Guardians fans ready to say goodbye to franchise legend at MLB trade deadline

On June 11, 2010, Carlos Santana made his MLB debut for the then-Cleveland Indians and smashed his first career home run the next day.

OMG by Usher was the No. 1 song in the country. The Karate Kid remake with Jaden Smith was the top grossing movie in theaters. Russell Branyan started at first base for Cleveland Roberto Hernandez (then-Fausto Carmona) picked up the win on the mound. 

Santana’s journey through Cleveland has gone through a lot of twists and turns in the time since including a World Series berth, an All-Star appearance and his early-season resurgence this year in his third tenure with the club.

Guardians fans ready to say goodbye to franchise legend at MLB trade deadline

Santana is slashing .232/.329/.356 this year with nine home runs and 37. Those slash line numbers are a bit lower than his career averages, and his .356 slugging is the lowest in baseball among full-time first baseman. 

But he still holds some value as a trade candidate thanks to his glove (93rd percentile in Outs Above Average) and his plate discipline (84th percentile in walk rate). He can still put up a professional at-bat, he just doesn’t have the kind of power that he had earlier in his career. 

The 39-year-old is on a $12 million contract and has over 120 postseason at-bats, so he has the kind of pedigree and experience that teams seem to crave as they enter the postseason. And in a perfect world, that pedigree and experience would come for the Guardians this year, but their performance last week might have sealed their fate. 

The Guardians went 1-5 last week against the Blue Jays and Cardinals and now sit two games under .500 and 2 1/2 games out of a Wild Card spot. It would have taken a lot for the Guardians to buy under the best conditions, but any kind of extended swoon could lead to them turning into a seller, much like they did in 2023. 

This year’s trade market will be a bit weird due to a lack of pure sellers, so the Guardians could capitalize on that by pivoting to selling veteran talent like Santana. Plus dealing him would also open up a spot on the roster for a prospect like CJ Kayfus.

The Guardians traded Josh Naylor away in the offseason and replaced him with Carlos Santana in the hopes the veteran would be able to turn back the clock this year for Cleveland. And even though his presence on the roster has taken at-bats away from Kyle Manzardo, he’s still managed to be a league average player this year.

It looks like there could be a chance that teams would pay a premium for that at this year’s deadline.