Approaching the MLB trade deadline, there are two tracks a team can take, depending on how they see themselves in the playoff race. The ones that believe they have a chance to qualify look to get better immediately, while those who aren’t going to make it try to stock up for the future.
The Cleveland Guardians may have been caught somewhere in the middle as this year’s deadline was coming up on Monday. A recent cold streak had knocked them out of first place in the AL Central, and they are among eight teams trying to grab one of the final two wild-card spots.
Faced with that scenario, the Guardians made the somewhat surprising decision to add multiple players to help them this year. They acquired outfielder Jo Adell from the Los Angeles Angels, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe from the Cincinnati Reds, and starting pitcher Foster Griffin from the Washington Nationals before the clock ran out on Monday.
In the aftermath, Guardians executive Chris Antonetti revealed his thoughts after those big deadline moves.
“We feel we’re a better baseball team today than we were 10 days ago. We feel we’ve been able to make additions that have strengthened, really, every aspect of the team,” Antonetti said. “We are in a competitive position in a very competitive division in a competitive American League. If there were opportunities to improve the team at costs that we thought were reasonable, we wanted to try to do that.”
If the Guardians harbored any hopes of winning the AL Central for a third straight season, they needed to improve their low-ranked offense, ideally with a right-handed power hitter. Adell fits the bill almost perfectly, with a .910 OPS against left-handed pitching this season, and he has 16 home runs after hitting 37 last year.
Lowe, a left-handed batter, could become part of a veteran platoon with righty Rhys Hoskins at first base. They would take over for Kyle Manzardo, who was leading the team with 13 home runs but was optioned to Triple-A as the result of an otherwise disappointing season.
Griffin, a left-handed starting pitcher who recently turned 31 years old, was a first-time All-Star selection after playing the previous three seasons in Japan. The Guardians have had an extremely durable rotation so far, with the same five pitchers starting all but one of their 111 games to date, so it will be interesting to see how Griffin is added to that mix.
The Guardians earlier acquired reliever Craig Yoho and outfielder Blake Perkins from the Milwaukee Brewers, and this collection of additions has them rated among the big winners of the trade deadline this season.
NEXT: Jo Adell Reveals Honest Thoughts About Joining Guardians
