Guardians Could Be One Piece Away From Playoff Contention

It’s officially that time of the year. The trade deadline is one week away, as teams have until August 3 to complete any deals.

The Cleveland Guardians are currently second in the AL Central with a 54-53 record and are expected to be involved in multiple conversations with other teams. Their current reality demands an emphatic, busy, and impactful deadline.

If the Guardians don’t add three or four very specific pieces, their season could go to waste. They have a talented group of young players and prospects ready to explode, but they need another star position player to help Jose Ramirez shoulder the burden of carrying the franchise.

With the deadline being so close, the folks at The Athletic ranked every team according to its ambitions, and put them in tiers. He had the Los Angeles Dodgers in a tier of themselves, named ‘World Series or bust’, and four squads in the next tier, called ‘contending sustainably’.

Five squads were in the third tier, named ‘Can we make noise in October?’: the Philadelphia Phillies, the Chicago Cubs, the Boston Red Sox, the Guardians, and the Seattle Mariners.

The writer, Tim Britton, explained why these teams aren’t in the second tier.

“These are the teams that, as currently constituted, feel one piece short of really challenging in October. For the Cleveland Guardians, several younger players have taken the strides the team needed to position itself for October baseball. But — and stop us if you’ve heard this before — man, that offense could use one more bat,” Britton wrote.

As Britton suggested, the Guardians need bats desperately, perhaps more than one. Their offense ranks in the bottom third in most metrics and stats, and their ability to hit for power consistently is not particularly impressive.

To be fair, the Guardians look like they are more than one piece short of becoming a serious World Series contender. They need an extra depth starter; they really need that hitter, and now that Shawn Armstrong is on the shelf, they could use a few reliable options for the bullpen.

It’s time to make a statement and leverage a strong farm into some relevant acquisitions. They have been passive in recent years, and it’s the perfect time to change the narrative.