Cleveland Guardians fans still can’t get over the Junior Caminero trade in 2021, in which the team sent the prospect to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for pitcher Tobias Myers. Then, in 2022, they sent Myers to San Francisco for cash.
Caminero broke out last year in Tampa, with 45 home runs and 110 RBI, stats that would have looked lovely in the middle of the Guardians lineup. But Caminero wasn’t the only one who got away.
The Yandy Diaz trade was also not good for Cleveland, as Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com explains.
“On Dec. 13, 2018, Cleveland traded Yandy Diaz to Tampa Bay with reliever Cole Sulser. Tampa Bay sent Jake Bauers to Cleveland, while Cleveland sent Edwin Encarnacion to Seattle. Seattle then sent Carlos Santana to Cleveland. This season, Diaz is hitting .373 (19 for 51) with three homers and 12 RBI for the Rays. Jake Bauers is hitting .225 (9 for 40) with three homers and nine RBI for Milwaukee. Santana is hitting .083 (2 for 24) with a .279 OPS for Arizona. Sulser has a 4.70 ERA in four appearances for the Rays this season. Encarnacion retired after the 2020 season with 424 career home runs,” Hoynes wrote.
At the time of the trade, Diaz was seen as a contact-first corner infielder, but with virtually no game power. He hit just one home run in 299 plate appearances in Cleveland between 2017 and 2018, and his wRC+ in that 2018 campaign was a fine 116.
He was known for impressive exit velocity but little in terms of game power. He changed his swing with the Rays and started tapping into his impressive raw power.
It’s also important to remember that Bauers was highly regarded back then. However, he had a disappointing 2019 campaign in Cleveland with 12 home runs and an 82 wRC+ in 423 plate appearances, and was traded to Seattle in 2021.
Bauers had his moments as a major leaguer after leaving Cleveland, but Diaz really surged and became an All-Star, a Silver Slugger Award winner, and a batting champion in the American League in 2023.
Last year, he hit a career-high 25 home runs and posted a 135 wRC+, a solid mark that probably would have fit in nicely in the Guardians’ lineup.
The Guardians have won a myriad trades over the years, but the Diaz one was definitely not one of them. It happens. It’s baseball. They will lose some and also win some, but they remain a well-run organization anyway.
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