I would not give up any of the top 3 minor league pitchers for Murphy. If the FO believes that Naylor will be a better than average catcher with experience than I might just re-sign Hedges.
I would try to sign a free agent catcher and that may be Perez or Hedges.

Guardians sign Josh Bell: This is exactly the kind of move a contender should make – Terry Pluto
Published: Dec. 07, 2022, 5:31 a.m.


By Terry Pluto, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio – About a month ago, I checked with some top Guardians officials about the possibility of the team signing free agent Jesus Aguilar.

I was told, “We’d like to find a bigger upgrade than that.”

It wasn’t a big offense to Aguilar, a former Cleveland minor leaguer who has bounced around with several teams. Rather, it was a sign of the team wanting to seriously defend its Central Division title.


The Guardians made a bid for Jose Abreu – a three-year contract. But the first baseman signed a three-year deal with Houston instead, close to $20 million annually. Abreu will be 36 in January.

Cleveland went to option No. 2 when looking for a first baseman and right-handed hitter.

I knew they were interested in Josh Bell and wrote it on Nov. 5. But I had doubts about it happening because he’s represented by Scott Boras, one of the toughest agents for a mid-market team such as Cleveland.

But guess what?

Bell is coming to Cleveland. It’s a two-year, $33 million guaranteed deal. The 30-year-old Bell can opt out after the 2023 season. Boras wants to set up Bell for a big pay day if the switch-hitter has a monster year in Cleveland.

Works for me.

The two-year deal won’t be a long-term anchor on Cleveland’s payroll. If Bell hits 37 HR – as he did in 2019 – and leaves after the 2023 season ... it’s still a terrific signing for the front office of Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff. That means the Guardians will probably have another good season.


ANOTHER BAT TO HELP JOSN NAYLOR
Josh Naylor hit only .173 vs. lefties last season.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com


WHAT BELL CAN DO

Bell is 6-foot-4, 230 pounds with power. Over his last three full seasons (2019, 2021 and 2022), he’s averaged 27 HR and 92 RBI. How would that look in the cleanup spot batting behind Jose Ramirez?

Bell’s value dropped in 2022 because he had a strange season. He opened the year with Washington, batting .301 (.877 OPS) with 14 HR and 57 RBI in 103 games.

Then he was traded to San Diego, where he fell apart: .192 (.587 OPS) with 3 HR and 14 RBI in 53 games. He was 9 for 36 (.250) for the Padres with a pair of homers in the playoffs.

For a power hitter, Bell doesn’t strike out a lot – about 15% of the time. This is important to the new-look Guardians. They want power, but they don’t want guys fanning 150 times a year. In his last two seasons, Bell averaged 101 strikeouts and 73 walks.

The Guardians wanted more than a guy with some power. They wanted that player to be able to defend reasonably well at first base. Bell should be better than the Josh Naylor/Owen Miller combination with the glove.

The addition of Bell will allow Cleveland to use Naylor more as a DH. Or they can rest Naylor vs. lefties.

Naylor batted .283 (.856 OPS) with 19 HR vs. right-handers. It was .173 (.512 OPS) with 1 HR in 123 plate appearances vs. lefties.

Bell batted .276 (.816 OPS) vs. lefties in 2022.

Designated hitter was major problem for Cleveland. Franmil Reyes flopped and wasn’t offered a deal from the Cubs after his trade to Chicago at midseason.

Cleveland DHs batted .219 with 9 HR and 38 RBI.

THE BIG PICTURE

Both sides liked the idea of a shorter contract. Boras always is looking for ways to give his players another shot at a whopping free agent pot of gold.

Cleveland has no internal first base options ready for the big leagues in 2023. They have lots of middle infield and outfield options, but the first base prospects are in the lower minors.


Manager Terry Francona has longed for a switch-hitter to replace Carlos Santana at first base. Bell can do that.

Bell’s home run power has dropped from 37-27-17 in the last three 162-game seasons. Nonetheless, even if Bell hit 20 HR with 80 RBI, that will be important. The Guardians hit the second fewest homers in all of baseball last season.

Bell on a two-year deal and not having to trade any prospects to make it happen?

You must make that if you’re Cleveland, and they did.

New White Sox pitcher Mike Clevinger on Guardians: ‘I want to shove it down their throats’
Updated: Dec. 06, 2022, 10:16 p.m.|Published: Dec. 06, 2022, 9:58 p.m.


By Joe Noga, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — While the hot stove is heating up at baseball’s winter meetings, ex-Cleveland pitcher Mike Clevinger has arrived in Chicago ready to dump a gas can on the regular season and set things ablaze.

Clevinger was traded from Cleveland to San Diego in August 2020 in the middle of a tumultuous season that saw him break COVID protocols with teammate Zach Plesac and spend time on MLB’s restricted list. He signed a one-year, $12 million contract with the White Sox earlier this week after two injury-plagued seasons with the Padres.


The long-haired righty nicknamed “Sunshine” will have plenty of chances to face his old club under the league’s new balanced schedule, which features 13 matchups between division rivals. The Sox and Guards also train in close proximity in Arizona and have two scheduled exhibition games in March.

But Clevinger could not wait to get the festivities underway.

In an interview with NBC Sports Chicago’s Chuck Garfien, Clevinger opened up about some of his motivations in signing with the White Sox. He recalled earning his first win against the Angels, the club that drafted him but ultimately traded him to Cleveland for Vinnie Pestano in 2014.

“They (the Angels) gave me up for a bag of potato chips and sent me on my way,” Clevinger said “They didn’t want me around anymore. I made it a point that every time I saw them that I was going to remind them who I was that they gave up.”

With Cleveland, Clevinger went 4-0 with a 3.03 ERA against the Angels. Now, Clevinger says he wants it to be the same way against the Guardians.

“I still have great relationships with guys over there,” Clevinger said. “It’s still a great ball team with one of the greatest managers in the game of baseball.”


But the competitive fire inside Clevinger is certain to heat up once he takes the mound as a member of the rival White Sox.

“It’ going to be fun competing against them,” Clevinger said. “Yeah, I want to shove it down their throats.”

Keith Law on Josh Bell.

The Guardians desperately needed some more thump at first base/designated hitter, one of the only spots in their lineup where they could easily upgrade, even in a market without a lot of great options. José Abreu would have been an ideal fit, but he got a longer deal than I expected, and Cleveland ended up with a free agent I ranked higher on a shorter contract by inking Josh Bell to a two-year deal.


Repeating something I wrote in his free-agent capsule, Bell has hit .268/.358/.488 over his past three full seasons, discarding the truncated 2020 season, and he’s a true switch hitter who doesn’t have a platoon split to speak of. He’s also a high-contact hitter, which is something the Guardians value highly, although he would benefit from a little less contact because he has too much soft contact in his profile for a hitter who has 30-homer power. He’s especially vulnerable on stuff down and away, but in the sense that he hits those pitches weakly rather than swinging and missing, giving some reason to hope that he might still learn to lay off even a few of them and perhaps get more pitches to drive.

It is kind of funny that they might have the two worst defensive first basemen in baseball — or at least two of the worst, especially since the Guardians have a team of generally strong defenders — but if Bell gets to that 30-homer power, he addresses their biggest offensive deficiency without detracting from their solid OBP and contact philosophy. They got zilch from their designated hitters last year, with a .217/.276/.309 composite line, and even that is boosted by the 135 plate appearances José Ramírez spent as their DH. This is a clear upgrade of two to three wins, and they get Bell for one year fewer than the Astros gave Abreu, with a higher AAV but less total guaranteed money.

The Padres and Angels still need help at first base, but the free-agent market is devoid of starter options there, which should push the clubs to look to the trade market or to convert someone else to the position. San Diego was linked to Abreu and of course to Bell, and so far this winter it hasn’t made any significant additions, so there’s likely some pressure to do something to boost the offense, with the depth chart currently blank at first base, designated hitter, and whichever corner outfield spot doesn’t have Juan Soto. The Angels have a DH, as you might have heard, and they addressed right field with Hunter Renfroe, but Jared Walsh’s regression to the mean last year leaves them without a regular at first. Neither team has a prospect ready to step in at first, either, so someone is going to have to get creative in trades to fill those spots.

The Cardinals spent the week jockeying between trade talks, focusing on negotiations with Oakland for Gold Glove-winner Sean Murphy, and discussions with representatives for free agent Contreras. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol and Mozeliak, president of baseball operations, had an encouraging meeting with Contreras in Orlando, Florida, this past week, and came away impressed by the three-time All-Star’s plan to improve as a catcher and interest in becoming a Cardinal, specifically after competing against them and revering Molina.

One of several teams chasing Murphy, the Cardinals found the Athletics’ asking price steep. One executive referred to it as “high — like the moon.”

The Athletics sought a return of outfielder Lars Nootbaar, Gold Glove-winner Brendan Donovan, and a power young pitcher like Gordon Graceffo in exchange for Murphy and three years of control, according to a source with knowledge of the talks. The Cardinals received a lot of interest in Nootbaar. He was also coveted by Toronto in talks about a trade for catcher Danny Jansen. The Cardinals and Toronto also discussed deals centered around a closer, with some discussion of Ryan Helsley, a source described.


The Cardinals have little interest in trading Nootbaar, who Marmol called an “everyday outfielder” entering 2023 and was among the league-leaders in walk rate, on-base percentage, and runs created in the second half of the season.

When a late round of talks with Oakland flagged because the asking price didn’t appear likely to shift, the Cardinals pivoted to Contreras and their feel for the offer he coveted.

if the Cardinals balked at the prospects demanded I except Guardians will too. Welcome Christian Vazquez for 2023 and Bo Naylor for 2024.
Oakland can keep Murphy if they want to build their next championship around him

I guess there's plenty of good glove/no hit catchers around they could pick up if they feel Naylor need more time in AAA.

If they can't get more pop from the catcher's position, dump Straw and add somebody that can hit more than singles.

I'd be chasing Reynolds.

Vasquez is going to get paid.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1600583423705247745

Chernoff on catchers.

Guardians’ pitching riches are even more valuable as price rises on free-agent starters

Cleveland Guardians' Triston McKenzie pitches in the first inning of Game 3 of an American League Division series baseball game against the New York Yankees, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
By Zack Meisel
3h ago


SAN DIEGO — The going rate for a starting pitcher reclamation project is about $10 million to $12 million. As long as the Guardians’ pitching factory keeps humming along, they don’t have to concern themselves with such a price tag.

Just ask the Twins and their president of baseball operations, Derek Falvey, who helped to spearhead Cleveland’s renowned pipeline, how pivotal pitching development can be. The Athletic’s Dan Hayes reported earlier this week that Minnesota has explored swapping Luis Arraez, last season’s American League batting champ, for a front-line starter. As it stands, the Twins employ a rotation patched together with trade acquisitions, including Tyler Mahle, Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan and Kenta Maeda.

Develop your own pitching and you can save your team time, energy and money. The White Sox will pay Mike Clevinger $12 million next season to attempt “to shove it down (the Guardians’) throats,” as he recently told a Chicago outlet. Matthew Boyd and Kyle Gibson, the embodiment of rotation filler, will earn $10 million each from the Tigers and Orioles, respectively. Andrew Heaney signed a two-year, $25 million pact with the Rangers. José Quintana landed a two-year, $26 million deal with the Mets. Zach Eflin signed for three years and $40 million with the Rays. Jameson Taillon and Taijuan Walker, a pair of solid-but-unspectacular options, signed four-year contracts worth $68 million and $72 million, respectively, with the Cubs and Phillies.

If you covet a mid-rotation or back-end starter, it’ll cost you eight figures per year. If you want a top-shelf free-agent starter, it’ll cost you $25 million a year or more.

The top four members of the Mets’ rotation — Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Carlos Carrasco and Quintana — are slated to earn nearly $114 million in 2023. That figure will almost assuredly be higher than the Guardians’ entire payroll.
go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Stark: It's just like 'old' times for big-budget free agents at the 2022 Winter Meetings

This isn’t to applaud Cleveland or any other team for financial stinginess. One primary benefit of being so adept at developing pitching should be that it affords the club the flexibility to upgrade the deficiencies in other areas of the roster. The Guardians’ ability to continually churn out capable starting pitchers does pay dividends year after year, however.

The pitching factory grants them major-league depth. In 2019, when a barrage of injuries left the rotation in tatters, little-known entities named Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac emerged to preserve the team’s bid for playoff contention. That same year, Shane Bieber, in his second year, emerged to cover for Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco and allowed the team to trade Trevor Bauer.

It prevents the Guardians from using what they would deem an uncomfortable portion of their payroll on an offseason Band-Aid for the rotation. No free-agent starting pitcher has cracked Cleveland’s rotation since Shaun Marcum and Bruce Chen combined for eight starts eight seasons ago. The last full-time free-agent addition to the rotation? Scott Kazmir, who signed an unheralded deal with the club almost exactly one decade ago.

And it arms them with trade ammunition. The Guardians have received plenty of inquiries about their crop of starters, as they do annually. The club has been reluctant of late to include its top pitching prospects in trades, but team president Chris Antonetti, speaking in general terms, didn’t rule out a trade involving a starting pitcher.

“We’re not out there peddling it,” he said. “But it’s not surprising that we believe in that group (and) it seems like other teams may share a similar viewpoint of that group.”

Beyond the five members of Cleveland’s rotation — Bieber, Plesac, Civale, Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill, four homegrown talents and one trade acquisition — the club has a wealth of starters who are major league-ready or close to it.

Cody Morris, Xzavion Curry, Hunter Gaddis and Konnor Pilkington all debuted in 2022. Peyton Battenfield joined the Guardians for an August trip to Toronto, but he never appeared in a game. Joey Cantillo was added to the 40-man roster last month. Logan Allen pitched for Triple-A Columbus last season. And Daniel Espino, Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibee, a trio of top-100 prospects in the sport, are only a step or two away from the big leagues.

“Has anyone said they have too much pitching?” general manager Mike Chernoff said this week when I facetiously asked if they’re planning to employ a 10-man rotation at Triple A.

“Ever?”

“I have a sneaking suspicion that won’t be the narrative,” Antonetti added.

“We are really optimistic on our upper-level pitching,” Chernoff said.

They certainly have the depth to absorb the loss of one or two arms in a trade. Perhaps the exorbitant price of pitching on the free-agent market will make Plesac or another member of the Guardians’ rotation more appealing in a potential trade.

Eventually, the Guardians will have to choose a direction to go with Bieber, the ace who can become a free agent after the 2024 season. The deadline for that decision probably isn’t this winter, not with Espino, Williams and Bibee slated to start the year in the minors. They still need Bieber, projected by MLB Trade Rumors to earn $10.7 million next season via arbitration, to anchor the rotation.

The Guardians’ pitching prowess is far from a secret. It’s the lifeblood of their organization and the envy of many others. The Yankees (Matt Blake), Padres (Ruben Niebla) and Royals (Brian Sweeney) have all plucked key members of Cleveland’s operation to serve as their pitching coaches. The Guardians will replace Sweeney in the coming days with an internal hire.

“One of the things that stands out is (we have) a team-oriented approach to it,” Antonetti said. “Our organizational pitching isn’t reliant upon any one individual.”

That collaborative approach has spurred one of the league’s most reliable pitching pipelines, and it has kept Cleveland from having to dip into the treacherous waters known as the free-agent starting pitching market.

Nice that the G's have a lot of ammunition, but you have to eventually pull the trigger.

I'm waiting.

So far it's been almost exclusively free agent signings. Once they close they'll be more deals. They didn't wait long at all to sign Bell; unlike many years when they don't sign any FA until just before spring training. They know what they're doing, I'm comfortable that they will make the right call at the right time. They know as well as anyone how much talent they have available to deal.

This may surprise; it is written by MLB.com so no hometown bias.

The offseason's biggest winners ... so far

It is far too early to start declaring winners and losers from the Hot Stove already. The Winter Meetings just ended! Carlos Correa hasn’t signed anywhere, Dansby Swanson hasn’t either, Carlos Rodón is still out there! We’re still just getting started!

But still: We’ve learned a lot. Some fans are grousing about their team’s inactivity; some fans can’t stop reveling in their good fortune. The offseason is a time for excitement and there are five teams who, we’d argue, haven’t just provided excitement: They’ve made smart moves that set themselves up well, both in the short and long term. If you’re a fan of these five teams, you have to be happy with how this has gone so far.

Here are your five offseason winners to this point. These are teams that have tangibly improved -- at least on paper -- by filling voids on their rosters or making clear upgrades. As a result, you won’t see the Mets and Yankees listed because, up until this point, they haven’t really added to their talent base, but rather brought back their best free agents. (Or, in the case of the Mets, signed Justin Verlander to directly fill Jacob deGrom’s spot.)

1. Padres

Not much of a difficult call here. Sure, it’s possible that Manny Machado opts out after 2023, and Juan Soto is going to hit the market after the 2024 season, so the incredible foursome that’s going to play in San Diego next year might not be together as long as we might like. But wow, what a foursome! Machado, Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Xander Bogaerts? In the same lineup? Has anyone team had the top four MVP finishers before? (Ed. note: Nope!)

The Padres have that on the table. But more to the point: The Padres are doing exactly what any fan should want their baseball team to do. They see an opportunity, in a town with no other major men’s professional sports teams, to do something generational. Their fans are supporting them -- this team is a sensation in that wonderful town -- and the Padres are putting all their chips in to win, right now. How do you not root for these guys?

2. Cardinals

The Cardinals, for the first time this century, had a gaping hole at the catcher position. They had a lot of options, including trading for the A’s Sean Murphy or one of Toronto’s trio of catchers. But that might have cost them considerable talent, even talent currently helping the Cardinals win, like, right now: Guys like Brendan Donovan, or Lars Nootbaar, or Nolan Gorman. They didn’t want to do that, not yet. So they went out and filled their catching spot the old-fashioned way: They paid for it.

Willson Contreras has been playing against the Cardinals for years and has been open about how much he respected the organization, and how open he would have been for taking over for a legend; he’ll be a perfect fit there. The Cardinals just added a three-time All-Star who will give the team a significant offensive upgrade behind the plate. The team probably needs another starting pitcher or two, but it has its backstop, as it always does.

3. Cubs

Don’t be too down on the Cubs, though. They were always considered a potential landing spot for Cody Bellinger, and their $17.5 million offer ended up bagging him. Bellinger, considering his struggles the last couple of years, is a risk -- that’s why he only got a one-year deal -- but it sure seems like one with plenty of upside, both for him (who can rebuild his value) and for the team, which certainly needed a big bat. The Cubs' pitching was better last year than you might have remembered, and adding Jameson Taillon certainly isn’t going to make them worse.
More to the point, Cubs fans have been waiting for the team to start trying to win now, rather than some indeterminate moment in the future. They should probably still go after a shortstop -- and they may still will -- but the Cubs look like a potential Wild Card sleeper contender next year … and they may not be done.

4. Guardians

Quietly, the Guardians’ offense last year was better than it usually is, despite the team’s usual resistance to pay for outside talent. The reason the offense wasn’t bad was because of its bat-to-ball skills, which, as we saw in the postseason, makes for really exciting winning baseball … until it doesn’t. Thus, bringing in Josh Bell makes a ton of sense. He has only really had one fantastic year, in 2019, when he slugged 37 homers and 37 doubles and made the All-Star team, but even his base level is solid, and certainly one of the best hitters in this lineup. And he brings them power, which they need more than anything.

Also: What a fun pair of switch-hitters to have, with Bell and José Ramírez. The AL Central looks as wide open in 2023 as it did this past season. Signing Bell makes it more likely the Guardians take advantage of it again.

5. Phillies

Let’s not overthink this. For all the justified love for Aaron Judge this offseason, you could make an argument that, when you account for position, ability and the likelihood of aging gracefully, it was in fact Trea Turner who was the best free agent on the market. (I would make this argument. I believe this!) So while it is certainly wild to see anyone signed to an 11-year contract -- Turner is now one of the few people on this planet who has some inkling of what their life will be like in 2033 -- that the Phillies were able to get Turner at a seemingly-under-market $27 million per year is truly impressive.

Jim Bowden:

Cleveland Guardians

Josh Bell (Orlando Ramirez / USA Today)

Grade: B

Trades: Traded 3B Nolan Jones to Rockies for INF Juan Brito.

Free agents: 1B/DH Josh Bell, 2 years/$33 million.

The Guardians did a phenomenal job in landing Bell on a two-year contract that includes an opt-out after the 2023 season. They needed more power in the middle of the lineup, and Bell will provide that from both sides of the plate. Bell is expected to share time at first base and DH. His strong clubhouse personality and make-up also will be a big plus for Cleveland, which has the youngest roster in the majors. Next on the agenda for the Guardians is upgrading the catcher position; they continue to talk with the A’s and Blue Jays about trading for one.

Just a B ?

Guess he's waiting for a blockbuster trade?

Me too.