Cleveland Sports Forum

Cardinals Acquire Jose Fermin From Guardians
By Steve Adams | November 9, 2022 at 11:33am CDT

The Cardinals announced Wednesday that they’ve acquired minor league infielder Jose Fermin from the Guardians in exchange for cash. Fermin has been selected to the 40-man roster in St. Louis, the team added. The Cardinals also reinstated righties Alex Reyes and Drew VerHagen from the 60-day injured list, bringing their 40-man roster to a total of 38 players.

Fermin, 24 in March, spent the 2022 season with Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate and batted .215/.336/.322 with just a 13.9% strikeout rate against a 12.7% walk rate. He’s hit just 22 home runs in 415 minor league games and 1687 plate appearances, which underscores the lack of power that scouting reports on Fermin have emphasized. He stole 28 bases in just 105 games as recently as 2019, but Fermin only swiped nine bags in 90 games and 330 plate appearances in Triple-A this year.

While Fermin played plenty of shortstop early in his minor league run with Cleveland, he was deployed exclusively at second base and third base in 2022. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote prior to the 2022 season that Fermin rarely swings and misses but “lacks passable big league physicality and is a better fit at second base than shortstop.”

For the Cardinals, Fermin will give them a right-handed hitter with experience at three infield positions and solid bat-to-ball skills. Fermin would’ve been eligible to be selected in this year’s Rule 5 Draft, but St. Louis obviously saw enough in him that they preemptively made a move to acquire him and add him to the 40-man roster. This is the first time Fermin has been selected to a 40-man, so he’ll have a full slate of three minor league option years — assuming he sticks on their roster for that long, anyhow.

I love these deals made for "cash". They never say how much. Is there a minimum? Can you sell a player for $1?

Maybe conundrum of our 40 man roster and the players we need to protect might just be partially solved
with the kind of deals.

He’s oretty low on our prospect list
But wish him well
Sam Haggerty didn’t get past akron and didn’t seem like much but he’s been a useful utility guy for Seattle for 3 seasons.
24th round draft with more success than some of our 1st round ers

Cleveland Guardians roster primer: Who stays, who goes as team mulls 40-man decisions?

FILE - Cleveland President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti is shown during a pregame ceremony before a baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees, Sunday, June 9, 2019, in Cleveland. Antonetti was voted Major League Baseball’s Executive of the Year, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, after his young team won the AL Central with a $68 million payroll that was 27th among the 30 teams. (AP Photo/David Dermer, File)
By Zack Meisel
6h ago


MLB front offices gather for a few days this week in Las Vegas to lay the groundwork for their offseasons, to gripe about the green 000 spaces at the roulette tables and to map out arbitration strategies as the Bellagio fountains sway to Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.”

The first order of business for each club is setting an initial 40-man roster. For Cleveland, that puzzle is a bit simpler this winter.

If the Guardians’ 40-man roster last offseason was a 2,000-piece brain-cramp-inducing Ravensburger, the task next week is intended for ages 6 and up.

By Tuesday, teams must set their 40-man rosters ahead of the almost-always-annual Rule 5 draft, which will take place Dec. 7 in a swanky ballroom at the Manchester Hyatt in San Diego.

Last winter, in preparation for a Rule 5 draft that spontaneously combusted after a 99-day lockout, Cleveland protected 11 draft-eligible players, thus stuffing full its 40-man roster with a ton of unproven kids. And, somehow, that strategy paid off.

Now, there’s plenty to sift through, and there are still logjams on the middle infield and starting pitching fronts (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, especially the latter). But in terms of maneuvers the front office must make in the next week, it’s somewhat straightforward.

Let’s walk through it all.

21 position players on the 40-man roster: Gabriel Arias, Will Benson, Will Brennan, Tyler Freeman, Andrés Giménez, Oscar Gonzalez, Nolan Jones, Steven Kwan, Bryan Lavastida, Luke Maile, Owen Miller, Bo Naylor, Josh Naylor, Jhonkensy Noel, Richie Palacios, José Ramírez, Brayan Rocchio, Amed Rosario, Myles Straw, Jose Tena, George Valera

19 pitchers on the 40-man roster: Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale, Emmanuel Clase, Xzavion Curry, Enyel De Los Santos, Hunter Gaddis, Anthony Gose, Sam Hentges, James Karinchak, Kirk McCarty, Triston McKenzie, Eli Morgan, Cody Morris, Konnor Pilkington, Zach Plesac, Cal Quantrill, Nick Sandlin, Trevor Stephan, Carlos Vargas
How to clear space

A lot of this already happened when the Guardians added would-be-eligible players such as Brennan, Benson, Curry, Gaddis and Bo Naylor to the roster. Those moves came at the expense of players such as Bryan Shaw and Ernie Clement, who eventually would have been cut loose to create roster space anyway. If the Guardians want to clear a few more spots to protect prospects, there are a couple of options.
The non-tender route

The deadline to determine whether to tender an arbitration-eligible player a contract for 2023 is Nov. 18. Cleveland has nine arbitration-eligible players: Rosario, Bieber, Quantrill, Civale, Plesac, Josh Naylor, Karinchak, Maile and Gose.

Maile and Gose seem like feasible non-tender candidates. (Especially Gose, who is bound for a 2023 season focused on recovering from Tommy John surgery. A minor-league deal for him wouldn’t be surprising.) That would clear two spots on the 40-man.
Small trades

If there’s anyone the Guardians deem expendable, they could send them to an interested team for cash, a player to be named, or a lottery ticket-type prospect. The team acquired pitcher Tobias Myers from the Rays before last year’s deadline in that fashion. Myers made 14 abysmal starts at Triple-A Columbus before moving on to the Giants and then the White Sox. In all, he went 1-15 with a 7.82 ERA last season.

It doesn’t have to be a trade, either. Last November, Cleveland designated seven players for assignment — Justin Garza, Daniel Johnson, Alex Young, Scott Moss, Harold Ramírez, Kyle Nelson and J.C. Mejía — before the deadline arrived. They won’t need a mass exodus like that this time.
The big deal

The Guardians could always consolidate their young talent and package a few prospects for an established big leaguer, though that’s a move rarely executed this early in the offseason. This week’s GM meetings in Sin City are an opportunity to set plans in motion or resume conversations with other front offices. The real madness should begin in a few weeks at the Winter Meetings in San Diego. The Guardians typically move deliberately.
The Rule 5 draft-eligible prospects
The likely suspects: IF Angel Martinez, SP Joey Cantillo

Cleveland left Cantillo unprotected last year after he logged only 13 innings in 2021. He was limited to 60 innings this year, but those innings were impressive. He posted a 1.93 ERA, racked up 87 strikeouts and held opponents to a .178 average. The lefty will turn 23 in December, and if he can stay healthy, he could be major-league ready fairly soon.

The son of former catcher Sandy Martinez, who appeared in one game for Cleveland in 2004 — feel free to use that trivia tidbit at your holiday parties — Angel Martinez doesn’t turn 21 until late January, but he registered an .849 OPS this season while climbing to Double-A Akron. He tallied 40 extra-base hits and 12 stolen bases in 101 games, plus strong walk and strikeout rates. MLB Pipeline considers Martinez the organization’s No. 11 prospect (and he’s Cleveland’s only player in the top 14 who hasn’t reached the legal drinking age). He split his time between second base and shortstop in 2022.

The Athletic’s Keith Law wrote more on Martinez here from the Arizona Fall League.
A somewhat complicated one: SP Ethan Hankins

A first-round pick in 2018 and once a well-regarded pitching prospect, Hankins hasn’t pitched competitively since 2019, aside from facing three batters in an Aug. 1 rehab outing in Arizona. He underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2021. Would another team grab him and stash him, solely based on his ceiling? Or is that too risky because he’s already rusty? Part of the calculus for all teams is assessing the likelihood of each adversary snagging their potentially available players.
Some other names worth noting

SP Peyton Battenfield, RP Nick Mikolajchak, C David Fry, 3B Gabriel Rodriguez, 1B Micah Pries, OF Johnathan Rodriguez, RP Nic Enright, RP Andrew Misiaszek, RP Kevin Kelly, RP Tim Herrin

Battenfield, acquired for Jordan Luplow in 2021, spent a weekend with the Guardians this summer when Karinchak couldn’t visit Canada, but he was never added to the 40-man roster. When the club needed someone to make a spot start late in the season, it prioritized Gaddis, Curry and Morris.

Fry, who will turn 27 later this month, posted a .779 OPS at Triple A this season while playing catcher and the corner infield spots. The organization has been working with him behind the plate in Arizona during his stint in the fall league.

It’s possible a team plucks one of Cleveland’s eligible relievers. Adding bullpen help is a regular Rule 5 theme. All five on this list reached Triple A in 2022. Enright, in particular, stood out, with a 50-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 37 innings for Columbus. Mikolajchak was in big-league camp with the Guardians in the spring. It really boils down to each reliever’s arsenal and whether the Guardians (or another team) believe their stuff can play at the next level.

I can't remember if I posted Law's Angel Martinez writeup so here it is:

• Guardians infielder Angel Martínez has caught some eyes with his very strong plate discipline numbers, walking 52 times against just 78 strikeouts between High A and Double A this year at age 20, but the real standout is his bat speed. He homered at Chase Field on a hanging curveball, hitting it out at 101 mph, and grounded out in the same game at 97 mph, while earlier in the week he took a good cutter from a lefty back up the middle at 106 mph. I wouldn’t be surprised if his walk rate dipped in the majors, but the other skills held up, and if anything he might end up with more power and less OBP than you’d guess by scouting the stat line. He’s not a shortstop but should be fine at second or third.

Not that need another middle IF, but Martinez is a definite addition to the roster. I agree that no one else is for certain, Battenfield seems awfully likely; he's been higher on the prospect lists than a bunch of the guys who got starts last year, e.g. Pilikington and Gaddis not to mention fill-ins McCarty and Tully. I would add him, too.
Joey Cantillo pitches well when he's able to pitch. I would like to include him but unlike last winter when I was ready to dump large swathes of the roster there is far less dead weight this time around
[Besides the long list of DFAs listed in the article they held onto to the dynamic OF duo of Mercado and Zimmer through the winter]

Gabriel Rodriguez gets nice ratings but has progressed slowly and is yet another IF.
Jonnhathan Rodriguez was a personal favorite of mine as are most allegedly 5 tool outfielders. He has moved very very slowly but suddenly caught fire and become a power bat at Lake County last summer; slow start in Akron, came on to some degree. I'd like to add him in, always afraid of losing the next Anthony Santander.
I liked Mikolojchek last winter and spring; thought he'd be in Cleveland by now. No idea on how his pitches have developed.

Who to cut?
Gose, which is sad but he's going to miss the whole of 2023 so they can probably bring him back as an invitee the following spring if he's recovered.
Maile, I suppose. He's the kind of guy who always spends the winter as a minor league free agent. But on the other hand, with Hedges a free agent and therefore opening one space anyway, I might hold Maile for his very good defense.
speaking of catchers, Lavastida regressed dramatically back to where he stood in 2020; I could let him loose and resign to a minor league deal if no one takes him. It turns out Yainer Diaz is several steps ahead of Lavastida as a prospect
Kirk McCarty. He came along reasonably well as the season progressed but he's never come anywhere close to prospect lists and should be very replaceable.
Owen Miller gets on my nerves. He's not much on offense or defense. We have tons of options to replace him.
Carlos Vargas? He's used up plenty of his minor league options while recovering from surgery. He finally pitched again this summer, not particularly effectively but he could easily be another Hentges whose stuff is better than his stats. How hard is he throwing now?

Full guide to offseason dates, rules, terms
November 10th, 2022
Anthony Castrovince
Anthony Castrovince

@castrovince
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Baseball’s offseason is its own season, a time of banter and bartering and signings big and small.

Fans of all 30 Major League clubs have an emotional stake in what tactics those teams take to set themselves up for the upcoming season, which is why the “Hot Stove league,” as it is commonly called, often piques rooting interest as much as the actual games.

The "Hot Stove," however, is a league with a lot of jargon, dates and deadlines that the average fans might not grasp. So here’s a handy guide to the ins and outs of the offseason.

When does free agency begin?

Officially, players become free agents the day after the conclusion of the World Series. However, they cannot sign with a new team until five days after the conclusion of the World Series (Thursday, Nov. 10, at 5 p.m. ET). So while teams are able to reach out to player representatives, the five-day period serves as an exclusive window in which teams can retain their departing free agents. Quite often, this is a period with very little activity.

Reviewing upcoming free agents
Nov 6, 2022 · 2:25
Reviewing upcoming free agents
What about trades?

Trades involving players signed to Major League contracts are prohibited from the Trade Deadline to the conclusion of the World Series. The trade market opens up again the day after the World Series finale.

What is a contract 'option'?

An option is a potential extension to a player contract, negotiated at the time the contract is signed. If the option is not exercised, the player becomes a free agent.

A “club option” means the team has the full authority to decide whether the option will be exercised. Often, this type of option includes a buyout if it is not exercised, meaning the club must pay the player a negotiated fraction of the value of the option year. So if the team has determined the player’s performance will not merit the value of the option, it can pay the buyout instead, allowing the player to become a free agent.

Another form of option is the “player option” in which the player is the one who determines whether or not to exercise the option year.

A “mutual option” can only be exercised if the team and player both agree to it.

A “vesting option” is a negotiated option that only becomes guaranteed if the player reaches certain defined statistical thresholds in the previous season. (Typically, these are based on plate appearances, innings, games played or games finished.)

When must options be exercised?

Within five days of the conclusion of the World Series.

What is an 'opt-out'?

A negotiated contract provision in which a player can opt out of his remaining contract and become a free agent. Opt-outs have become more commonplace in contracts in recent years, and they are a means for players to potentially cash in if they perform well in the initial years of a contract.

A prominent example is CC Sabathia signing a then-record seven-year, $161 million contract with the Yankees prior to 2009. The deal had an opt-out after the third year. Sabathia exercised it and then negotiated a new five-year, $122 million deal with the Yankees, essentially making his original contract worth a grand total of eight years and $191 million.

What is a qualifying offer?

A qualifying offer is a means by which teams can receive Draft-pick compensation should a particular departing free agent sign with another club.

Teams can only receive compensation if they have made a qualifying offer to the free agent, and such an offer can only be made to players who have never received a qualifying offer previously in their career and who were on the team’s roster for the entirety of the previous season (i.e., were not acquired via trade midseason).

The qualifying offer is a one-year offer worth the mean salary of MLB’s 125 highest-paid players. This value changes by the year. For the 2022-23 offseason, the value is $19.65 million. The offers must be made to eligible players within five days of the conclusion of the World Series, and players then have until Nov. 15 at 4 p.m. ET to accept or reject.

If the free agent accepts the qualifying offer, he is bound to his team from the previous season for another season. If he rejects the offer, he is free to explore free agency. If he signs elsewhere prior to the next amateur Draft, the team that lost him receives a compensatory Draft pick. The team that signs a player who rejected the qualifying offer is subject to the loss of one or more Draft picks (though a team’s highest first-round pick is exempt from forfeiture).

Click here for a more in-depth look at the factors that determine which specific Draft-pick positions are gained or surrendered in this process.

What is the deadline for offering and accepting or rejecting a qualifying offer?

Teams have until five days after the World Series to extend a qualifying offer to their free agents. The players who receive the offer then have 10 days to decide whether or not to take it. If they reject it, they are immediately eligible to sign with another team.

What is salary arbitration?

Players with three or more years but less than six years of Major League service time are eligible for salary arbitration if they do not already have a contract in place for the upcoming season. Players with less than three but more than two years of service can also qualify if they meet a certain service-time threshold that changes by the year (these are known as Super Two players).



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If arbitration-eligible players and their teams have not agreed to a contract by a certain date in mid-January, they must both put forth a salary figure for the upcoming season and a hearing is scheduled for February. If they still can’t come to an agreement by the time of the hearing, a panel of arbitrators listens to each side’s case and then selects one of the two salary figures (nothing in between) as the player’s salary for the upcoming season.

When is the arbitration exchange deadline?

For the 2022-23 offseason, it is Jan. 13, 2023.

What does it mean to be 'non-tendered'?

When a club “non-tenders” a player on its 40-man roster (i.e., not yet eligible for free agency), it has declined to give that player a contract for the upcoming season. The player then becomes a free agent.

When this happens, it is typically because the player’s likely raise in the arbitration process exceeds what the club projects his on-field value to be. Or a club can non-tender a player simply to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

The decisions made at the non-tender deadline can often significantly expand the free-agent player pool.

The 2022-23 offseason’s non-tender deadline is Nov. 18.

• Important dates

What is the Rule 5 Draft?

A draft that allows clubs that do not have a full 40-man roster to select certain non-40-man players from other organizations. Essentially, it is an avenue for teams to identify and give a Major League opportunity to talent that they feel has been held back elsewhere.

Players signed at age 18 or younger must be added to their club’s 40-man roster within five seasons or else become eligible for the Rule 5 Draft. Players signed at 19 or older must be protected within four seasons.

Like the amateur Draft (officially known as the Rule 4 Draft), the Rule 5 Draft is held in reverse order of standings from the previous season. Unlike the amateur Draft, not every club will make a selection in the Rule 5. Those that do must pay $100,000 to the club from which the player was selected, and the player must remain on the new club’s 26-man roster (or injured list) for the entirety of the following season or else be placed on outright waivers. If the player clears waivers, he must be offered back to his original team for $50,000 and can be outrighted to the Minors only if his original team does not take him back. (This prevents teams from pilfering players from other teams and then stashing them in their Minor League system.)

When is the Rule 5 Draft?

This winter’s Rule 5 Draft will be held Dec. 7.

Why is the offseason called the 'Hot Stove'?

The term is said to date back to the 19th century in small-town America, where people convened at general stores or post offices in the winter months and discussed various topics -- baseball among them -- while warmed by a pot-bellied iron stove. As the 20th century evolved and the sport took on added prominence in the country, “Hot Stove” came to be embraced by sportswriters as a means of describing offseason chatter and speculation that bridges the gap between the end of a season and the start of Spring Training.

Some guesses and suggestions made in some articles I've read in the past day or two:

Candidates for FA signings: Guardians listed among half a dozen interested in JD Martinez. And a catcher I wasn't too familiar with from the National League.

Most likely trade candidate for each team, for Cleveland: Plesac.

Wild guess trade: Bieber for Bryan Reynolds.

To add to that I still don't think we've seen what David Blitzer's involvement will mean to payroll.

It's easy to think that things will continue the exact same way they have been. Lazy thinking.

The last "window" they went for Andrew Miller - then Edwin Encarnacion.

This "window" also involves a future new owner. These are facts. So we shall see.

Jim Bowden
@JimBowdenGM
·
23h
Chris Antonetti #Guardians told us that Shane Bieber will NOT be traded and will be a part of their team in 2023 as expected. When asked if he was closer to acquiring Sean Murphy #Athletics or Alejandro Kirk #BlueJays he suggested we ask them...they trying to add Catcher & a Bat.

In a trade market that has reportedly put an emphasis on controllable starting pitching, Cleveland Guardians right-hander Zach Plesac has found his name thrown into the rumor-mill. MLB insider Jon Heyman took to Twitter to mention the Philadelphia Phillies being a team with particular interest in acquiring the 27-year old.

Good for the Phillies. I've seen their name associated with his before.
Let's asked for a package just like the one we got for Clevinger.
Or maybe just one young prospect like the one we got for Kluber

Guardians’ Chris Antonetti On Shane Bieber, Catchers
By Mark Polishuk | November 13, 2022 at 6:45pm CDT

In an interview with Jim Bowden and Jim Duquette on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM, Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti flatly rejected the idea that Shane Bieber will be a trade candidate this winter. “We have every intention of trying to contend next year, and trying to win a World Series. And, Shane Bieber will be a big part of that for us,” Antonetti said.

Naturally, some gamesmanship could be at play here, and the Guards (at least as a matter of due diligence) would consider any serious offer another team might float for Bieber. Given Cleveland’s history of trading star players as their arbitration costs rise, the Bieber trade speculation won’t really end until he actually does change teams, or unless he signs an extension. However, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that moving Bieber isn’t on the Guardians’ radar in the near future.

Bieber was arbitration-eligible for the first time last winter, and avoided a hearing by working out a $6MM contract for the 2022 season. The high number reflected Bieber’s early success, which included All-Star appearances in 2019 and 2021, and the AL Cy Young Award during the shortened 2020 season.

The right-hander kept on rolling through 2022, posting a 2.88 over an even 200 innings, with a 48.2% grounder rate, an elite 4.6% walk rate and an above-average 25% strikeout rate. While that K% was his lowest since 2018, Bieber seemed to trade strikeouts for extra control, changing up his mix of pitches with great success. Bieber used his curveball a lot less and his cutter a lot more, with both pitches becoming more effective as a result.

Now projected for a healthy raise to $10.7MM in 2023, Bieber’s salary isn’t really onerous for a Guardians team that doesn’t have much committed to its 2023 or longer-term payroll pictures. Plus, as Antonetti noted, Cleveland wants to compete for a championship, so it is possible ownership might be willing to even stretch the budget a bit to supplement a title run.

Next winter, it is possible things could change. Bieber’s third and final arbitration year should be worth well over $15MM if he continues this good form, and he is scheduled to reach free agency in the 2024-25 offseason. An extension would lock Bieber up in Cleveland for good, yet the Guardians traditionally tend to only extend players early in their careers (though Jose Ramirez’s extension last spring was a very prominent exception to this rule).

Come next winter or possibly even at midseason if the Guardians fell out of contention, a Bieber trade might seem much more feasible. Waiting another season to really explore a Bieber deal would also give Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff more time to evaluate Bieber’s replacements — as always, the Guards have a wealth of young arms in the pipeline who have already made their MLB debuts, or are on the verge of debuting. Within the current rotation, Triston McKenzie also had a nice breakout in 2022 and now looks like a front-of-the-rotation starter.

Antonetti also discussed several other topics during the interview, including the Guardians’ needs behind the plate. Austin Hedges is set to hit free agency, and “catching is an area where we will continue to explore options,” the PBO said. “If we can find a way to add some offense and add a bat somewhere throughout the lineup, that’s something we’ll pursue as well.”

As much as the Guardians have been linked to the likes of Oakland’s Sean Murphy in trade rumors, it isn’t necessarily clear that Cleveland will look for an external answer at catcher. Prospect Bo Naylor had a huge season at Double-A and Triple-A in 2022, resulting in a late-season promotion and his first five big league games. The Guardians have never been shy about trusting young players in big roles, and this trend could continue given how much they like Naylor.

“We think he’s got a chance to be a really good catcher on all sides of the game,” Antonetti said. “Not only really talented offensively…he does an extraordinary job of leading the pitching staff. He’s so motivated to make an impact with the pitchers that he’s kind taken it upon himself to learn Spanish. And not just the pitches, but actually learn the language so he can build a rapport and relationships with our Spanish-speaking pitchers.”