Festivus Airing of Grievances: Cleveland Guardians edition

Cleveland Guardians Grievance #2: Trading Andres Gimenez

Of the players who were expected to listen to trade offers for this offseason, second baseman Andres Gimenez was not included. And yet, the Guardians sent the three-time Gold Glove and 2023 Platinum Glove-winning Gimenez to Toronto and then flipped their return to Pittsburgh for a package including Luis Ortiz. Overall, Cleveland received Ortiz and three minor league players who do not figure to be in the mix for major league playing time any time soon.

Was Gimenez worth the $10.5 million he was due in 2025? Not necessarily, given his offensive output has been subpar for the past couple of seasons, but if their only goal was to dump the upcoming salary which would have been a problem and get little in return, they could have waited at least one more year to do so. Trading Gimenez now for someone who might crack the major league rotation and three low-level minor leaguers is not great.

Something else to consider is that the Guardians now have to sort out who will start the season as their starting second baseman. Juan Brito seems like the favorite to man the position until Travis Bazzana is ready to debut, but that could be a considerable amount of time, enough that could lead to the Guardians playing themselves out of contention in the division if things do not go right.

Taking this particular route with Gimenez was definitely premature if the only goal was to offload salary and clear a path for a prospect that is going to be kept down in the minors to start the year, and this process can definitely be considered grievance worthy.