3 Guardians players on the chopping block ahead of Friday's non-tender deadline

Friday is a huge date in the MLB calendar, as it stands as the deadline for when teams need to decide whether they want to offer contracts to their arbitration-eligible (and pre-arbitration) players. 

As a part of that deadline, every team from MLB will trim players from their roster in an attempt to save money, free up roster space for young players or some combination of both. 

Although the Guardians currently have a full 40-man roster after they added four prospects to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft, they could still make some moves over the next couple days to free up some space ahead of a busy offseason. 

With that in mind, here are three Guardians who could be approaching the end of their time on the 40-man roster. 

These three Guardians could be on the chopping block

OF Johnathan Rodríguez

Although Rodríguez has raked in the minors since he joined Cleveland’s system in 2017, his results in the big leagues have been extremely underwhelming (.176 batting average in 44 games). 

The biggest reason for that has been his inability to put the ball in the air. While he’s mashed 100 home runs across the past three minor league seasons, he’s struck out in 30.8% of his MLB at-bats and hit the ball on the ground in 65% of them. That’s not going to cut it. 

Rodríguez theoretically has enough pop to be an interesting option in right field, but the Guardians can’t wait forever for him to break out, especially considering the lack of production they’ve gotten out of their outfield in recent years. 

Rodríguez has already survived two roster crunches this offseason, but his time on the roster could be numbered. It wouldn’t be surprising if he was the first player cut if the Guardians made some kind of offensive addition in the next couple weeks. 

OF Nolan Jones

While Jones posted strong batted ball data for most of the 2025 season, he finished the year with an OPS of .600 and a strikeout rate of 28%. 

Jones has all the skill in the world (and managed to show it with some big homers down the stretch), his disappointing 2025 season may be too much for the Guardians’ front office to ignore.

Jones ended up missing the final two weeks of the regular season and all of the postseason with a right oblique injury, which paved the way for Geroge Valera, C.J. Kayfus and, eventually, Chase DeLauter to get more playing time in the outfield. 

Even though Jones is projected to make just $2 million through his first run through arbitration, the Guardians may elect to cut bait with him so they can give their rookie trio more chances to earn playing time in right field. 

RHP Zak Kent 

The Guardians already gutted their pitching staff this offseason by cutting ties with Ben Lively, Kolby Allard, Matt Krook and Nic Enright, but Kent could be the next to go if the Guardians need to free up space for an external addition to their pitching staff. 

Kent was a fringe player for the Guardians in 2025, and posted a 4.58 ERA in 17 2/3 innings across his four different tenures on Cleveland’s big league roster. He boasts an intriguing profile highlighted by a slider that opponents hit just .138 off last year, but we've yet to see him work in a high-leverage situation. 

The Guardians added two new pitching prospects to their 40-man roster in the form of Austin Peterson and Yorman Gómez, so the Guardians wouldn’t want to cut either of them off the roster. 

Matt Festa and Sam Hentges are two other pitchers who could be on the chopping block if the Guardians need to add an external addition to the roster, but Kent would likely be the first to go before either of them.