Cleveland Guardians Offseason To-Do List with Zack Meisel

[Music] to-do list time. Front end, by the way. It’s very nice. Scubal’s not going to the Guardians. Just saying that. Throwing that out there. Let’s let Zach Meiselle run the point here. Run point for us. Zach, first off, uh, writing for the Athletic, covering the Guardians for a while. Selby has also fantastic. Listen. But let’s do a good 10 minutes right here with Zach and lay out the offseason to-do list, top three for Cleveland in your mind. And thanks for joining us again, man. How you doing? Yeah, what’s up, guys? Uh that list that you guys just showed with Tucker, Alonzo, that’s wrong segment here. Uh for the Guardian Elite, it’s Look, they’re in a weird spot, right? They went to the ALCS, then they they won the division again. Um they have nobody signed. They have five guys guaranteed contracts for next year. Really four. Plus, they’re chipping in on Miles Straw’s contract with the Blue Jays. So, tons of flexibility, but also it’s Cleveland. They don’t spend money. So, they have glaring holes. If you listed the top 10 things they need, not even just the top three. Like nine of them would be help for the lineup. So, the outfield, the bullpen, those are the two primary targets I think. Um, if you need a third, I would say the outfield again. It was the the 30th ranked outfield offensively in baseball. And that’s with Steven Quan on the roster. And he’s going to be a popular name in trade talks all winter, too. So, uh, it’s it’s pretty obvious they they made the playoffs. They did so with one of the worst offenses a playoff team has ever fielded. They got to improve that. So, it’s the same thing we’ve talked about with Cleveland forever now. Yes. For the last like five years. Well, no. I mean, they had listen, their offenses were pretty decent when I was there in, you know, the 2007ish range, you know, when they had those teams in the early 2000s. They had a lot of offensive 90s, but lately it’s been pitching, pitching, pitching. So, is there are they going to go bargain shopping again and try to piece this thing together? Because at some point, all the pieces and I know Lane Thomas getting hurt was a big deal for him, but gosh, when are they going to go out and they have I mean, they do have money. It’s not like they’re on the, you know, the side of the street, you know, panhandling, but they have money. So, are they actually going to go out and make some moves or are they just going to continue to rely on this farm system that’s put out so many players? Yeah. So, here’s why they’re in a weird spot. They have, you know, Jose Ramirez is going to make 21 million. Then you’ve got Tanner Bbeby at like four and change. Uh Austin Hedges at four. Trevor Stefen at three and a half. They’re paying 2.75 million for Miles Straw. That’s it. That’s 35 million right there. You know, if you keep Quan, you’ll pay him eight to nine million in arbitration. There’s a few other ARB guys who are making like a million, a million and a half. So, we’re talking even when you fill out the rest of the roster, 55 million or so. So yeah, even if you’re trotting out a similar payroll to what they have in recent years, 90 to 100 million, which is also what it was in like the year 2000, which tells you a lot about the state of things, but um you’ve got 40 million to spend. So the question is like I think high on the priority list is a right-handed outfielder who can hit lefties. So, go get yourself an Austin Hayes or a Rob Ref Snider or a Randall Gritic, someone like that. But what they don’t want to do, and they’ve done this, they’ve made this mistake a lot where you they signed Eddie Rosario or Domingo Santana or Hanley Ramirez one year when he was washed up. Um they don’t what would not make sense and what they don’t want to do is sign a veteran retread who’s trying to get one last good year and give him 10 to 12 million and that blocks someone like Chase Delauer who we saw at the very end of the season. George Valera a rookie who came up and was pretty good in September and October. They want those guys to play. I think they want to make sure that they’re not banking on those guys starting 150 games. So they need to get someone who can play every day. someone who’s proven, someone who’s not 36 years old and trying to hang on. Um, so that’s why it’s a good thing maybe that they have some financial flexibility because I don’t think you can be shopping for that outfielder who’s going to make one for nine and then that might be their career. They’ve done that a lot in in the recent past. So, it’s got to be someone who’s a little more legit. Um, but we also know that this team’s not going to spend a ton of money. You know, you’re not going to hand out someone who’s making five for a hundred. So, it’s they’re in a weird spot and I think they’re going to have to let the uh free agency play out and someone kind of fall in their lap. Honestly, the way Pete Alonzo lasted on the market last winter. All right. Well, with all that extra money, how’s this bullpen going to get built? Because the Guardians, Indians, when I played for them, had a tremendous formula to make the best bullpen pitchers ever. And wait, no, they didn’t. Now they have the formula. They had the best formula to make starting pitchers. And now it’s like they’re figuring out this bullpen formula. If they need to improve their bullpen, will it just be from internal? Because I know a lot of guys that are out on the market are going to cost way more than anybody that’s making anything besides José Ramirez on the team. Yeah, they they know they need help. Um, you know, Nick Enright was someone they they leaned on last year. He’s got a great story. what he’s overcome um and was a huge help for them and then blew out his elbow and Andrew Walters they thought was perhaps a future setup man or closer and then he had injury issues and missed the entire season. So you don’t want to just bank on him making 70 appearances. Daniel Espino is a guy who has tantalized with you know he had 102 mph fast and a plus slider but that was four years ago and then he had two shoulder surgeries and he just pitched in the fall league. He could play a part, but again, not someone you can bank on. Obviously, Emanuel Class, I don’t see him walking through that bullpen door. So, you have Kate Smith, it’s a good place to start. They need depth. No, they’re not going to sign Edwin Diaz. Um or Devin Williams. Even someone like Helsley would would seem to be a good fit. Um but, you know, he he will probably price himself out of their range. It’s a pretty deep free agent market, though. You know, I I in trying to piece together the plan for the offseason, what makes sense to me would be the best hitter they acquire, they add, is probably going to come through trade. That would make the most sense to me. And then use your free agent dollars to sign that platoon outfielder and to add a rel, you know, they’ve they’ve also leaned on that group a lot. Kade Smith and Hunter Gatis have made I think more appearances than anybody the last two years if you include the playoffs. So, it’s you guys know it. Bullpens are completely volatile year after year. So, the more depth you can have back there, the better shape you’ll be in. All right. You brought up Claus A, so I need to ask the question. How much did it hamstring the team? Because there was rumors that him and Quan were going to be traded last trade deadline. Obviously, Claus A suspended. We don’t know if we’ll ever see him again. Ortiz suspended with him. How much did that hurt? I mean, obviously it hurt the organization and the team, but how much did it hurt just in general terms of building this team and possibly moving somebody like Quan and not having this decision on the books? It’s weird because it was almost like a twomonth fantasy or fever dream that they were living out because what got them to the playoffs was the pitching and yet they lost two key members, right? The bullpen had the best erra in baseball once Class A hit the sideline on July 28th. Like, h how I I still can’t wrap my head around that. The rotation was what fueled them to the playoffs in September. They went to a six-man rotation. The fact that they were able to lean on that sort of depth without Ortiz. When they acquired Ortiz last off season because they were concerned about their depth, um it didn’t really make sense. None of it added up. uh where they’ll really feel it is moving forward because now you have to hope for a repeat from those six starters because you’ve got other stuff you have to figure out. You know, I don’t think that it’s possible that they sign a starter or trade for a starter just for depth purposes, but you really need guys like Joey Cantillo and Parker Messik um to to take another step forward because you’re not going to have Ortiz. And in the bullpen, it’s leaning a lot more on on Cade Smith and Hunter Gatis, which is great, but those guys were were the insurance for Class A if class A ever faltered, and you don’t have that now. So, um it’s just a hit to the depth. You know, they were fielding offers for class A at the deadline. Obviously, they pulled him off the market when they learned about this. Um but even if they didn’t move him then, I think he would have been dangled on the trade market this winter. And you know, we saw what Mason Miller got in a trade. So, they’re kicking themselves a little bit now and they’re frustrated just because of the value you lose. And it’s it’s not just losing the player at that moment, but it’s it’s what you could have gotten in the future.

Zack Meisel, senior writer for The Athletic, joins the show to break down Cleveland’s offseason to-do list. He explains why the Cleveland Guardians must overhaul their outfield, add bullpen depth, and solve major lineup holes despite having rare financial flexibility. Meisel also dives into Steven Kwan’s trade market, what losing Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz really means for their pitching depth, and whether the Guardians will finally spend or rely on their young prospects. Plus, insight into potential trade fits, bullpen targets, and how Cleveland plans to build around José Ramírez for 2026.

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