Cleveland Sports Forum

Kwan finished 3rd as expected for ROY. That's OK, I'll accept him for what he is.

he fact that Kwan doesn’t have a new trophy to put on the shelf next to his 2022 Gold Glove Award doesn’t take anything away from his incredible season. Kwan red all AL rookies in hits (168) and runs (89), and he owned the second-highest fWAR of left fielders in the Majors (4.4), trailing just Yordan Alvarez (6.6). And for the Guardians, Kwan was the definition of a textbook leadoff hitter, leading his team in average (.298) and on-base percentage (.373), while drawing the second-most walks on the squad (62) behind the threatening power bat of José Ramírez (69).

It’s difficult to steal the spotlight from the heavy hitters in today’s game. In 132 games, Rodríguez hit 28 homers and knocked in 75 RBIs. But the fact that a contact-oriented, fast and scrappy type of player like Kwan did enough to catch attention to be a finalist for this award speaks for itself.

“It’s definitely really rewarding,” Kwan said. “Obviously, you’re coming through the Minors and you’re hearing power is the big thing now. Power is sexy. Home runs are sexy. It’s slug, strikeout or walk. I have a little bit of power, but I don’t have the kind of pop that everybody else has. It’s sticking to my game, sticking to what I can do, not getting discouraged … it’s definitely rewarding to see that pay off.”
Steven Kwan wins Gold Glove


The spotlight began following Kwan on Opening Day. He is known for unbelievable patience at the plate and immediately put that on display, going 116 pitches into his MLB career before his first swing and miss, the most of any player to start a career since at least 2000, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Kwan struggled briefly in May, but he proved he belonged in the Majors by quickly making adjustments to get himself back on track. He didn’t slow down once the calendar flipped to June, figuring out ways to continue to improve. By the end of the season, Guardians manager Terry Francona would joke that Kwan didn’t even seem like a rookie anymore.

Julio Rodríguez, SEA: 29 (first-place votes), 1 (second-place vote) – 148 points
Adley Rutschman, BAL: 1 (1st), 18 (2nd), 9 (3rd) – 68 points
Steven Kwan, CLE: 10 (2nd), 14 (3rd) – 44 points
Bobby Witt Jr., KC: 1 (2nd), 4 (3rd) – 7 points
Jeremy Peña, HOU: 2 (3rd) – 2 points
George Kirby, SEA: 1 (3rd) – 1 point

Steven Kwan, LF, Guardians

What makes him electric? He graded out as the season’s best left fielder. Kwan made headlines at the start of the season for his uncanny ability to not swing and miss at literally anything. On the whole, his 124 OPS+ denoted his solid offensive season.

But his defense was on another level. Kwan’s 21 defensive runs saved and 12 outs above average set the bar for left fielders and were indicative of why the 25-year-old became the first Cleveland rookie to win a Gold Glove.

Top 2022 moment: Kwan put his body on the line for this catch in Seattle. That was good. But his best catch of the season featured an all-out dive on the warning track in Colorado to preserve a Guardians lead. Just jaw-dropping stuff.

Diamondbacks Acquire Carlos Vargas From Guardians
By Anthony Franco | November 15, 2022 at 5:21pm CDT

The D-Backs have acquired reliever Carlos Vargas from the Guardians, tweets Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Minor league pitcher Ross Carver has been dealt to Cleveland in return.

More to come.

Looked up Carver, drafted in 2021 so doesn't need to be added to the roster. Was No 21 prospect before the season; pitched very well debuting in High A; then moved up to "the most home run prone park" in the minors and struggled badly. New venue should show now good he may be.

Guardians trade former top prospect Nolan Jones to Colorado for INF Juan Brito

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Nolan Jones, once Cleveland’s No. 1 overall minor league prospect, is heading to Colorado in a trade that will send infielder Juan Brito to the Guardians.

Jones, who made his major league debut on July 8 in Kansas City, was the organization’s second-round pick in the 2016 draft, and was rated at the top of Cleveland’s farm system in 2020. But injuries hampered his progress through the club’s player development system. By the time he debuted, Jones had missed parts of two seasons with surgery on his righty thumb in 2019 and his left ankle in 2021.

n 94 plate appearances across 28 games, Jones hit .244 with two home runs and 13 RBI. He walked eight times and struck out 31 with a .681 OPS. At Columbus, he batted .276 with nine home runs and 43 RBI in 55 games.

Brito, 21, spent 2022 at High-A Fresno, hitting .286 (115-for-402) with 29 doubles, six triples, 11 home runs and 72 RBI in 107 games. He finished fourth in the California League in doubles (29), sixth in on-base pct. (.407) and eighth in RBI (72). The switch-hitting middle infielder owns a three-year professional batting average of .295 (179-for-606) with 36 2B, 9 3B, 17 HR and 109 RBI in 169 games. He is currently rated Colorado’s 30th-best prospect per MLB Pipeline.

Brito was added to Cleveland’s 40-man roster once he was acquired.

The Guardians made a flurry of roster moves and trades Tuesday prior to Major League Baseball’s deadline for clubs to set their 40-man rosters ahead of next month’s Rule 5 draft. In addition to trading Jones, Cleveland dealt reliver Carlos Vargas to the Diamondbacks in exchange for right-hander Ross Carver.

The club also designated left-handers Kirk McCarty and Anthony Gose for assignment and added lefties Tim Herrin, Joey Cantillo and infielder Angel Martinez to the 40-man roster.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Infielder Angel Martinez and left-handed pitching prospects Tim Herrin and Joey Cantillo were added to the Guardians’ 40-man roster on Tuesday prior to Major League Baseball’s deadline to protect prospects in advance of next month’s Rule 5 draft.

Cleveland also sent right-handed reliever Carlos Vargas to the Diamondbacks in exchange for minor league righty Ross Carver. The club designated lefties Anthony Gose and Kirk McCarty for assignment in order to make room on the roster

A native of the Dominican Republic, Martinez split time between High-A Lake County and Double-A Akron where he hit .278 with 13 home runs and a .849 OPS in 101 games.

Cantillo, 22, was part of Cleveland’s massive haul in the Mike Clevinger trade with San Diego in August, 2020. He turned in a strong season for Akron before a shoulder injury limited him to just 14 appearances. Cantillo posted a 1.93 ERA in 60 2/3 innings while striking out 87 batters and allowing a .178 opponent batting average. During a five-game stretch in May, Cantillo did not allow a run across 22 innings.

Herrin, 26, is a 6-foot-6 lefty that caught manager Terry Francona’s eye in spring training. In September, Francona talked about Herrin prior to a series against the Royals. He said the long and lanky left-hander reminds him at first glance of a former dominant Cleveland reliever.

“He looks like Andrew Miller, throws like Andrew Miller,” Francona said. “We saw him this spring, I remember he came in a game, Brian Sweeney called down and said ‘Wait till you see this.’”

Herrin went 1-4 in 46 appearances between Akron and Columbus with a 4.02 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP, but his strikeout potential is off the charts. In 69 1/3 innings he punched out 101 batters. Control was an issue as Herrin walked 23 and allowed seven home runs, but Cleveland’s development staff seems to be impressed with his stuff.

“We’re trying to figure out why it’s not matching up yet,” Francona said. “But when it does, look out.”

Vargas, who missed the 2021 season while recovering from reconstructive elbow surgery, went 4-3 with a 3.67 ERA in 34 1/3 innings with 37 strikeouts between Akron and Columbus. He was promoted to the big league club in September, but did not appear in a game for the Guardians. The 22-year-old Dominican native signed with Cleveland as an international free agent in October, 2015.

Carver, 23, pitched at High-A Hillsboro and Double-A Amarillo last season, compiling a 2-5 record in 24 appearances with a 5.06 ERA and 128 strikeouts in 117 1/3 innings. He was a 20th round selection of the Diamondbacks in the 2021 draft out of Dallas Baptist University.

from Covering the Corner, a fan-based website


Analysis & Editorials
2022 Cleveland Guardians in Review

Owen Miller had plenty of opportunities to succeed in 2022

His hot start earned him way more leeway than it should have [I concur! Can he get better? If not, he's gone]
[the following article asses Miller for his offense; it neglects to mention his sloppy defense; so he's worse than this lessthan-stellar evaluation]

Alright, here it is. The post you animals have been clamoring for: The Covering the Corner review of Owen Miller’s 2022 season.
I get it. You, like most people, are big fans of positional versatility. The Swiss Army Knife player is your favorite because anyone can play 130 games at one position, but it takes a real talent to be ready to play at multiple positions at any time. So, as we’ve been recapping each player’s season, you’ve been eagerly refreshing the site, checking our Twitter, or waiting for your friend to text you that the Owen Miller review has been posted.

Much like Miller’s season, however, the review goes downhill from here.

For a utility player, Miller had a decent 2022. He had a serviceable line of .243/.301/.351 with an 85 wRC+ and wOBA of .287 to go with a 0.6 fWAR. There are two problems with this, though. First, Miller’s insanely hot start to the season propped up an otherwise very poor season. Second, Miller was not a utility player, as he played in 130 games and started 118, including 71 at the traditionally offensive-minded first base.

In April, Miller went full supernova, hitting .400/.466/.700 with a wRC+ of 227 and wOBA of .487. Of course, a sample of 58 plate appearances is enough to tell us exactly nothing about a player, and Miller very quickly cooled off. In May, over his next 99 PA, Miller had a line of .211/.253/.322 with wRC+ of 60 and wOBA of .251. That second month of the season was much more instructive on how to think of Miller as an offensive threat — or, more accurately, how to think of him as not an offensive threat.

Though also a small sample, the May numbers reflected his overall offensive production very well. From May 1 through the end of the season, Miller hit .222/.278/.305 with a 65 wRC+ and .259 wOBA. Those offensive numbers are not great, but they’re the kind of production a team can tolerate from a flexible player who offers defensive versatility. Miller was in the 91st percentile for outs above average this season while making appearances at first (primarily), second, and third base. His offensive production was not far from players such as Adam Frazier of the Mariners (.238/.301/.311, 81 wRC+, .297 wOBA, 91st percentile OAA) and Isiah Kiner-Falefa of the Yankees (.261/.314/.327, 85 wRC+, .285 wOBA).

Cleveland did not use Miller like an offensively limited player, though, and instead hit him in the heart of the order as if his April outburst was always on the cusp of being repeated. Miller appeared in the lineup at every spot except eight and nine. With offensive black holes like Myles Straw and Austin Hedges also in the lineup, this might be excused, but the fact that Miller was the Guardians’ second-most frequent clean-up hitter (34 times) is egregious. (Not to mention hitting Miller second an incredible six times in the last 20 games.)

Frazier might be the best comp for Miller here, as he led off for the M’s for most of the first two months. Scott Servais learned how to effectively use Frazier, however; after May 31, Frazier hit higher than sixth in the Mariners lineup only 14 times. After Sept. 17 he exclusively hit in the bottom third of Seattle’s lineup. Likewise, Aaron Boone batted Kiner-Falefa above sixth just 10 times in his 142 games, most frequently (62 times) slotting him in the eighth spot of the Yankees’ batting order.

Perhaps I’m too optimistic, but I still see some value in Miller beyond his pretty awful May to October performance. The key to tapping into that value, though, would be using Miller according to his skill set. Just because Miller can play first base, that doesn’t mean he needs to make 71 starts there. While there’s certainly value in playing an above-average fielder at first, the team would almost certainly find more value by putting a better hitter there (or simply pairing a better right-handed hitter with Josh Naylor). The team would almost certainly have better luck playing Miller like the utility player he is, too.

Terry Francona did an incredible job in 2022, this much is unquestionable. But it’s really hard to understand how he saw what Owen Miller did from May on and utilized him as if he were one of the team’s better hitters. Hopefully, Miller’s role in 2023 is a bit more coherent.

Guardians’ Terry Francona named AL Manager of the Year after reinvigorating season


Apr 7, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona (77) before the game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports
By Zack Meisel
Nov 15, 2022



CLEVELAND — Throughout the 2022 season, whenever someone would ask Terry Francona how he was feeling, he would begin his reply with, “Well, I have two shoes on …”

For the eternally self-deprecating Guardians manager, that was a welcome starting point, given his health issues the previous two years. Gastrointestinal issues, blood clots and a toe injury — resulting in a stint in an intensive care unit, a walking boot and so many visits to the Cleveland Clinic that doctors dubbed a hospital room the “Tito Suite” — cut short his 2020 and 2021 seasons.

He returned for the 2022 campaign, though, a season in which the upstart Guardians surprised many as they navigated their way to within one victory of a trip to the American League Championship Series. The group of rookies and sophomores seized command of the AL Central in September and wound up with 92 wins, about 15 more than oddsmakers projected before the season.

On Tuesday, Francona was recognized for the team’s improbable season, winning his third AL Manager of the Year honor since arriving in Cleveland a decade ago. The award is voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, with ballots submitted before the postseason. Baltimore’s Brandon Hyde and Seattle’s Scott Servais were the other finalists.

Francona admitted he pondered his future more this year than he ever had in the past. When on the road, alone in his hotel room, the thoughts crept into his mind. How would a baseball lifer spend his time once the pregame cribbage battles, the sneak hair-snipping attacks on his assistant coach, the wads of Dubble Bubble and tobacco, and every other element of the 162-game grind are removed from the equation?

Francona decided he’s not quite ready to solve that riddle, not when he still felt butterflies in his stomach during the ninth inning of an inconsequential game against the Royals long after his team had wrapped up its fourth division title under his watch. He’s returning for an 11th season at the helm in Cleveland.

“When the day comes that losses don’t affect you,” Francona said a couple of days after the season, “then it’s probably time to hang it up. I’m not there.”

The 2022 club, with a relentless energy and refreshing style, reinvigorated him. Early in spring training, Francona stressed the need for the Guardians to prioritize their contact ability at the plate, their speed on the bases and mistake-free baseball in the field. Led by José Ramírez, Amed Rosario and Steven Kwan, the team rode those tenets to 92 wins.
Terry Francona removes Shane Bieber from Game 1 of the Wild Card Series. (David Richard / USA Today)

During and after the season, Francona deflected praise and plaudits sent his way for steering a roster full of young players to a division crown and Game 5 of the American League Division Series. The Guardians had 17 rookie debuts in 2022, tying a franchise record. He routinely commended his assistant coaches, whom he said he’s leaned on heavily in recent years.

Francona arrived at a final decision to sign a contract for 2023 in early September, during a meeting with team president Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff in Kansas City. He preferred not to overshadow the team’s mission and accomplishments, so he did not publicize it or reveal his plans for the future, even when asked as players and coaches soaked the visitors clubhouse in Champagne following a division-clinching win in Texas.

In late September, Antonetti accompanied Francona to what the manager thought was a team meeting in the ballpark’s news interview room. When Francona entered, players, coaches, clubhouse staff and front-office members stood and applauded him for becoming the franchise’s all-time wins leader. Former players shared their congratulations via video. Francona’s longtime friend, college and big-league teammate, and fellow coach, Brad Mills, who lives in Texas, attended the presentation.

With Cleveland, Francona has amassed an 845-671 record. Lou Boudreau and Mike Hargrove rank second and third in wins, with 728 and 721, respectively. Francona’s 10 seasons as manager are the most in team history; that total eclipses his tenure as Boston manager by two years.

Francona also captured the AL Manager of the Year award in 2013 (his first year with the club) and in 2016. This third recognition might be the most unexpected of the bunch, given the team’s bounty of question marks at the start of the year and Francona’s recent track record of availability. On the final day of the regular season, Francona received a call from his daughter, who saluted him for making it through 162 games for the first time since 2019.

“She actually told me, ‘I had the under,’” Francona said. “Thanks a lot!”

Question to Jim Bowden ?

Will the Guardians finally package some prospects for a big trade, like we’ve been waiting for them to do? — Andy L.

The Guardians are trying to land a catcher in a trade and have had discussions with the Blue Jays and A’s about deals that would include prospects going in the other direction. They also want to land a big bat if possible and certainly have the farm system depth to make that type of deal. So, to answer your question, my guess is yes!

Gabriel Moreno - Blue Jays Sean Murphy - A's.

Path was ‘less clear’ for Nolan Jones with Cleveland, prompting trade: Guardians Takeaways
Updated: Nov. 16, 2022, 5:19 p.m.|Published: Nov. 16, 2022, 4:43 p.m.


By Joe Noga, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Tuesday’s trade of former No. 1 prospect Nolan Jones to Colorado came as a bit of a surprise, but Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said Wednesday that the move made sense on a number of levels.

Cleveland got back minor league infielder Juan Brito, a switch-hitter that the organization likes, and who fits the profile of an athletic young player with emerging power.


Heading to Colorado also gives Jones an opportunity -- something that is in short supply for left-handed hitting outfielders in the Guardians’ organization at the moment.

“We continue to believe that Nolan is going to go on and be a really productive major league player,” Antonetti said. “However, as we started to look at our roster composition for next year of where there may be opportunities for Nolan, maybe his path was a little bit less clear at this point.”

Cleveland’s second-round pick in 2016, Jones battled through injuries to make his big league debut in July before being optioned to Triple-A at the end of August. The emergence of Oscar Gonzalez, and Gonzalez’s overall productivity at the major league level blocked Jones from keeping the spot. Once Gonzalez returned from a midyear abdominal strain, he played there pretty much every day.

Antonetti said when Cleveland signed José Ramírez to a seven-year contract at the beginning of the season, it really took Jones’ primary position of third base away as an option for him to make contributions at the major league level.

“That forced us to think of him as more of an outfielder and first baseman,” Antonetti said. “If you think about how our roster has progressed over the last year and a half, left-handed hitting outfielders is an area which we’ve added an appreciable amount of depth and a lot of players that have contributed at the major league level, or we expect them to.”

The steady play of Steven Kwan and the spark provided by Will Brennan, coupled with the untapped potential of current No. 2 prospect George Valera, further reduced Jones’ opportunities. Meanwhile, Cleveland drafted Chase DeLauter in the first round this year and hopes the 6-foot-4 athlete can develop into an option in right field.


“It’s not to take anything away from Nolan, we expect him to go on and be a really productive major league player,” Antonetti said. “As we looked toward this year, we just weren’t sure what types of opportunities we’d have at the major league level for him.”

Jones, 24, posted his thoughts on the trade on Instagram after the deal was announced Tuesday:

“I couldn’t be more thankful for the past seven years I got to spend in the Guardians organization. Thank you to my teammates and coaches for helping me live out my baseball dreams. I will forever cherish the relationships create and memories made. I’m excited for what’s to come, let’s go Rockies!”

Injury updates on Giménez, Naylor

Antonetti provided updates on Andrés Giménez, who ended the season with a fractured finger, and Josh Naylor, who sought a doctor’s advice on his surgically repaired right ankle that hampered him throughout the season.


Giménez is fully recovered from the finger fracture and has resumed normal offseason activities in Florida. The All-Star second baseman will be splitting time between Florida and Venezuela before playing for his homeland in the World Baseball Classic.

Naylor is already at the Guardians’ training complex in Arizona. Per his doctor’s recommendation, he has not yet begun full weight-bearing running.

“The doctor just wanted to give his joint surfaces time to calm down,” Antonetti said.

Naylor will eventually begin to initiate more of a running progression in the next couple of weeks, Antonetti said.

Keith Law

The Guardians did some 40-man shuffling, but the most surprising move was dealing away Nolan Jones, one of their top prospects just two years ago, to Colorado, although Jones’ limitations have become much more apparent as he’s reached the high minors. He’s always been a high walks, moderately-high strikeouts guy, but hasn’t turned that approach into more production — he’s getting ahead in counts, but not using that to get to more pitches to drive, never hitting 20 homers in any full pro season. The Guardians also have protected him from tough lefties since his awful performance against southpaws in 2019, giving him a disproportionate amount of playing time against right-handers in the last two years. He’s a former third baseman who should be able to handle right field, with a plus-plus arm and enough athleticism to be an average defender there.

In exchange, the Guardians got Juan Brito, who absolutely is their type — they target players who walk a lot, especially if they also don’t strike out much, regardless of the remainder of their skill set. Brito walked more than he struck out as a 20-year-old for Low-A Fresno this year, although nearly all of his power came at home, with Fresno a hitter-friendly ballpark. He’s a switch-hitter who showed virtually no platoon split this year, although I like his swing and bat speed more from the left side, and played capable defense at second base. It’s a bit surprising that Cleveland would trade Jones for another player who has to go on the 40-man roster, rather than using the deal to clear a spot, as they had to leave some decent prospects off before the deadline, including Gabriel Rodríguez and Johnathan Rodríguez. I don’t think either would be taken, but Johnathan Rodríguez could at least elicit some interest in the Rule 5 draft.

From a Peter Gammons article in The Athletic on organizational cultures:

In many ways, the most remarkable organization of the last decade has been Cleveland. It’s a continuation of the legacy of those great Indians teams built by Bill Veeck, partly through his introduction of African-Americans like Larry Doby, Satchel Paige and Dave Pope to the American League (remember, that more backward league didn’t have an African-American rookie of the year until Tommy Agee in 1966, 19 years after Jackie Robinson won the award), and then carried on later under John Hart. Hart put together the bombers that made the 1995 and 1997 World Series, turned the club over to Mark Shapiro and he, Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff set about ignoring market demographics and targeting wins regardless of payroll size. And it has worked: beginning with the 2013 hiring of Terry Francona, the now-Guardians have won more games than any AL team but the Yankees, and got to within an extra-inning heartbreak of winning the franchise’s first World Series since 1948.

Antonetti’s hiring practice has long been to bring on interns “that are smarter than I am,” with examples like executives Mike Hazen, Carter Hawkins, David Stearns, Derek Falvey and Chernoff coming through the organization at various points. They have to make trades based on economics. They had to trade Francisco Lindor when he was at the point where he could ask for something north of $200 million. In the package they got Andrés Giménez, who in his second full season playing second base was fourth in all of baseball in Baseball Reference’s Wins Above Average, trailing Aaron Judge, Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt. José Ramírez was 14th in WAA, yet another year of sparkling production from an international signing who cost only $215,000. Rookie Steven Kwan was 22nd, a fourth-round draft choice. No other team had three players in the top 25 in that category. Then there was closer Emmanuel Clase, the best reliever in the American League, who was acquired in a trade for Corey Kluber.

So much of this starts with Francona. In the Guardians’ run to the playoffs, reliever Sam Hentges said, “In April, Terry was using in every possible situation to help me believe I belonged. In September, he was using me to help the team get into October.” In April 2013, his first full month with the Indians, Shapiro said, “He’s changed the entire culture here.” Every coach or team official is free to express his thoughts and argue individual thoughts. He has a pitching coach in Carl Willis who has coached five Cy Young winners. Cleveland has long had a strong organizational culture; Francona made it better, and his plaque is awaiting him in Cooperstown.

Shapiro, Chernoff, Francona’s protégé Kevin Cash and virtually everyone that has passed through the offices at the stadium long known as The Jake is open to contrarian ideas. In 2021, the Diamondbacks were 52-112, tied with the Orioles for the worst record in the game. Hazen, his wife Nicole gravely ill with brain cancer, was privately asked if there would be changes coming to his uniformed staff. “I put the team together, I’ll face it,” he replied.

“Our bullpen wasn’t good. It wasn’t Torey Lovullo’s fault. He didn’t mishandle it,” Hazen said, concluding that he was the one who had built that poor bullpen.

When it was time for a season-ending media conference summing up the season, Hazen insisted that he do it by himself.

“It’s my job to face the music,” he said.

As the Diamondbacks unveiled a number of outstanding young players in the second half of the 2022 season and 2023 began to appear to be the light at the end of the tunnel, Hazen said, “We will work hard to surround those kids with legitimate talent. You’ll hear no excuses from me. I don’t want to be blaming the manager or the coaches or be making excuses. I look at it like this — I don’t want people who work for us to make excuses or point fingers at other people. But I can’t expect that if I’m making excuses and blaming others. If I ask for hard work and honesty, I ask others to accept responsibility, then I’d better accept responsibility. If I can’t do that, maybe I shouldn’t have the job.”

That is how Hazen was raised. When a shoulder injury cut short his playing career after the 1999 season, his Princeton coach Scott Bradley said, “He’s the best leader I’ve ever had.” Chris Young, who is tasked with altering culture in Texas, played with Hazen for Bradley, himself a former longtime major league catcher. Young and Hazen may be two of the most honestly self-aware people one could ever hope to meet.

Hazen came up working with Shapiro and Antonetti. He then went to Boston under Theo Epstein, who from the time he became Red Sox general manager in 2003 said, “I think it’s important to associate with people who aren’t afraid to disagree with me. We all need to hear that.” A question he often asked as he grew as an executive was, “What am I missing?” In a dozen-year span, his Red Sox and Cubs teams ended respective “curses” that went back to the first initial years of the 20th century.

Cleveland was tough in the late 40s and early 50s since it was a AL pioneer in signing Black players.
Then had the first black manager.
I have no idea if it's mere happenstance but the Indi/Guari/ans have had many Black players as 1st round draft choices in the past decade, including Benson, McKenzie, Naylor.

Jason LLoyd

Higher payroll for Guardians?

Guardians starting pitcher Shane Bieber (Vincent Carchietta / USA Today)
Guardians president Chris Antonetti told reporters this week he expects the payroll to be “appreciably higher” than the roughly $70 million payroll they operated under this season.

“Where, exactly, that settles, we’re just not quite sure,” Antonetti said. “Some of that will be a function of not just our internal projections, but what opportunities are going to be available to us on the market. We don’t only look at things in a one-year snapshot, we really think about team building on a multi-year horizon.”

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The payroll will increase just through arbitration. With Anthony Gose and Luke Maile removed from the 40-man roster, the Guardians still have seven arbitration-eligible players (Shane Bieber, Amed Rosario, Cal Quantrill, Josh Naylor, Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac and James Karinchak) who are projected to make about $36 million collectively.

Bieber has two years left of team control, which seems to be the sweet spot when this front office starts dealing players. Trevor Bauer was dealt with two postseasons of control remaining. Francisco Lindor was heavily shopped with two years of control left (and traded with one year remaining). Jose Ramirez was about to be traded with two years of control remaining last spring before he negotiated a deal to remain in Cleveland. But Antonetti told MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM the team has no interest in moving Bieber this winter.

“We have every intention of trying to contend next year and trying to win a World Series,” Antonetti said. “And Shane Bieber will be a big part of that for us.”

It’s understandable why Cleveland is reluctant to trade Bieber now, given the fact a new contention window is just opening. He’ll likely have to be traded at some point, but the next wave of Cleveland’s top-end pitching depth, namely Daniel Espino and Gavin Williams, aren’t yet ready for the majors. Keeping Bieber in the rotation gives Cleveland a terrific top three alongside Triston McKenzie and Quantrill until Espino and Williams are ready.

Homegrown talent
Remember 15 years ago when the Guardians kept turning over their scouting department and couldn’t draft and develop impact players? Those days are long over. According to Fangraphs’ database, 26 players on the Guardians’ 40-man roster were homegrown. That’s the second-highest number in baseball behind only the Kansas City Royals (27).

Much of that has to do with all the minor-leaguers added to the 40-man over the last two years. The scramble this year wasn’t quite as stressful as last year when Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff had to crowbar 11 minor-leaguers onto the roster. The result was a record 17 rookies making their major-league debut and an unexpected division title.

“We thought it was the right decision to add the players we did last year, but it was anxious because we were taking up a lot of spots on our 40-man roster with players that had not yet contributed at the upper levels of the minor leagues. Certainly didn’t have major-league exposure,” Antonetti said. “We knew that we were going to be relying upon some of those players to contribute at the major-league level. Fast forward to this year, we are at a very different place.

“The vast majority of those players that we added last year are still with us. … Even the guys that didn’t appear in the major leagues all got Double-A and Triple-A experience. That group of players is now situated to be able to help us at the major league level through the 2023 season, for the most part. And that’s a very different position for our roster than we were a year ago.”