3 offensive trade targets who would fix Guardians' crestfallen offense 

Although the Guardians are entering the weekend tied for first place in the American League Central, the past couple weeks have shown the limitations of their offense. 

Now, part of the reason for those limitations is obviously the lineup they’re working with, as José Ramírez, Chase DeLauter and Angel Martínez are all on the injured list. But it’s not like the Guardians’ lineup was setting the world on fire when all three of them were in the lineup, either. 

Luckily, the Aug. 3 trade deadline is quickly approaching, which could provide the Guardians with an obvious way to upgrade their lineup, should they choose. 

With that in mind, here are three position players who could help fix the Guardians’ offense. 

These three players could add some pop to the Guardians’ lineup 

OF Jo Adell, Los Angeles Angels 

A former top prospect, Adell’s somehow in his seventh big league season. And that big league season has featured enough up and down play that he's become a bit of a divisive trade target. 

On one hand, he slugged 37 home runs last season and has posted a .770 OPS against left-handed pitchers in his career. But he’s also been worth -19 Outs Above Average in his career and has a lifetime on-base percentage of .279. 

Adell wouldn’t be a savior, but he’d be a good platoon option for a Guardians team that’s hit .226 against left-handed pitchers. Plus, he has one more year of team control, so the Guardians would be able to bring him back next season for a relatively low cost, should they choose. 

2B Luis Arraez, San Francisco Giants 

Arraez signed a one-year deal with the Giants in the offseason after having a pretty middling free agent market. He responded to that by hitting .321 while grading out as one of the best defensive second baseman after being a subpar defender throughout his career. 

So it’s only right that the Guardians should take advantage of that… and add him to their first base platoon. 

It’s kind of crazy that Arraez has never been a Guardian considering his contact-first approach would make him a perfect fit for their lineup, but they held off on going after him in the offseason so they could free up second base for Travis Bazzana. 

The Giants have already bottomed out and seem set to trade away from pieces at the deadline, and Arraez is an obvious choice considering he’s on an expiring contract. 

Arraez may not be a perfect fit (-12 Outs Above Average at first in his career), but his high-contact approach would be a breath of fresh air for a Guardians lineup that’s been lacking any kind of consistency. 

He’d be the perfect hired gun to help round out Cleveland’s offense. 

OF JJ Bleday, Cincinnati Reds

Bleday’s already had quite a career. He was a first round pick by the Marlins in 2019, but was subsequently traded to the Athletics after one big league season in Miami. He had three seasons with The Athletics (one good, two bad) before being let go, and signed a one-year, $1.2 million contract with the Reds in the offseason. 

Although he didn’t make Cincinnati’s roster out of spring training, he was added to their roster at the end of April and ended up being named the National League Player of the Month for May. 

Bleday entered play on Thursday with a .243/.349/.524 with 13 home runs and 35 RBI in 51 games. He’s also on-pace for the best hard-hit rate of his career (46.2%) along with the lowest strikeout rate (19.6%) along with a solid 13.2% walk rate. 

He’s a subpar defender and has some clear flaws in his game, but he’s making just $1.4 million this year and still has three more years of team control remaining. That team control would likely increase the amount it would take to acquire Belday, but his strong power numbers would make it worth it. 

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