Fitz On Sports: Getting Crazy for the MLB Trade Deadline
Six playoff appearances, one pennant and nine campaigns in the last 10 completed seasons with a winning record.
The results the Cleveland Guardians have produced thanks in part to Chris Antonnetti, Mike Chernoff and Terry Francona speak for themselves. The 2016 World Series, 22 wins in a row, the ‘Guardiac Kids’ of 2022. There have been a lot of positives coming from the Corner of Carnegie and Ontario.
Yet, here Cleveland sits, with the longest World Series drought in baseball after losing to the Cubs in 2016, usurping the throne the Cubs vacated after erasing the ‘Curse of the Billy Goat.’
The 22-win stretch was fun, but it marked the first of four more trips to the postseason that didn’t even wind up in an ALCS appearance.
While the 2022 Guardians were a fun bunch, the 2023 version of mostly the same names and faces has been a bit of a disappointment, to put it mildly.
Cleveland has been a team marked by failure more times than you can count. Prior to 1995, the then-Indians hadn’t even been to the postseason since the 1954 World Series, a 41-year-old streak of failure.
The 2016 loss really hurt. Experiencing the first professional sports title in my life with the Cavaliers’ miraculous comeback after having ZERO championships to celebrate prior to turning 18 and falling short of another one within the span of months leaves an ache in my heart with each passing year.
You’ve had a glut of pitching prospects and middle infielders that are log-jammed throughout the entire system, with very little outfield power. Hell, whiffing on Matt Olson and Sean Murphy hurts even more when a few of these guys haven’t panned out above Triple-A.
I consider myself to be a more tempered fan and journalist with the team I fell in love with. Yet this year’s lack of power, injuries to the rotation and plain underperformance have me itching to go a little nuts. Crazy would be the better word.
It’s time to break the conservative mold and put the foot to the pedal by making an all-in push for 2023. This exercise is a fool’s errand given the flaws to the current roster, but let a man dream and for once in the past few years, be REALLY UNREALISTIC.
While this article will be released just ahead of the trade deadline, let’s whip up some scenarios and targets for Cleveland to go acquire or trade away.
And of course, the Guardians killed two parts of this column with the Amed Rosario-Noah Syndergaard swap on Wednesday! At least we were on the same wavelength.
ACQUIRE
Cody Bellinger, OF/1B, Chicago Cubs
I was one-hundred percent spot on in my assessment of Bellinger after last season ended. He’s been as hot as iron in July, and if you’re not getting him at the deadline, you go get him in the offseason!!
I don’t care how much it’ll take to sign him. Give him the bag! You get a power threat up the middle in your outfield and utilize Myles Straw as a fourth outfielder (I love you as a player Myles, especially your ability to glide to the ball on defense. Please don’t take this as a slight if you read this).
What about Josh Bell? I haven’t planned that far ahead since he’ll likely exercise his player option to return to the Guardians next year, but long term there are no big commitments to him or Josh Naylor (who I suspect may be playing his way out of town).
MVPs don’t come cheap. Get the thumper!
TRADE AWAY
Enyel De Los Santos
This is going to be the trade that gets me blasted by La Mole and others on Twitter but allow me to explain.
The journeyman reliever has settled in nicely over a year and a half in Cleveland. While his ERA is up by about a run due to a few bad outings, he isn’t arbitration eligible until this winter and has proved reliable. He has one career save, so he won’t be due a sizable raise but relievers with many years of control can fetch a premium on the trade market.
Trading De Los Santos may not get you one of Baltimore’s many power-hitting outfield prospects, but you can net something before any potential for regression sets in. Relievers are volatile from year-to-year.
ACQUIRE
Shohei Ohtani, DH/SP, LA Angels
“FITZ!! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!? YOU CAN’T RE-SIGN OHTANI IN THE OFFSEASON!!”
Did you read the headline? We’re going crazy here. Much as every fan base salivates over acquiring the unicorn of baseball players for one shot at postseason glory, Ohtani is going to require five brinks trucks to acquire and 10 more to re-up.
While the Angels were willing to listen before going into buyer mode on July 26. My gut feeling is Halos owner Arte Moreno’s pride couldn’t stomach the thought of jettisoning Ohtani.
There is a small piece of logic here for Cleveland to try and acquire Ohtani that goes beyond giving the Angels the pick of the litter with your top middle infield prospects and maybe a Logan Allen or Joey Cantillo to alleviate some of the logjam.
Limit your starter’s innings.
While this would be easier to justify with Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie healthy, you’d send your starting pitchers out every sixth day with Ohtani in the fold and reduce the burden on the young arms you’re able to retain.
On top of that, you’d have him in your lineup as one of the most feared hitters in baseball with a batting order that could look like this (Note: We are not factoring Bellinger into this scenario):
Steven Kwan LF
Shohei Ohtani DH/SP
Jose Ramirez 3B
Josh Naylor 1B
Andres Gimenez 2B
Tyler Freeman SS
David Fry/Oscar Gonzalez RF
Bo Naylor C
Will Brennan CF
You move Straw to the fourth outfielder role and shift Brennan to right field late in games without sacrificing too many outs near the end of the game. Also, I am not as high on Arias’ bat as I am with Freeman, so Arias gets sent to Columbus and Gonzalez comes back up.
I call that a dream scenario and a dream scenario it shall remain.
ACQUIRE
Fortify the bullpen
I initially said to obtain starting pitching depth, but you did that with Noah Syndergaard.
I have this foreboding feeling McKenzie is going to need a long-term procedure (no sources, only a hunch), and I am befuddled as to how Shane Bieber has reached the point of an enigma in Cleveland Sports discussions.
If Syndergaard bounces back, terrific! If you have another arm for the pen –and you know Francona loves his bullpen arms– then even better.
Sean Fitzgerald is an award-winning journalist, writer, sports reporter, voiceover talent and podcaster. Follow him on Twitter @fitzonsportsbsr for insights, articles and occasional livestreams, as well as bi-weekly columns here on medium.com.
