After only playing in 26 games during the 2025 MLB season, Jesse Winker is now a free agent. With Winker on the open market, the Cleveland Guardians could be interested in him.
Coming off an injury and now at 32 years old, don’t expect Winker to have a massive market. Winker is a good player, but he has also really struggled in recent years.
Simply put, Winker would be the backup option for the Guardians if they can’t land a high-end target, which should be Max Kepler. While Kepler would be a much better signing, the Guardians should address their outfield in some way.
Here’s why the Guardians should bring in Winker if they can’t land Kepler.
This is a PREDICTION, not a REPORT.
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Jesse Winker Joining Cleveland Guardians in MLB Free Agency
There’s not much to discuss regarding how Winker played last season. Again, Winker only played in 26 games and took 70 at-bats on the year.
During that brief stretch, Winker had 0.0 WAR, one home run, and a .229 batting average. There’s not much to take away from this season other than the fact that teams don’t love adding a veteran outfielder who’s coming off an injury.
Winker was an All-Star for the first and last time in 2021, when he had a really strong year with the Cincinnati Reds. That year, Winker had 2.7 WAR, 24 home runs, and a .305 batting average.
Winker was then traded to the Seattle Mariners, and his 2022 season wasn’t nearly as good. There was a clear decline as Winker had -0.1 WAR, 14 home runs, and a .219 batting average.
The most relevant year to look at, though, is 2024. Winker had 2.0 WAR, 14 home runs, and a .253 batting average. These aren’t elite stats by any means, but if the Guardians can get close to that level of production out of Winker, they should be content.
How Jesse Winker Fits with the Cleveland Guardians
If the Guardians were able to land Winker, he should be deployed as an offensive weapon with the ability to play in the outfield when called upon.
The article regarding the aforementioned Kepler explains the fit extremely well: “If the Guardians use Kepler well, there’s a clear path to how this fit would work. Have José Ramírez at third base, move Kyle Manzardo to first base, and then put Max Kepler at the designated hitter spot.”
The same logic would apply to Winker as well, who’s never had a fielding run value mark (per Baseball Savant) above zero in his MLB career. In 2024, that mark was at -5.
Jesse Winker Stats
Winker has played in the MLB for nine years with a career WAR of 6.4, 96 home runs, and a .229 batting average. To dive a bit deeper into these stats, let’s look even closer at how Winker did in 2024.
In 2024, Winker also had a .360 OBP, .405 SLG, and .764 OPS, all numbers that the Guardians will be looking at and hoping Winker can give them if the situation makes sense.
While in an ideal world, the Cleveland Guardians would just sign Max Kepler, pivoting to Jesse Winker isn’t a bad idea at all.