Guardians could capitalize on roster crunch after hearing latest buzz on trade market

While there’s still some big name free agents who have yet to sign contracts for 2026, we’re at a point in the baseball calendar where most teams begin to truly shift their focus toward next season. The Winter Meetings have come and gone, which means that Christmas is almost here and the start of spring training is nearly two months away. 

As such, it may seem like the Guardians are done making moves this offseason, especially considering their 40-man roster is full after signing Colin Holderman to a one-year, $1.5 million contract. But a perceived lack of flexibility doesn’t mean that there actually is one. 

On Wednesday, MLB insider Ken Rosenthal published a story in The Athletic detailing the current landscape across baseball where nearly every team is looking to add MLB talent in trades as opposed to prospects. 

Although there’s a case to be made for the Guardians to add to their roster via a trade, Rosenthal’s reporting could open up an avenue for the Guardians to free up some space on their roster while also adding to their minor league depth. 

The Guardians could still trade some players off their big league roster this offseason

In Rosenthal’s aforementioned story, he has a quote from an unnamed MLB executive, who said “no team wants prospects. If you’re willing to take prospects, you’ll get more on the dollar than you will for major-league players.”

And the Guardians have some clear avenues where it could make sense for them to offer some of their MLB talent in trades — the clearest of which is the middle infield. 

Stephen Vogt has already gone on record to say that Gabriel Arias and Brayan Rocchio are going to get plenty of opportunities in the middle infield at spring training, but they have plenty of promising young prospects nipping at their heels in Travis Bazzana, Juan Brito and Angel Genao. 

Arias is coming off a season where he hit .220 with a strikeout rate of 34.4% and whiff rate of 40.5% while Rocchio hit .233 and was sent to Triple-A early in the season. 

While those up-and-down performances take away a bit of the luster from both of them (which makes the Guardians’ decision to run it back with them next season a bit frustrating), they both have enough upside to carry a bit of interest on the trade market. 

Even if the potential prospect return for either of them would be lighter compared to a more established name, trading either (or both) of them would be an easy way for the Guardians to start a new era of the middle infield. 

There’s also some wiggle room in the outfield thanks to Johnathan Rodríguez and Nolan Jones, both of whom have a tenuous hold on their respective roster spot. Jhonkensy Noel also factored into that equation, but the Guardians designated him for assignment yesterday.

All three of them have the kind of power that teams covet from outfielders, but they’re all coming off seasons where they hit worse than .211 and had strikeout rates of 28% or worse. 

The Guardians would be selling low on all three of them, but getting them off the roster would be addition by subtraction, especially if it would give more opportunities to young players like Chase DeLauter, George Valera and Petey Halpin.

Even though Cleveland has a full 40-man roster, there are still some obvious holes on the roster. Trading some of the underperforming players from their roster would given them an opportunity to fill those holes internally.