4 things the Cleveland Guardians must accomplish following the MLB Winter Meetings

3. Bring in an additional full-time outfielder

Cleveland's outfield is comprised of one full-time outfielder or at least only one who should be playing all the time in Steven Kwan. The rest is a group of players who should be in part-time/platoon/backup roles, and it is hard to maintain consistent offensive production with two-thirds of the outfield in that state.

It is not that the rest of the outfield group is necessarily bad, it is just that in an ideal scenario, they only have one position that utilizes a part-time/platoon approach. Having Lane Thomas, Jhonkensy Noel, Will Brennan, Tyler Freeman, Daniel Schneemann, and Angel Martinez in a complementary role is fine, but having this group take on the bulk of playing time at two positions is not great.

The most logical way for the Guardians to clear a path is by trading one of their current outfielders, possibly Thomas. Cleveland is open to potentially dealing Thomas, and if they were to trade him, it would be one less player in their mix. This would allow the Guardians to take the estimated $7.8 million salary through arbitration and put that towards acquiring a full-time option either through free agency or trade. This would give the Guardians more stability in their outfield while raising their talent floor, two things this team needs to help them compete with the best teams in the sport.