Guardians Flamethrower Loses Roster Spot As Team Activates New Pitcher

The Cleveland Guardians secured quite a haul before Monday’s trade deadline. Between Saturday and Monday, they welcomed five new players to the organization: two outfielders in Blake Perkins and Jo Adell, a first baseman in Nathaniel Lowe, a reliever in Craig Yoho, and a starting pitcher in Foster Griffin.

The downside of bringing in so many players is that all of them will require roster spots. That means the team had to make some tough decisions.

For example, Juan Brito was designated for assignment on Monday to accommodate the new arrivals on the 40-man roster, and infielder Kyle Manzardo, who hit 27 homers with a 113 wRC+ last year, was optioned to Triple-A so Lowe had a spot on the active roster. David Fry also left the roster.

The Guardians, on Tuesday, had to activate Griffin. That means a talented reliever lost his roster spot.

“The Guardians activated Foster Griffin to the active roster. Franco Aleman was optioned to Columbus to make room,” MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins reported.

The Guardians activated Foster Griffin to the active roster. Franco Aleman optioned to Columbus to make room.

— Tim Stebbins (@tim_stebbins) August 4, 2026

Aleman has been a tad inconsistent, but his high-90s fastball and wicked slider often resulted in strikeouts and important outs for the team. Now, he goes to the minors after posting a solid 3.77 ERA in 14.1 innings in the majors, striking out 17 batters and walking just five.

It appears that Saturday’s outing, in which Aleman allowed three runs (including one home run) while getting just one out against the Arizona Diamondbacks, sealed his fate, at least in the short term. Aleman is too good not to recover from this setback, though, and he has already proved that Triple-A is no longer a challenge for him.

Pitching for Triple-A Columbus, the right-hander boasts a 0.32 ERA in 28.1 frames, with 43 punchouts and just seven bases on balls. It’s a matter of time before we see him at the MLB level again, where he belongs.

The Guardians’ relief pitching situation is a bit crowded at the moment, but Aleman is currently better than some of their MLB alternatives. They will eventually find out about that and bring him up again, provided that he keeps doing his thing in Columbus.