Former Guardians utilityman elects free agency after disappointing end to Rockies tenure

Tyler Freeman may have never been the biggest name on the Guardians roster during his three years in Cleveland, but he always did enough to stick around on the roster (namely learning the outfield on the fly). 

That position change may have helped him bring more value to a big league roster, but it wasn’t enough to help him stick in the big leagues. 

On Saturday, Freeman elected minor league free agency with the Rockies. The move was a bit of a formality given the Rockies waived him in early September, and will give him a bit of a head start of an offseason that will likely end with him signing a minor league contract somewhere. 

Tyler Freeman is hitting minor league free agency after disappointing season with Rockies 

Although Freeman was waived at the end of the season, he still appeared in 79 games with the Rockies last season and recorded a .247/.317/.314 slashline with three home runs and 23 RBI. That production may have been enough for him to stick around if he had good defense, but he finished the year with -8 Outs Above Average. 

He finished his Rockies tenure with a .339/.323/.342 slashline in 189 games with the Rockies. 

Freeman may have learned the outfield, but he’s been worth -18 OAA in the outfield since he started playing the position. That’s never going to be enough to cut it so long as his bat doesn’t pick up. 

The Guardians seemed to realize that when they traded him to the Rockies for 2025 in exchange for Nolan Jones (the rare trade that’s ended up being bad for both sides), and the Rockies new front office also seemed to see the writing on the wall. 

That sets up an interesting offseason that will likely result in Freeman signing a minor league contract with some other team. The one saving grace for him is that he can also play the infield, and it seems like some front office will be willing to roll the dice on him as a utility depth option. 

It’s odd that the Rockies never set Freeman down to the minor leagues since he had one minor league option remaining, but his presence in the minors could be a benefit since he could work on his defensive craft away from the bright lights of the big leagues while being in the best spot should his big league team suffer an injury. 

Even if the Guardians aren’t really able to take a victory lap on trading Freeman since Jones was horrible in Cleveland, removing Freeman from the roster saved the Guardians from keeping him over another promising prospect.

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