Cleveland Sports Forum

Zack Meisel
@ZackMeisel
The following players have made the Guardians' Opening Day roster:

Carlos Carrasco
Tyler Beede
Brayan Rocchio
Tyler Freeman
David Fry
Gabriel Arias

This would seem to leave one spot available for either Will Brennan, Deyvison De Los Santos or Estevan Florial.

The Guardians have placed center fielder Myles Straw on waivers, reports Zack Meisel of The Athletic. Any team will have the opportunity to claim him, although doing so would require taking on the entirety of the three years and $19.25MM still remaining on his contract. That appears quite unlikely. Straw figures to clear waivers, at which point the Guardians could assign him outright to a minor league affiliate.

While Straw’s 4.112 years of MLB service time give him the right to reject that outright assignment, he’s still short of the five years necessary to reject an outright and retain the money he’s owed. There’s no chance he’d forfeit that $19.25MM to go into free agency, so the likely outcome seems to be Straw clearing and heading to Triple-A Columbus while no longer occupying a spot on the 40-man roster. It’s also feasible that the Guardians could simply be gauging whether there’s a taker for Straw and, if not, could simply plug him back into their center field spot. He can be optioned to Triple-A if the club keeps him on the 40-man roster. A player does not have to be assigned outright to a minor league affiliate after clearing waivers (though that’s obviously the most common outcome).

That is big, and welcomed news. I like Straw, but he is a weak link.

Both Carrasco and Beede will need to be formally selected to the 40-man roster before Opening Day.

No mention of DeLauter.

I don't think they want to start his FA clock ticking yet.

As far as Straw goes, G's are eating that 19M as of today. The wheeler dealers in the FA need to make some moves.

Guardians Place Myles Straw On Waivers
By Steve Adams | March 22, 2024 at 12:18pm CDT

The Guardians have placed center fielder Myles Straw on waivers, reports Zack Meisel of The Athletic. Any team will have the opportunity to claim him, although doing so would require taking on the entirety of the three years and $19.25MM still remaining on his contract. That appears quite unlikely. Straw figures to clear waivers, at which point the Guardians could assign him outright to a minor league affiliate.

While Straw’s 4.112 years of MLB service time give him the right to reject that outright assignment, he’s still short of the five years necessary to reject an outright and retain the money he’s owed. There’s no chance he’d forfeit that $19.25MM to go into free agency, so the likely outcome seems to be Straw clearing and heading to Triple-A Columbus while no longer occupying a spot on the 40-man roster. It’s also feasible that the Guardians could simply be gauging whether there’s a taker for Straw and, if not, could simply plug him back into their center field spot. He can be optioned to Triple-A if the club keeps him on the 40-man roster. A player does not have to be assigned outright to a minor league affiliate after clearing waivers (though that’s obviously the most common outcome).

With Straw in limbo for the time being, that leaves Steven Kwan and Ramon Laureano as locks in the Cleveland outfield. The former will see regular reps in left field. The latter had been slated for right field work but can handle center. It’s also possible the Guards will go with Will Brennan and/or Estevan Florial to fill outfield roles. Infielder Tyler Freeman has also gotten looks in center this spring. Brennan has all three minor league option years remaining, while Florial is out of minor league options. Top outfield prospect Chase DeLauter could be an option eventually, but he was never a full-time member of big league camp and was only called up on occasion to fill at-bats as needed, Meisel notes. He was never a consideration to make the Opening Day roster.

Cleveland originally acquired Straw in a 2021 deadline swap sending right-hander Phil Maton to the Astros. He made a strong first impression, hitting .285/.362/.377 with plus defense and baserunning down the stretch. That brought his season-long line to a solid .271/.349/.348 — just shy of league-average production (98 wRC+). Paired with Straw’s speed and glovework, it was a strong effort that served as a catalyst for the Guards to sign him to a five-year, $25MM extension with a pair of club options for two additional seasons.

Unfortunately, Straw’s bat has cratered since putting pen to paper on that deal. Over the past two seasons, he’s turned in just a .229/.296/.284 in 1114 trips to the plate. That’s about 32% worse than average, by measure of wRC+. Straw is a light-out defender in center (23 Defensive Runs Saved, 17 Outs Above Average over the past two seasons) and offers blazing speed (41-for-48 in steals since 2022), but his lack of offensive ability has severely capped his overall value. For an immensely cost-conscious Guardians club, his contract has apparently reached a point where they’ll see if another club is willing to take him on for no return other than salary relief.

Listening to the broadcast. They have officially offered De Los Santos back to DBacks and DBacks took him back.

Would have a hard time disagreeing with any of the decisions the manager or FO has made this spring training. Would like to see DeLauter and Manzardo but understand both will be up as soon as needed. Give Florial and Brennan their chances. Same for Arias.

Over the past two weeks, the Guardians were 11-4 if you include the break out game.
The run has pulled them from the bottom of the standing to fifth with their 13-12 record.
over that span, the Guardian pitchers struck out a total of 158 batters and walked only 43.
In only three of those game did the Guardians walk in excess of three batters.
In one game, the walked 5, in a second, the walked 7, in the third, they walked 8.
While watching the gameday reports, I noted how effective the Guardians were in attacking the strike zone.
"Grip it & Rip It" was a comment by Vogt in a recent article I read.
It appears the pitchers have taken that philosophy seriously.
Here is the results over the last 15 games:

K - W
CIN 5-2
LAD 12-2
TEX 12-1
CHC 8-1
COL 10-3
KC 10-1
SF 11-3
CIN 13-3 BREAK OUT GAME
CIN 12-2
CHW 11-8
MIL 12-5
KC 8-2
TEX 11-2
ARZ 11-1
CIN 12-7

Offensively, if the "station to station" baserunning philosophy works out (along with some added power production over last year), this will be an entertaining season to watch. The players have been aggressive early in the count and taking advantage in hitter situations (being ahead in the count). So far this spring, the aggressiveness is beginning to show. We've seen some of that philosophy pay off. The balls are jumping off the bat. Even the outs have been loud.

It appears that things are coming together.

<

I think Arias will be primary backup for Naylor. If he can't hit, I see him being replaced by Manzado.

This evening going to be on a conversation with Paul Jackso who is writing an article on the 50th anniversary of people who were at the 10 cent beer night.

Anybody seen the opening day 26? Probably have to wait until 10 minutes before gametime.

Any listing of the where the 90 guys they had in camp ended up?

I would suggest everyone get on the wagon before it leaves you behind !

Looks like Hoynes and Noga are off the wagon. Both predict another below .500 season