Former Cleveland outfielder lands with most recent Guardians opponent

A player who once called Cleveland home is on the move again. Outfielder Eddie Rosario has signed with the most recent opponent of the Cleveland Guardians, the Milwaukee Brewers, on a minor league deal. This comes after being designated for assignment by the Atlanta Braves last week and choosing to explore free agency instead. Rosario is set to report to the Nashville Sounds, Milwaukee's Triple-A affiliate. This is the third organization Rosario has been a member of this season, previously making appearances for the Los Angeles Dodgers in addition to Atlanta before signing with Milwaukee.

Rosario is best known for his time with the Minnesota Twins, posing an impressive .277/.310/.478 slash line with 124 doubles, 119 home runs, and 22 triples, while driving in 388 runs in 697 games. This production is why the now-Guardians took a chance on him at the time, even if things did not work out in Cleveland for either party.

It is incredibly easy to forget that Rosario once played in Cleveland prior to the team changing their name to the Guardians. Rosario spent an unspectacular 78 games with the ballclub back in the 2021 season, slashing .254/.296/.389 with 15 home runs, seven doubles, and 46 runs driven in.

Cleveland was hoping to get a lot more out of Rosario than what they did, resulting in him being traded to the outfielder-needy Braves at the deadline. Rosario was one of four outfield acquisitions that Atlanta made that season following the season-ending injury to Ronald Acuna Jr., with the club also trading for Joc Pederson, Jorge Soler, and Adam Duvall.

The Braves would go on to win the 2021 World Series over the Houston Astros in six games, with Rosario being named the 2021 NLCS MVP along the way. It's incredibly easy to wonder if the Braves would have ended up winning it all that season had Acuna not gone down with an injury, considering the major contributions they received from every player acquired after his season came to an early end, but that is a different discussion for a different time.