[Meisel] The Guardians’ two noteworhty free-agent acquisitions this past winter were Mike Zunino and Josh Bell. Mike Zunino lasted until June 16. Josh Bell lasted until Aug. 1.

11 comments

1. Oof

2. This will now be used as an excuse to never make a big free agent signing again

3. making the big signing of the ’21/’22 off season look even better

4. I don’t think they were bad signings but they ended up both being worse case scenarios

5. I hate posts like this. They were good signings at the time but they just absolutely sucked

6. Raise your hand if you predicted Cam Gallagher would outlast them

7. They took some shots, and they didn’t work. And now neither impacts the future. Nothing negative here.

8. I still applaud the FO for going for it with Bell. Needed a power bat at first. Didn’t work out. A lot of free agent signings don’t pan out. But anyone who will now say stay away from free agents was likely bitching about the team not going for them in years past. Oh well. Some work out like Edwin Encarnacion. Others don’t.

9. Bell not working out but getting us the number 16th pick in the draft isn’t a bad flip. Let’s hope he can humble himself and not point his bat at any umpires.

10. We gotta gamble on free agents sometimes, free agency is generally a gamble anyway. Gambles don’t always work, that’s baseball when you can’t throw 9 figure contacts at everyone. Speaking of, we’re not the Mets thankfully

11. “Smart signings”, “not bad signings”, “good signings at the time”,

    Nah, Reality check. They were signed because they checked economic checkboxes. They were guys past their primes with recently questionable numbers. They both had about 10 years in the league already.

    We didn’t sign them because we wanted them, because they were good, or because they were going to revolutionize our lineup. We bought budget options on the hope that they could approach their prior career highs.

    We signed them because we could afford them. We had to add a catcher. We had to add a DH. They played exactly as it was predicted they would play.

    “Just didn’t pan out” Man the lengths people will go to rationalize is impressive. They were the only options available to us on our budget. These weren’t some big-brained 3D chess moves.