchers for the dozens of pitchers that show up in spring training every year.

Anchia knows that he has a very good opportunity in front of him.

Reports about his defense have always been positive.

He is not really much of a hitter, though.

In 79 games and 290 plate appearances in the Mariners’ Double-A team, he had a paltry 66 wRC+.

For reference, 100 is considered the league average value at every level.

He did hit nine home runs so he has some pop.

Over his long minor league career, Anchia has hit .209 with a .625 OPS.

It’s a no-risk, depth-oriented move by the Guardians as they value good defense, particularly behind the plate.

It’s a fresh start for Anchia, as the Guards would be his second MLB organization.

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I strongly hope that Williams "breaks out" in 2025; he can be a very important part of the rotation and probably needs to be for the team to win the Central Division and move on in the playoffs

professional AA/AAA catchers have long undistinguished but necessary careers.
Lavastida was a minor league free agent this winter so our ranks needed refilling

Following up on a question and answer in Articles with Paul Hoynes commenting on Gabriel Arias' inability to control the strike zone, I looked ar the stats and they certainly confirm that. Guardians are very much bought in to good K/BB figures and Brito shines in that department by comparison

Arias major league stats: 212/274/350 4.3 K/BB 32% of at bats strikeouts 8% walks
Arias minor league stats: 273/328/421 3.8 K/BB 28% of at bats strikeouts 8% walks
Arias winter ball career: 246/296/385 4.3 K/BB 25% of at bats strikeouts 6% walks

Brito minor league stats: 275/384/450 1.2 K/BB 19% of at bats strikeouts 16% walks

Freeman major league stats: 223/304/329 2.25 K/BB 19% of at bats strikeouts 7.5% walks
Freeman minor league stats: 313/384/434 1.75 K/BB 11% of at bats strikeouts 6% walks

and just for comparison, recently traded Jose Tena, who could've been another candidate
Tena major league stats 260/297/344 5.4 K/BB 28% K 5% BB
Tena minor league stats 284/338/441 3.6 K/BB 28% K 7.5 % BB
Tena winter ball stats 259/318/333 3.1 K/BB 26% K 7% BB

Useful pitcher Lorenzen signs with the Royals. Cost barely more than a third as much as Cobb cost the Tigers for a guy who threw 130 innings with a 3.31 ERA. That would have been a good deal for the Guardians.
Spencer Turnbull has been mentioned as a possibility for the Guardians; a typical post-surgery rehab inexpensive pitcher. Maybe they'll give him a shot.

2025 ZiPS Projections: Cleveland Guardians

by Dan Szymborski

January 15, 2025

For the 21st consecutive season, the ZiPS projection system is unleashing a full set of prognostications. For more information on the ZiPS projections, please consult this year’s introduction and MLB’s glossary entry. The team order is selected by lot, and the next team up is the Cleveland Guardians.

Batters

It’s weird doing the Twins and Guardians back to back, as ZiPS sees a lot of similarities between the two teams. It sees both clubs as having one mid-career future Hall of Famer, a really good outfielder, a bunch of slightly below-average players elsewhere in the lineup, a sneaky good rotation with one starter the system likes quite a bit more than the others, and an ultra-elite bullpen that should compete to be the best in baseball in 2025.

Overall, ZiPS sees the Guardians similarly to how Steamer does, though the shape of the projection is a bit different; ZiPS likes the hitting a good deal less than Steamer does, but is more optimistic than its cyber-rival when it comes to the pitching.

José Ramírez, my pick for the most underrated position player of this generation, will turn 33 before the end of the 2025 season, but he’s such a consistently awesome player that ZiPS sees him as having a long way to go before he’s not a huge plus on the team. That inevitable occurrence — time always wins, after all — is very unlikely to transpire this season. By the time he comes back to Earth, ZiPS has him passing 2,500 hits (2,524), 400 homers (404), and 70 WAR (70.9), which ought to be enough to get him into Cooperstown.

Steven Kwan is about as good a left fielder as one can possibly be without having a real power bat. He’s past the age where ZiPS thinks that’s likely to develop, which limits his ultimate ceiling, but he’s a damn good player, just about an All-Star every year, and he should continue to be one until his contact skills deteriorate or he suffers a serious leg injury.

Three players represent the largest ZiPS/Steamer disagreement. When it comes to Carlos Santana, I’m taking ZiPS’ side. Yes, Santana had his best season in years in 2024, and it’s a fun homecoming to see him back in Cleveland, but he was also a 94-wRC+ hitter over the previous four seasons and will be 39 years old for most of the 2025 campaign. Last year feels more like the “one last score” genre of heist film than a full reboot of his franchise. ZiPS also doesn’t anticipate the same slugging percentage for Tyler Freeman that Steamer does, with nearly a 40 point separation there; I’m kind of in the middle on that one, but probably closer to ZiPS. I think I’m with Steamer on Jhonkensy Noel, though — call it a gut feeling, but I think he’s displayed more potential power than the rather middling hard-hit numbers for him.

ZiPS projects a better year for Bo Naylor, but still sees Austin Hedges as a drag on the position overall.

What ZiPS likes is the team’s depth, which it tends to have as slightly superior to Steamer’s estimation. It sees real role player value from Daniel Schneemann, Angel Martínez, Johnathan Rodriguez, and C.J. Kayfus, with a higher OPS projected for all four players than Steamer has. It has, however, just about officially thrown in the towel on George Valera.

Pitchers

Now we’re at the part that ZiPS really likes. It’s higher on Tanner Bibee than just about everyone, and still burns a candle for Shane Bieber, though who knows what the Guardians will actually get from him in terms of innings in 2025. Luis L. Ortiz, Gavin Williams, and Ben Lively all project as solid mid-rotation starters; of the three, the computer probably likes Thrower McGavin more than anyone who isn’t one of Williams’ relatives. ZiPS is no longer that high on Triston McKenzie, but even his projection is pretty good in light of what a mess his last two years have been.

Further down the depth chart, Slade Cecconi and Joey Cantillo both project better as fill-ins than most team’s similar options, and even the really deep cuts on the album, Will Dion and Doug Nikhazy, get projections safely above replacement level. ZiPS has the Guardians with almost limitless better-than-replacement depth, though keep in mind that replacement level is a really lousy player.

The Twins have projected with the best bullpen in ZiPS so far, but the Guardians project just a couple of runs behind them on the year. Basically, take away a few innings from Ryan Webb, and it’s enough to put Cleveland into first. Emmanuel Clase is the best projected reliever in baseball, Cade Smith is ninth, and a third pitcher, Sam Hentges, ranks at the end of the top 20. And that’s even with ZiPS including Clase’s eight inning, eight run, three homer October, since ZiPS includes postseason stats. Maybe he’s too high on the depth chart to call a sleeper, but ZiPS thinks Franco Aleman might be the fourth-best reliever on the team. One name that is further down the depth chart that ZiPS is highly interested in is fastball/slider control guy Magnus Ellerts, a 22nd-rounder from 2022 who has gotten no attention at all.

Not surprisingly, ZiPS sees the Guardians as a solid rival for the Twins in 2025, with a similar outlook of 85-88 wins or so, depending on how things unfold over the next nine months.





https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2025-zips-p ... guardians/

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Dodgers Have Almost As Much Deferred Money As Guardians’ Franchise Valuation

January 19, 2025

By Justin Hussong

The Los Angeles Dodgers aren’t shy about spending money.

Just one offseason after spending over a billion dollars on Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, they have once again broken the bank this offseason by landing Blake Snell, Tanner Scott, and Roki Sasaki and re-signing Teoscar Hernandez.

The Cleveland Guardians were just a few wins away from facing the Dodgers in the 2024 World Series, and they headed into this offseason with some very clear needs.

However, once again, Guardians’ ownership has not spent adequately to keep up with the big-market teams at the top of the payroll rankings.

Things have always been this way, but a recent report showed just how wide the gap now is between the Dodgers and everybody else, as LA now has nearly as much deferred money as the Guardians’ entire franchise valuation.

More For You Cleveland shared on X that the Dodgers have slightly over $1 billion in deferred money after signing reliever Tanner Scott on Sunday, which is just shy of the Guardians’ $1.35 billion franchise valuation, according to Forbes.

More For You Cleveland also said this is a “way deeper issue with the sport” other than the idea that smaller markets simply need to spend more money.

The Dodgers have had a field day deferring a lot of money over the past two offseasons, and other teams will certainly try to replicate this practice or discuss it heavily in the next CBA.

Regardless, there is no excuse for a team like the Guardians to continue not spending money when their owners have a higher net worth than the Dodgers’ ownership group.

Both things can be true.

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James Karinchak, who formerly starred in a bullpen role for the Cleveland Guardians, has signed a deal with the Chicago White Sox.

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What's the hold-up for the best SP still on the market?

Digging in to Jack Flaherty's slow-moving free agency

January 24th, 2025

If there’s been a theme of this baseball offseason … well, OK, it’s the Dodgers signing every member of your extended family. But if there’s another theme, it’s that starting pitchers have been doing quite well in free agency. In a sport desperate for pitching, the starting pitching market got moving fast, and ended up with a number of veteran arms being well-compensated, usually somewhat more than projections would have expected.

Except, that is, for Jack Flaherty, who is the only unsigned member of MLB.com’s pre-Hot Stove Top 10 Free Agent Starters list.

According to FanGraphs, only three starters remain who are projected for even 2 WAR, which is to say average. Since Flaherty is 29 and unencumbered by a Qualifying Offer, as opposed to Nick Pivetta (32, with an Offer) and Max Scherzer (a living legend, but also turning 41 this summer), it’s not a hard case to make that Flaherty is the best free agent starter still available.

You could argue, too, that his hometown Dodgers don’t get to and win the World Series without him, given how paper-thin their rotation was last fall.

And yet: he remains on the market, with little buzz. What’s going on – and what might teams hope to get? ----

In many ways, Flaherty has what every team desires: youth, a recent track record of health, and some high-upside pitches. What he's missing, so far, is consistency. But now he's the best starter left out there, and there are more than a few contending teams that could badly use a youthful mid-rotation starter with, perhaps, some untapped upside remaining.

https://www.mlb.com/news/jack-flaherty- ... t-analysis


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JACK FLAHERTY PITCHING ARSONAL 2024 SEASON; SHOW JACK THE MONEY. THE MISSING LINK

https://youtu.be/3TquQwHyYO4

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Dodgers Team News

Dodgers Plan to Launch Fan Clubs in Japan

Sam Garcia Follow on X01/26/2025

Japan’s love for the Los Angeles Dodgers is no secret.

Los Angeles has become a hotspot for Japanese-born stars to flourish in their MLB careers. During their first season with the Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto won the first World Series title of their career.

Signing starting pitcher Roki Sasaki only amplified Japan’s support for the franchise. The country’s support for the team may have contributed to his decision to join Los Angeles.

More News: Former Dodgers Pitcher Announces Retirement Citing Injury With LA as Key Reason

The Dodgers revealed a plan to create fan clubs in Japan to unite the franchise’s international supporters. The development of these Japan fan clubs has yet to begin.

“We’re working on some experimental things with adding fans and fan clubs,” Stan Kasten, the president and CEO of the Dodgers organization, said. “That stuff hasn’t started yet.”

International fan clubs are not common in Major League baseball. Many professional soccer leagues like the Premier League have already launched fan clubs for their international fan base.

“That is something that Premier League and European soccer leagues already do, amassing international fans,” Kasten said. “We’re doing a pilot program to start that and see how it does.”

It has yet to be reported when these Dodgers’ fan clubs will open in Japan. But, the fan clubs will undoubtedly gather a large number of people in Japan, who already follow the Dodgers.

Japanese fans will get an opportunity to watch the Dodgers play in-person at the Tokyo Dome on March 18-19. The Dodgers will face the Chicago Cubs in a two-game series to open the MLB regular season.

The Tokyo Dome is less than an hour away from the ZOZO Marine Stadium, where Sasaki played four seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines.

Sasaki, Ohtani, and Yamamoto played there during the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

The trio of Japanese stars in Los Angeles is not only good for the Dodgers, but also for the growth of the game. As Dodgers’ fan clubs emerge in Japan, it’s another indication of MLB’s development overseas.

IS JAPAN BECOMING THE "AAAA" LEAGUE FOR DODGER BASEBALL ????

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My comments on Guardians' activities while I was away:

Once again a BRILLIANT move trading the Straw contract in return for absolutely nothing. Reminds me of the way the Cavs took advantage of the Nets eagerness to get James Harden by taking Allen off their roster

Sewald deal is so similar to the unsuccessful pickup of that Barlow deal last year [nearly the same price for a has-been closer] to provide a veteran presence -- that I write it off as a dud. Doesn't have to work out badly; if they're lucky Sewald's lack of success last year was due to injuries which are now in his past. If he like Barlow is a flop, there's $ down the train that I assume most everyone would rather have seen use for a starter, but perhaps none are available for that price, considering the deal the even-more-injured Alex Cobb struck with the Tigers.