Guardians continue to benefit from forgotten 2020 trade that fleeced Padres

For parts of five seasons, Mike Clevinger was a key member of the Cleveland Guardians’ rotation. While he never reached the heights of Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco or Shane Bieber, he was a solid middle-of-the-rotation arm who showed the occasional flashes of being a frontline starter. 

And while Clevinger hasn’t been with the Guardians for more than five years after they traded him to the Padres at the 2020 trade deadline, his legacy still lives on in the Guardians roster thanks to the players Cleveland acquired for him in that aforementioned trade.

We got another example of that on Tuesday when Joey Cantillo (one of the players acquired in exchange for Clevinger) tossed eight shutout innings against the Kansas City Royals in a huge win that helped push the Guardians a bit closer to a Wild Card spot. 

Guardians continue to benefit from forgotten 2020 trade that fleeced Padres

The Guardians took advantage of the weird, truncated 2020 season (and AJ Preller’s aggressiveness) in 2020 when they traded Clevinger, Greg Allen and Matt Waldron to the Padres in exchange for Gabriel Arias, Austin Hedges, Owen Miller, Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill and Cantillo. 

It’s become one of the best trades in team history.

The gem of the trade was Naylor, who served as the lifeblood of the Guardians’ lineup and was an All-Star in 2024 before the Guardians traded him to the Diamondbacks in the offseason. 

That trade has started its own trade tree, as they acquired him in exchange for Slade Cecconi and a draft pick they used to select high school pitcher Will Hynes. 

On Monday, Cecconi opened the Guardians’ series against the Royals by carrying a no-hitter into the eighth inning. So, in the past 48 hours, the Guardians have gotten 16 scoreless innings from starters who were acquired either directly or indirectly through the Clevinger trade. 

The trade would be a clear win because of that, but it’s even better given how things went for the players the Guardians traded away.

The Padres were wowed by Clevinger’s stuff and intrigued by the fact he had two-and-a-half years of team control left, but he underwent elbow surgery after just four starts in San Diego. He was cut loose by the Padres after the 2022 season and has stuck around with the White Sox since. 

Allen only appeared in one game with the Padres and hasn’t made a true major league impact anywhere else since. He briefly appeared in seven games with the Orioles earlier this year.

Hedges, Quantrill and Naylor were the first members of this trade to make a major league impact for the Guardians, while Miller joined them in 2021. 

Arias made his major league debut at the end of 2022, while Cantillo was the last of the lot to enter the bigs; his debut came last year. Arias, Cantillo and Hedges are all still with the Guardians, while Quantrill has pitched for two different major league teams this year. Miller's in the minors with the Rockies.

While not every player in the trade ended up being a part of the Guardians’ long-term core, they all became major leaguers who made an impact on Guardians teams that made the postseason. 

They have Preller to thank for it.