Gaps remain for Guardians as quiet Winter Meetings wrap

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Winter Meetings have come and gone, and aside from the Guardians winning the Draft Lottery on Tuesday night, the team remained quiet during its days in Nashville.

Both Shane Bieber’s and Emmanuel Clase’s names had been thrown out in trade rumors leading up to the Meetings, but neither gained steam when all 30 front offices gathered in one building. That doesn’t mean they won’t at some point. The offseason is far from over, and the Guardians will continue to make phone calls and listen until Opening Day arrives.

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BIGGEST REMAINING NEEDS

1. A bat: Offense is the most glaring issue that needs to be addressed. Cleveland has finished near the bottom of power statistics across all 30 Major League teams over the past few years. This past season, the Guardians ranked 30th in homers (124) and 29th in slugging percentage (.381). José Ramírez and Josh Naylor can try to do the heavy lifting once again, and the addition of up-and-coming prospect Kyle Manzardo could be of help, but If Cleveland can find an external outfield bat to work into the middle of this order, it will help take the offense to the next level.

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2. Starting depth: Designating Cal Quantrill for assignment certainly thinned out Cleveland’s starting pitching depth. The team looks to return Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee and Logan Allen to the rotation. Assuming Triston McKenzie is healthy, he’ll be back in the mix. And if Bieber doesn’t get traded, the Guardians already have a good idea of who will be the starting five on Opening Day. But the depth beyond that is thin, especially if McKenzie continues to battle right arm trouble. Guys like Xzavion Curry, Cody Morris or Joey Cantillo could be used in starting roles. But the Guardians know you can never have too much depth.

3. Relief depth: Like starters, bullpen depth is beneficial to have. The Guardians have lost Enyel De Los Santos and Reynaldo López from their roster, but they added Scott Barlow to take the setup role. There are question marks surrounding what the future holds for James Karinchak after shakier seasons the past two years, and if Curry gets moved into a starting role, the bullpen depth would shrink even more. It wouldn’t hurt to add some extra relief options before Spring Training begins.

RULE 5 DRAFT

The Guardians entered the Rule 5 Draft on Wednesday afternoon with one open spot on their 40-man roster. At pick No. 10, that vacancy was filled with third baseman Deyvison De Los Santos from the D-backs’ Triple-A roster.

• Rule 5 Draft results

As a refresher, the Guardians will have to pay $100,000 to the D-backs for De Los Santos. He will remain on Cleveland's 26-man roster for the 2024 season and can only be removed by being placed on outright waivers next season. If De Los Santos would clear waivers in that scenario, he must be offered back to Arizona for $50,000 and can be outrighted to the Minors only if his original club does not wish to reacquire him.

De Los Santos has the chance to help fill the biggest need the Guardians have: Power. MLB Pipeline graded the 20-year-old third baseman’s power as his best tool by a landslide. Here’s what the experts had to say: “Because of the way he’s able to get into his lower half and dig into his strength, De Los Santos has the near-top-of-the-scale raw power that ranks among the best in all of the Minor Leagues, and he has the elite exit velocities to match.”

The problem is that De Los Santos has only reached Double-A and he’s a stereotypical boom-or-bust guy. He struck out 125 times in 113 games last year and 147 times in 126 Minor League games in 2022. It may be a challenge for him to transition to the Major League level.

The Guardians were able to escape the Major League portion of the Draft without losing a player. In the Minor League phase, they gained three and lost three.

Gained: Right-hander Ty Brown from Houston, righty Connor Gillaspie from Baltimore and lefty John Doxakis from Tampa Bay

Lost: Right-handers Samuel Vasquez and Thomas Ponticelli, first baseman Bryce Ball

GM’S BOTTOM LINE

Many of the conversations at the Winter Meetings with Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff revolved around the team’s TV deal with the Diamond Sports Group/Bally Sports. Knowing that the cable company has filed for bankruptcy and is still going through court hearings, the Guardians have to wait to see how (or if) it will impact their payroll in 2024, which has caused them to think differently about their approach to the offseason.

“It just creates uncertainty,” Antonetti said. “One of the historic benefits of having the cable deals in place is it’s a fixed, predictable form of revenue that we know and we can then plan around. Over the last couple years and now specifically, there’s uncertainty around what had been a relatively stable income source for us, revenue source for us.

“You have to be thoughtful and think about what are the probabilities of different outcomes and what is the risk tolerance if things don’t go the way we expect and revenue ends up being a lot less, having to cover for those gaps. Those are the things that we have to be thinking about.”