Guardians' disastrous offseason trade has yielded at least one positive piece

The Cleveland Guardians are mired in a rough stretch that has pushed them to the fringes of postseason contention, and while there's a lot of blame to go around — the offense has been downright horrendous in July — there's one offseason trade that stands out as an unfortunate reminder of the team's messy winter.

At last year's Winter Meetings, Cleveland engaged in a three-team swap with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto Blue Jays. The final tally of the trade is as follows:

Pirates received: INF Spencer Horwitz
Blue Jays received: 2B Andrés Giménez and RHP Nick Sandlin
Guardians received: RHP Luis Ortiz, OF Nick Mitchell, LHP Michael Kennedy and RHP Josh Hartle

The Blue Jays' end of the deal has worked out about as you'd expect. Giménez has played brilliant defense and will be in contention for another Gold Glove at second base this year, but he's negated a lot of his value by producing a .622 OPS and 79 wRC+. Sandlin, meanwhile, has been good in limited action (2.20 ERA in 16 1/3 innings pitched), though his 4.77 FIP and 11.6% walk rate betray his surface stats.

Over in Pittsburgh, Horwitz has been a mixed bag for the Pirates. He appeared to turn a corner in June by slashing .286/.349/.429 (116 wRC+) in 86 plate appearances, though he's come all the way back down to earth in July (.158/.158/.158, -22 wRC+). Overall, he's largely been a disappointment, posting a meager .658 OPS in 41 games.

And then there's Cleveland's portion of the deal. Mitchell and Kennedy have been roughly average in their time in A-ball this year, with the former posting a 101 wRC+ and the latter rocking a 3.86 ERA (4.59 FIP). Oh, and Luis Ortiz is indefinitely suspended as the league looks into gambling allegations.

It's a good thing Hartle exists.

Josh Hartle's strong season salvaging disastrous trade for Guardians

Hartle, a 22-year-old southpaw out of Wake Forest, was selected by the Pirates with the No. 83 pick in last year's draft. He had a strong collegiate career with the baseball powerhouse, particularly garnering the attention of scouts in 2023 when he went 11-2 with a 2.81 ERA in over 100 innings.

He made a very abbreviated debut with Pittsburgh last year, getting lit up in just one appearance to the tune of a 16.20 ERA. Luckily, that hasn't been a sign of things to come, as the towering 6'6" lefty is eating up High-A hitters this season.

In 16 starts with with the Lake County Captains, Hartle has tossed 72 1/3 innings, logging a 3.36 ERA (3.12 FIP) to go along with impressive strikeout (24.2%) and walk rates (8.7%).

He's got a long, sidewinding delivery that opposing hitters have simply been unable to square up this year. He uses his huge frame and long levers to his advantage, throwing on a near-45-degree plane to generate ground balls with all of his offerings.

Hartle has the body to withstand a starter's workload in the majors, and its promising that he's already handled over 70 innings in the season's first half. He could rise quickly through Cleveland's system, especially if the Guardians' pitching development staff can help him hone his command on his breaking balls.

Now, obviously, Hartle is far from a finished product, and he isn't the only piece of the aforementioned deal making waves in the farm system. Still, with Ortiz out for the foreseeable future (and possibly forever), a big jump from the big lefty will make Guardians fans feel a lot better about the odds of coming out on top in the three-team trade.