How do the Guardians compete ? They are limited on funds sure, but they went out made a couple of cost saving moves, picked up 2 players for the rotation competition, and just signed a 3rd with a legit shot of making the rotation for 4.5 mill.

I read an article a while back that basically said that ownership was quite wealthy and widely criticized for choosing not to spend significant amounts of money on player salaries, despite having the financial means to do so, often leading to a perception of being "cheap" and prioritizing cost-cutting over building a high-spending competitive roster.

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I don't expect ownership to go out and spend money like a drunk'n sailor, but I do expect them to spend wisely. The door closed on any #2's that were available. That was our basic concern this winter. Didn't happen. Now we're left scrambling in hopes that guy is hiding behind the green door.

Kyle Gibson is not a #2 starter but in our case, is as close as you can get to a #2 from who's available.

joez wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 7:58 pm

How do the Guardians compete ? They are limited on funds sure, but they went out made a couple of cost saving moves, picked up 2 players for the rotation competition, and just signed a 3rd with a legit shot of making the rotation for 4.5 mill.

I read an article a while back that basically said that ownership was quite wealthy and widely criticized for choosing not to spend significant amounts of money on player salaries, despite having the financial means to do so, often leading to a perception of being "cheap" and prioritizing cost-cutting over building a high-spending competitive roster.

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Maybe you need to stop reading blogs written by teenagers and twenty somethings ! You post a lot of garbage blogs by kids on here that make no sense. The problem is you do not fact check you just post it because it fits your opinion. That article you are referring to was the wrong Dolans and the author was quickly told he was not talking about the same branch of the family.

Thanks for the fact check Rusty.

Still doesn't change the fact that, in my opinion, there is/was enough cash on hand to make one big splash.

All I was looking for was a guy that could get us over the hump for one year and get us to the playoffs this year. Maybe a 1 or 2 year contract.

Simply put, it is my opinion that the starting rotation is missing one more Bibee/Bieber-like talent, especially if Bieber is going to be MIA for basically half the season.

By the way, as long as those teenagers "kids" and twenty somethings have good stuff to post concerning the team or the players, I'll post them. What I won't post is their opinions.

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I have great faith in the front office. It seems that most all baseball professionals rate the Guardians' staff from scouts to coaches to development team to front office guys as superior, which is why hey are often signed away to bigger jobs by other systems.

I admit that I'm not a great judge of pickups from other organizations since I follow baseball vertically: Guardians from the low minors to the majors rather than horizontally; I have heard of Junis although he's been around for nearly a decade and Sewald and Velazquez are only vaguely familiar.

$4.5M for Junis is not a big deal compared to lots of baseball contracts but as noted in MLB.com his deal and Sewald's $6M equal 11% of the team's total payroll for couple of depth pieces. Wasn't Eli Morgan similarly effective, although admittedly only a reliever at 20$ the price.?

Very soon now we'll start to see how any of this works out. That's when it becomes fun,

I have a feeling that Jakob Junis will be our surprise pickup for the winter.
I won't be surprised if he's #2 in the rotation.
I like the pickup and I like the price tag even more.

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Can Guardians' new second baseman fill Andres Gimenez’s shoes? Hey, Hoynsie

Updated: Feb. 15, 2025, 10:08 a.m.|Published: Feb. 15, 2025, 5:05 a.m.

By Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Do you have a question about the Guardians that you’d like to have answered in Hey, Hoynsie? You can subscribe to Subtext here, text Hoynsie at 216-208-4346 for a two-week free trial or email him at phoynes@cleveland.com.

Hey, Hoynsie: If you had to guess, who will generate better overall offensive numbers in the 2025 season: Andres Gimenez in a Blue Jays uniform or the unknown player or cast of players who will replace him for the Guardians? -- Bob Maistros, Lake Worth, Florida.

Hey, Bob: That’s easy. It will be Gimenez as long as he’s healthy. But I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. Gimenez is an established big leaguer. who is going to have a high WAR rating because of his defense. Whoever the Guardians play at second base, and it’s probably going to be more than one player, will be young with far less experience.

Hey, Hoynsie: Last year Brayan Rocchio developed his defensive game nicely at shortstop thanks to the mentoring of second baseman Andres Gimenez. Do you think that one of the unintended consequences of trading Gimenez will be arrested development for Rocchio? --Jim Brazdil, Leland, North Carolina.

Hey, Jim: I think that’s a real concern. That’s why I hope the Guardians will settle on one second baseman as quickly as possible instead of having an open tryout camp throughout spring training. Still, Rocchio has advanced through the minors with a lot of the candidates for the second base job. He hasn’t necessarily been their double-play partner, but he knows what kind of players they are.

Hey, Hoynsie: This team needs new ownership to invest in the roster so it can at least do some meaningful business in the free agent market. Am I being too cynical and pessimistic? -- Bill Barkauer, Peoria, Arizona.

Hey, Bill: I think you’re being a fan. It is frustrating that Guardians take a hands-off approach to big-ticket free agents. But in two of the last three years, they’ve won the AL Central and advanced two rounds in the postseason by taking advantage of free-agent signings such as Ben Lively, good trades and a productive farm system.

Hey, Hoynsie: Do you think this year might be the last chance for Gabriel Arias and Bo Naylor? -- David England, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Hey, David: Arias is out of options, so he just grabbed a stool at the Last Chance Saloon. Naylor, who has one option left, is a former No. 1 pick, which gives him a lot of time to make the front office look smart. He also plays a position, catcher, where the Guardians don’t have a lot of depth.

Hey, Hoynsie: I’m still confused about the Guardians’ streaming thing. I’m out of market, so I usually get MLB.TV. I usually stream the games with the WTAM audio overlay. -- Neil H., Reedsville, Pennslyvania.

Hey, Neil: I have spent most of my adult life in a state of confusion, but you don’t have to join me. The Guardians have yet to announce what cable carriers will televise their games. So you can save the confusion until they make that announcement.

Hey, Hoynsie: How much has the uncertainty about the Guardians' TV contract with MLB impacted their offseason? People think extra home dates from the postseason run should allow for more spending, but I suspect the TV revenue reduction far exceeds the postseason increase. -- Terry Richards, Peoria, Arizona.

Hey, Terry: Ten postseason games and an increase in attendance helped counter the money the G’s lost by signing a new TV deal with MLB. But it still curtailed the amount they could spend in free agency.

Hey, Hoynsie: The Guardians trade Josh Naylor and Andres Gimemez and get nothing in return. They bring in no one, other than a few no-name pitchers. It’s shocking how this club is operated. They’re lucky they’re in a bad division. If you were objective you’d tell it like it is. -- Arnold Greenspun.

Hey, Arnold: And yet they keep winning. Ten winning seasons and seven trips to the postseason in the last 12 years. And last year their division, the AL Central, sent three teams to the postseason.

Somewhere somebody is doing something right.

Hey, Hoynsie: Who do you see getting inducted into the Guardians' Hall of Fame this season? I think Travis Hafner would be a great addition with 200 homers. I also believe Bob Wickman should get a look. -- Mark Fortner, Knoxville, Tennessee.

Hey, Mark: Hafner and Wickman are good candidates, but the Guardians aren’t going to induct anyone into the team’s Hall of Fame this year.

Hey, Hoynsie: I disagree with your conclusion that the entities making preseason predictions feel the Guards' 2024 season was a fluke rather than fact. Rather, it was an indictment of management’s decision to dismantle the right side of their All-Star infield as the reason for their pessimism. -- Kirk Brady, Rocky River.

Hey, Kirk: I did write that the reason some preseason predictions put the Guardians in a bad light was the fact that they’d traded the right side of their infield -- Andres Gimenez and Josh Naylor. And if we want to get technical, Gimenez was not an All-Star last year. Naylor, of course, was.

Hey, Hoynsie: Guardians' games will be under the auspices of MLB. The broadcast crew will remain the same. I haven’t heard anything about how we will access the games since they don’t have a network contract. Surely it can’t solely be on a streaming service, MLB Network or their app? -- Rich Yentch, Montrose, California.

Hey, Rich: I’d love to help you, but currently MLB is negotiating with different cable carriers to see how the televised version of the Guardians' games will be presented. Look at it this way, the regular season starts March 27, so we should know something soon.

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'He's a sponge': Top pick Bazzana soaking up spring
9:06 AM MST
Anthony Castrovince



This story was excerpted from the Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Australia is a grounding place for Travis Bazzana. He goes to his native country during the holidays to decompress. To walk along the beach. To take the family dog -- a border collie/Labrador mix named Rebel -- to the park. To relax after the long baseball year.

Save big on the biggest games with Flex Voucher Plans

But Bazzana’s trip home this offseason was a little different, because this was his first time Down Under since he had been taken over everybody else in the MLB Draft after a standout career at Oregon State University. And the weight of being Australia’s first baseball player selected in the first round -- let alone No. 1 overall -- hit the 22-year-old Bazzana when he was asked to speak at a gathering of players and fans of the Sydney Blue Sox, the Australian Baseball League team he played for from 2018 to 2021.

“People came out to see me, to get autographs, to listen to me speak,” Bazzana says. “It was special to see the impact and know that young players there have someone to look up to.”

Here in his first professional Spring Training, where he’s working out among the big leaguers as a member of the Guardians’ “depth camp” roster, Bazzana is not put on such a pedestal. Sure, he might be carrying the lofty “1-1” label and ranked as the No. 10 prospect in the game per MLB Pipeline. But on the back fields, fielding fungoes and taking batting practice off a machine, he’s just another player getting his reps in.

“It’s a learning game,” he says, “but it comes back to having the right respect for yourself, for others in the game and carrying yourself with energy and intention.”

If Bazzana sounds like a thoughtful young man, it’s because he is. This reporter caught up with him at Single-A Lake County last summer, shortly after the Draft, with the intention of writing a feature story. It instead became a straight Q&A because there was really nothing I needed to add to Bazzana’s thorough responses about his mental preparation and pregame routine.

The Guardians’ chief decision-makers were similarly blown away by their pre-Draft meeting with Bazzana. In a pool that did not feature a runaway No. 1 in the mold of a Bryce Harper or Stephen Strasburg, Bazzana asserted himself not just with his play but his process.

So here’s our first look at that process in Spring Training. Make no mistake that just because the Guards have a host of more immediate options to sort through for their second-base opening doesn’t mean you won’t see Bazzana in Cactus League play.

“It’ll be fun for everybody,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “Anytime you’re a 1-1, you know there’s going to be eyes on you. But he doesn’t seem to let that affect him. He’s a very curious learner, he’s highly motivated to be great, and he’s a sponge.”

Bazzana learned a lot from the two months he spent at Lake County last summer. He struggled with the adjustment at first but soon caught on to help the Captains win the Midwest League crown. He finished with a .238/.369/.396 slash in 27 games.

“While I still had an enjoyable first month, I was scrapping,” he said. “When I stepped in the box, I didn’t have it. That’s just the truth. What I learned was you’re always going to be put in different environments in baseball. You might get traded or sign with a new team. There’s so many different things that are external. So you have to come back to the things you can control. Once I got my feet under me and got back to the routines I trusted, I played more freely and everything came along.”

It will be fascinating to see how quickly it comes along in 2025. With the way prospects move in today’s game, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Guards’ No. 1 pick from 2024 joins their big league club by the end of 2025.

That would be a big deal not just for this organization but all of Australian baseball.

“When I play freely and am playing with that edge of wanting to win and playing for the guy next to me, good things happen,” Bazzana said. “I’m not saying this in an arrogant way, but, if I’m doing that, there’s not going to be much stopping me. … If I can do that every day, it’s not going to take long.”

MLB ranking of top 100 players, features as Joe posted in Spring Training, Jose Ramirez at No. 8

For the underrated AL Central,
Detroit has 4 guys rated 11 [Skrubal] 54 74 and 89
KC 3 3 [Witt] 43 and 79
Cleveland 3 rated 8 57 [Clase] and 66 [Kwan]
Minnesota 3 42, 68, and 82; one of whom is the usually injured Buxton
White Sox are you kidding?

Guardians Sign Jakob Junis

By Anthony Franco | February 16, 2025 at 11:05am CDT

TODAY: The Guardians officially announced Junis’s signing today.

February 13: The Guardians and Jakob Junis are in agreement on a one-year, $4.5MM deal, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN. The signing is pending a physical for the Wasserman client. Cleveland’s 40-man roster is at capacity, though they can create a spot by placing any of Shane Bieber, David Fry or Sam Hentges on the 60-day injured list.

Junis adds versatility to Stephen Vogt’s pitching staff. The 32-year-old righty has bounced between the rotation and the bullpen throughout his career. He has pitched mostly in multi-inning relief roles over the last two seasons. That has suited him well, as Junis has turned in solid numbers in consecutive years. He pitched to a 3.87 earned run average with a career-best 26.2% strikeout rate across 80 innings for the Giants two seasons ago.

The uptick in strikeouts earned Junis a $7MM guarantee from the Brewers last offseason. Milwaukee intended to give him a rotation opportunity, but he suffered a shoulder impingement during his first start of the season. A scary fluke injury delayed his return from the injured list. A few weeks after the shoulder injury, Junis was struck in the neck by a fly ball while he was jogging in the outfield during batting practice. That necessitated a brief hospitalization.

Fortunately, Junis escaped the incident with no long-term effects. It set him back as he rehabbed the shoulder, though, leading Milwaukee to transfer him to the 60-day IL. The Brewers used him out of the bullpen when he returned towards the end of June. They packaged him alongside outfielder Joey Wiemer to the Reds to land Frankie Montas in a deadline deal.

The Reds initially kept Junis in the bullpen themselves. They stretched him back out as a starter for the season’s final month. While the Reds were essentially out of contention by that point, Junis performed well as a starter. He allowed two or fewer runs in each of his final six appearances (five starts and one long relief outing). He built back to 5-6 inning stints to close the year.

Though the injuries limited him to 67 innings, Junis turned in a career-low 2.69 ERA between the two NL Central clubs. He didn’t sustain his ’23 uptick in whiffs, as his strikeout rate dropped to a 20.2% clip that is more in line with his overall track record. The eight-year MLB veteran has excellent command though. He kept his walks to a career-low 3.2% rate last season and has issued free passes to fewer than 6% of opposing hitters throughout his career.

Junis sits in the 91-92 MPH range with his sinker and four-seam fastball. He leans most heavily on a low-80s slider. That has given him some trouble with left-handed batters in his career, but he was effective against hitters of either handedness last season. He held lefties to a .218/.238/.406 line while stifling right-handed batters to a .193/.236/.329 slash. That could give Vogt the confidence to plug him into a season-opening rotation role.

For the second straight year, the rotation is Cleveland’s biggest question. Tanner Bibee is the staff ace, at least until Bieber returns from his Tommy John rehab. He’ll likely be followed by some combination of Ben Lively, Gavin Williams and trade pickup Luis Ortiz. Junis could compete with Triston McKenzie, Joey Cantillo, Slade Cecconi and Logan Allen for the fifth starter role. McKenzie is out of options and will likely be on the MLB team in some capacity. Each of Allen, Cantillo and Cecconi have an option remaining and can head to Triple-A Columbus if they don’t earn an Opening Day rotation spot.

The signing pushes Cleveland’s projected payroll to roughly $100MM, according to RosterResource. That’s right in line with last year’s $98MM season-opening payroll and a few million dollars below where they ended the ’24 campaign. They could still have a few million dollars for a depth acquisition or two after winning the division and earning an ALCS berth.

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Guardians, John Means “In Advanced Talks” About Contract

By Mark Polishuk | February 16, 2025 at 3:34pm CDT

The Guardians and free agent southpaw John Means may be nearing an agreement, as MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo hears from sources that the two sides are “in advanced talks.”

He has played in Major League Baseball for the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles selected Means in the 11th round of the 2014 MLB draft. He made his MLB debut in 2018. Means was an All-Star in 2019.

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Cleveland Guardians, Injured Free Agent Pitcher John Means in 'Advanced Talks'

John Means, coming off his second Tommy John surgery and 11 years in the Baltimore Orioles' organization, is reportedly working on a deal with the Cleveland Guardians.

Sam Connon | 16 Minutes Ago

The Cleveland Guardians are in "advanced talks" with free agent pitcher John Means, MassLive.com's Chris Cotillo reported Sunday.

Means hit the open market this past fall, bringing an end to his 11-year tenure in the Baltimore Orioles' organization. The 31-year-old left-hander underwent his second career Tommy John surgery in June, though, so he is unlikely to be back to full strength before the All-Star break.

Rumors surfaced earlier this winter that the Boston Red Sox were interested in Means, but that was before they signed Walker Buehler and Patrick Sandoval. A return to Baltimore was considered to be on the table as well, even after they added Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano on one-year deals.

The Guardians seem to have jumped both teams in their pursuit of Means, although it remains to be seen what his contract could look like.

Across four starts in 2024, Means went 2-0 with a 2.61 ERA, 0.871 WHIP and a 0.7 WAR.

Means was an All-Star and AL Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2019, going 12-11 with a 3.60 ERA, 1.135 WHIP and a 4.4 WAR across 155.0 innings of work. He remained a staple in the Orioles' rotation in 2020, then became their Opening Day starter in both 2021 and 2022.

The first Tommy John surgery that Means had in May 2022 knocked him out for the rest of that season and most of the next, though. Baltimore signed the southpaw to a two-year, $5.925 million contract to avoid arbitration amid his recovery, only to see him go down again midway through 2024.

Means has made a total of 10 starts over the past three seasons, but he has been effective when healthy. Between 2022 and 2024, Means has gone 3-2 with a 2.75 ERA, 0.860 WHIP and 1.6 WAR, averaging 5.1 innings per start.

For his career, Means is 23-26 with a 3.68 ERA, 1.050 WHIP, 334 strikeouts and a 10.3 WAR in 401.0 innings of work.

Cleveland's longtime ace, Shane Bieber, is also set to open 2025 on the injured list recovering from the Tommy John surgery he underwent last April. That leaves Tanner Bibee, Ben Lively, Gavin Williams, Luis L. Ortiz, Triston McKenzie and Logan Allen as the remaining options in the Guardians' rotation without much dependable depth behind them.

Means wouldn't be able to join that group until late in the season, but he could prove valuable down the stretch if Cleveland is in the thick of another playoff race.

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Guardians, John Means “In Advanced Talks” About Contract

By Mark Polishuk | February 16, 2025 at 3:34pm CDT

The Guardians and free agent southpaw John Means may be nearing an agreement, as MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo hears from sources that the two sides are “in advanced talks.”

Means underwent a Tommy John surgery last June, so it is possible his recovery process might prevent from pitching at all during the 2025 season. It stands to reason that Means and the Guards could be discussing a two-year contract that would pay Means a limited salary in 2025 and then a larger guarantee in 2026 when he would presumably be ready to take on a full workload.

Cleveland re-signed Shane Bieber (coming off a TJ surgery of his own) to something of a similar structure this offseason worth $26MM in guaranteed money, though it is fair to assume Means will be landing less money due to his more checkered recent health history. Means has pitched only 52 1/3 MLB innings since the start of the 2022 due to not one but two different Tommy John procedures.

These injuries brought a sour end to an overall successful seven-season run for Means with the Orioles, as the left-hander posted a 3.68 ERA over 401 innings for the only organization of his professional career. This stint in Baltimore might technically not be over yet since the O’s have had interest in re-signing Means, but Cleveland has now emerged as perhaps a more ardent suitor for Means’ services.

Means wouldn’t be an option for the Guardians until the second half of the season at the absolute earliest, so he could join Bieber as some late-season reinforcements to a rotation that has a few question marks heading into 2025. Luis Ortiz, Slade Cecconi, and swingman Jakob Junis were brought to help bolster a rotation that was average at best last season, though Ortiz is the only one of that trio projected for a rotation spot at the moment. Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Ben Lively, and Triston McKenzie are penciled in as the rest of the starting five, though there figures to be some fluidity as the Guards figure out how to best get the ball to their elite bullpen.

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No idea who the authors of those articles are but any recently injured starter is a prime Guardian candidate.

I sure don't see Junis as No. 2 starter. that is the role that is waiting for Williams to fill.

Bibee
Williams
Ortiz
Junis
Cantillo/Allen/Lively

No matter how you slice and dice it, the rotation is more solid this year than last.
I think Junis shoul kick off the year in the starting rotation. You can always have him take Avila's place.

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