This story was excerpted from Mandy Bell’s Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
The Trade Deadline has come and gone, but it’s certainly sparked more questions surrounding the 2023 Guardians and the future. Let’s try to answer a few things fans want to know:
When did the front office realistically expect to compete? And when do they realistically expect to compete in the future? -- @PurpleHatKid
Coming into the season, realistically, the Guardians expected to compete this season. The Guardians have been quiet the last few winters, but they showed they could be aggressive by going after a power bat in Josh Bell and taking a risk on Mike Zunino, who had flashed power in the past, but was coming off of surgery. With the foundation this young roster set in an exciting 2022 season, there were plenty of reasons to believe they could be even better in 2023, especially after they thought they added power (which was their biggest problem last year).
That didn’t pan out. And while the division race is not over yet, it’s certainly going to be difficult for the Guardians to work their way up the leaderboard. But in the future, this organization does believe that it can compete in 2024. It will just require some of these rookies to really blossom.
Was this team always going to miss the playoffs or did the Trade Deadline moves kill morale? -- @MikeHermanson4
There’s no crystal ball that can give us answers as to who could’ve made the playoffs based on a move that was made or not made. However, looking at the situation the Guardians were in leading up to the Trade Deadline, things weren’t overwhelmingly pointing in their favor.
The Guardians had the toughest schedule remaining in the American League. Although the team had been neck and neck with the Twins atop the division leaderboard, it was hard to ignore that Cleveland had hardly spent any time over .500 this season. Once you get into August and you’re still below or around .500, it’s hard to imagine that will be a club that will surge in the postseason, even if it would win the division.
Objectively, this didn’t seem like the roster to make a run. If this year wasn’t going to be the year, then the club should focus on the future. Moving Amed Rosario and Bell did free up space for younger players to get more at-bats. If the Guardians can learn more now about these rookies, they can have a better idea of who to rely on in 2024, rather than starting from scratch in Spring Training.
That’s not to say the moves at the Trade Deadline weren’t difficult for players on the active roster to come to terms with. But objectively, the Guardians may just be better off starting to plan for the future.
Is there a publicly available number of innings caps for Logan Allen, Tanner Bibee and Gavin Williams? -- @profalankchen
Here’s what Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said on this:
“We don’t have a hard and fast limit on any of the guys. You look at each player individually, trying to understand where are they, how are they recovering between starts, are they showing signs of fatigue, are they maintaining their stuff? The good news on all of those guys so far is they’re still strong. We’ll continue to monitor that. When we can, we’ll give them extra days. But we’re hopeful they can continue to pitch and pitch effectively through the end of the season.”
Any updates on Triston or Shane? -- @Naylors4MVP
Triston McKenzie and Shane Bieber are both back to playing catch, but neither has started pitching yet. Manager Terry Francona said both continue to self-report that they’re feeling great, but there’s still a long way to go before they’re throwing off the mound.
Is Kyle Manzardo expected to make it to CLE for a look in September? -- @DavidHanna19888
It’s more likely we see Manzardo in 2024.
Manzardo is coming off of a shoulder strain that he suffered at the beginning of July. He has yet to get back into game action and the Guardians believed he was a few weeks away from being in Minor League games with Triple-A Columbus when they acquired him last week. By the time he makes it back, he’ll need some time in the Minors, anyway, to get back into the groove.
What is the biggest need to improve the offense in the offseason? -- @BlakeTakala
Power. This offense has ranked 30th in homers all season and placed 29th last year.
Who chooses the music choice in the clubhouse each game? -- @DavidHanna1988
The most common DJs that I’ve seen are McKenzie and Josh Naylor.