CLEVELAND — The Guardians declined their $6 million option on John Means on Thursday, making the left-handed starter a free agent before he ever threw a pitch for the club in a big-league game.
Means was fully recovered from his second Tommy John surgery and built up by the end of the regular season. The Guardians would have granted him a chance to make a couple of starts, but they employed a six-man rotation in September as they chased down the Detroit Tigers to win the American League Central, and since the starters were all flourishing, they didn’t have a spot for Means.
He made seven rehab outings before the end of the season, and he regularly tossed bullpen sessions in front of Cleveland’s pitching coaches at Progressive Field. Ultimately, the Guardians opted not to devote $6 million to a starter with such an extensive track record of arm trouble, even though they knew going into this union that he wouldn’t pitch much, if at all, in 2025.
The decision simplified the club’s process to reduce the number of players on its 40-man roster before Thursday’s 5 p.m. ET deadline. Since there’s no injured list during the offseason, the club had to reinstate outfielder Will Brennan and pitchers Sam Hentges and Andrew Walters. The Guardians also outrighted five players off their 40-man roster: pitchers Kolby Allard, Matt Krook and Ben Lively, as well as catcher Dom Nuñez and infielder Will Wilson — all five elected free agency. Lively and Allard would have been eligible for arbitration.
Cleveland’s 40-man roster now stands at 37 players.
Means, 32, has made only 10 big-league starts over the past four seasons. He owns a 3.68 ERA in his career, which took off with the Baltimore Orioles in 2019 with an All-Star nod and a runner-up finish in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting. That’s one of only two seasons, though, in which he has logged more than 45 innings.
The $6 million salary would have made Means one of the highest-paid players on the team. Only José Ramírez ($21 million) and Emmanuel Clase ($6.4 million) are guaranteed more — plus Steven Kwan, who is expected to earn a higher total via arbitration later this winter — though the Guardians might not be on the hook for Clase’s contract, pending the outcome of the league’s sports betting investigation. That same investigation also involves Luis Ortiz, whose cloudy future leaves some doubt about Cleveland’s starting pitching depth.
A year ago, the Guardians were panicked about their rotation, which lacked options at the major-league level and in the upper levels of their farm system. To remedy that, they swung trades for Ortiz and Slade Cecconi for immediate help in the rotation. They re-signed Shane Bieber, who was recovering from Tommy John surgery, as an option for the second half of the season.
And they signed Means to a one-year, $1 million deal that included the 2026 club option. The Guardians knew Means wouldn’t be ready to return from his elbow procedure until August or September, but they figured he could help them either down the stretch or next season, if he proved healthy and was looking like he had regained his stuff.
When he was at the peak of his powers, Means boasted one of the league’s best walk rates. He’s a 6-foot-4 lefty who doesn’t throw hard and tends to strike a balance between his fastball, changeup and slider.
The Guardians will again bank on those six starters to carry them next year: Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee, Joey Cantillo, Parker Messick, Logan Allen and Cecconi. They also believe Khal Stephen, acquired for Bieber in late July, could help them in 2026.