The Cleveland Guardians’ front office did not make the kind of splashy, headline grabbing moves that some contenders made this season. Instead, it made a series of smaller trades aimed at patching holes in a lineup that badly needed help. Those moves are looking better by the day. In Monday night’s 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, three players acquired during the season came through with some of the biggest hits of the night. Jo Adell, Nathaniel Lowe and Patrick Bailey combined to go 5-14 with five RBIs, helping Cleveland take a one game lead in the series.
John Sabol of Fox 8 News pointed out who deserves some of the credit.
“#Guardians front office acquired Jo Adell, Nate Lowe and Patrick Bailey in trades during the season. Those 3 combined for 5-14, 5 RBI in Game 1 of the ALCS. Those moves continue to pay off. Give Chris Antonetti and his staff credit,” Sabol wrote.
#Guardians front office acquired Jo Adell, Nate Lowe and Patrick Bailey in trades during the season.
Those 3 combined for 5-14, 5 RBI in Game 1 of the ALCS.
Those moves continue to pay off. Give Chris Antonetti and his staff credit. đź‘Ź@fox8news
— John Sabol (@John_Sabol) October 13, 2026
Antonetti, Cleveland’s president of baseball operations, has watched all three acquisitions play key roles throughout this postseason run.
Bailey was the first to arrive. The Guardians acquired the catcher from San Francisco in May, when he was hitting just .146 with a .396 OPS. Cleveland valued his defense, as he came over as a two-time Gold Glove winner, but nobody expected much from his bat. That has changed in October. Bailey went 5-15 in the division series, including a pinch-hit homer in Game 4 that started Cleveland’s comeback, and he followed that up on Monday with a 436 foot homer on the first pitch of the seventh inning to tie Game 1.
Lowe came over at the trade deadline in August, when Cleveland sent a nineteen year old pitching prospect to Cincinnati in a deal finalized in the closing minutes before the cutoff. At the time, the Guardians sat at 57-56 and had one of the lowest scoring offenses in baseball. Lowe’s regular season numbers in Cleveland were modest, as he posted a .650 OPS and struggled against left handed pitching. But on Monday, against a lefty and against the organization that originally drafted him, Lowe lined a two run single in the eighth inning that gave the Guardians the lead for good.
Adell arrived from the Angels on that same deadline day. A year after hitting 37 home runs in Los Angeles, he gave Cleveland a legitimate power threat, hitting seven homers in 48 games with the Guardians and slugging .660 against lefties. His postseason has been even better. Adell tripled twice in the division series, joining Kenny Lofton as the only players in franchise history with multiple triples in a single postseason series, and he drove in six runs against Chicago. On Monday, he added a two run double in the ninth inning to put the game out of reach.
There is a fourth deadline addition worth mentioning, too. Foster Griffin came over from Washington on the same day as Lowe and Adell, and he started Game 1 after setting a franchise postseason record for strikeouts by a reliever in Game 3 of the division series. He settled in after a tough first inning on Monday and kept Cleveland within striking distance.
The results speak for themselves. After the trade deadline, the Guardians went 28-21 to chase down the White Sox and win the division, then came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Chicago in the ALDS. Now they are three wins away from the World Series.
NEXT: Stephen Vogt Reveals What Impressed Him Most In Game 1
