The Cleveland Guardians recently trade one of their longest-tenured regulars in second baseman Andrés Giménez.
He was the owner of second base since his breakout 2022 campaign, and through 2024.
Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti saw an opportunity to add pitching and reduce significant payroll, so he dealt him.
Now, the expectation is that the Guardians will open the season with one of Juan Brito, Angel Martinez or Daniel Schneemann as their second baseman.
Unless they can find a good market opportunity in free agency or via trade, of course.
According to Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, Cleveland showed interest in a former All-Star second baseman before he signed with the Tigers.
Another missed opportunity by the Guardians? pic.twitter.com/8miyqiJck1
— Guardians Nation (@GuardiansNation) December 30, 2024
“Many teams besides the Tigers were interested in Torres, including the Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Los Angeles Angels, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays and Washington Nationals. The Blue Jays initially showed strong interest, but the Tigers ultimately made him a priority,” Petzold wrote.
Torres is 28 years old and played the first seven seasons of his MLB career with the New York Yankees.
He is a two-time All-Star, in 2018 and 2019, and impressed in the second half and the playoffs as the Yanks’ leadoff hitter.
He was horrible in the first half, which lead to a disappointing .709 OPS or 104 wRC+, and he has a reputation of being a bad defender at the keystone.
In the end, Torres put pen to paper on a one-year, $15 million commitment and bet on himself with the next off-season in mind.
Maybe the Guardians will have another shot at him next off-season.
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