Guardians no-hit hours after not acquiring bat at Trade Deadline

HOUSTON -- When the Guardians walked into their clubhouse at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday afternoon, they saw the words, “Team meeting 5:05,” written on the whiteboard in the hallway.

At that time, the team didn’t know that Josh Bell was about to be traded. The players were still trying to come to terms with the fact that starter Aaron Civale was moved the day before. Manager Terry Francona knew he needed to speak to the team to address everything that had transpired leading up to the Trade Deadline, but it was hard for him to know exactly how to approach it.

“I don’t ever want to B.S. any player. Can’t do that,” Francona said. “I just told them that, 'Hey, man, if you’re frustrated or if you’re angry, OK. But if that trickles into our play on the field, that doesn’t help anybody.”

In theory, it was the message they needed to hear. But when it came to putting those words into practice, the Guardians fell short. Just hours after the Trade Deadline expired, they were no-hit by Astros starter Framber Valdez, resulting in a 2-0 loss.

“It's frustrating, for sure,” Guardians catcher Cam Gallagher said. “We're going to come back tomorrow and try to fight back and try to salvage another series."

The Guardians needed to clear some space on their active roster to make room for younger players to get more opportunities. They did that by moving Amed Rosario and Bell. But if the club wanted to try to reclaim the AL Central title, considering it's just two games back of the first-place Twins, it needed to get some offensive help.

Instead, the Guardians picked up starter Noah Syndergaard and two prospects who will not see the Majors in 2023, and it was clear the morale wasn’t as high as it had been over the last few weeks in the clubhouse, as players tried to cope with losing some of their closest friends to trades.

“It’s tough,” Gallagher said. "We love everybody in here, we got a really good relationship, really good core of guys and it’s tough losing friends, teammates and brothers. But at the end of the day, it’s a business and we gotta focus on baseball.”

After 6 p.m. ET, no more moves could be made. The Guardians were no longer able to search for offensive help and they chose to stick with the bats that were already on the roster. Those bats had been able to keep Cleveland around the .500 mark all season, but they haven't been able to sustain a winning record.

“We’re going play with the guys that are in here. There’s no excuses,” Gallagher said. “There’s no looking for answers. We have the answers right here in this clubhouse.”

Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti hinted on Monday that more moves could be coming, including ones that could bring more depth to the starting rotation. But on Tuesday, he said the right option did not become available to them, leaving them with three rookies and Syndergaard in the rotation. And although they looked for bats that could help in 2023, they weren’t able to complete a deal.

“We looked at a lot of different options to do that,” Antonetti said. “But we always had this balance of the players we bring in, but also wanting to continue to provide opportunities for young players at the Major League level.

“I think in trading [Bell] clears an avenue for some of those young players to step up and contribute and hopefully help us win games as they’re developing.”

As soon as the club committed to sticking with the bats that were left in the room after the handful of trades that were made, it became even more clear that acquiring a hitter would’ve been a beneficial pickup, as they were no-hit for the first time since Sept. 11, 2021 -- a season in which they were no-hit on three separate occasions.

Aside from an Oscar Gonzalez walk, Cleveland mustered no baserunners. This was the type of result Francona was hoping to avoid by calling everyone into the clubhouse to have a meeting. But the Guardians now know what they have to work with for the rest of the season and after getting a rough night out of the way, the offense is ready to turn the page.

“This is what we get paid to do, and we’re gonna go out there and play and give it everything we got,” Gallagher said. “So we’ll look past this one, look forward to tomorrow and try to salvage a win.”