Guardians’ ill-fated Nolan Jones trade looks a bit better after Rockies’ Tyler Freeman decision 

Earlier this year, the Cleveland Guardians finally pulled the plug on Nolan Jones’ second tenure with the team by trading him to the White Sox. 

Although that move didn’t fully clear the Guardians from their boneheaded decision to tender him a contract in 2026, it confirmed he wasn’t a part of the Guardians’ long-term plans. 

But it wasn’t that long ago that Jones was viewed as a bright part of the Guardians’ future. In fact, there were two separate occasions where that was the case. 

The first came in 2022 when the Guardians traded him to the Rockies when he was still a prospect, and the other came last spring when Cleveland acquired Jones from the Rockies in exchange for utility player Tyler Freeman.

Normally a trade for a player like Jones results in the trading team recording an easy trade fleece. 

That wasn’t the case here, as the Rockies outrighted Freeman off their roster over the weekend and assigned him to Triple-A Albuquerque. 

Even if the Rockies didn’t double down on their trade mistake like the Guardians did, their decision to remove him from their big league roster less than two years after trading for him does provide Cleveland with a bit of trade vindication. 

The Rockies pulled the plug on their Tyler Freeman experiment

Freeman had a pretty rough go of it in Colorado, as he was hitting just .247 in 79 games this year and had a .267 batting average in 189 games in his two seasons with the Rockies. Although he showed flashes of talent last year, Freeman never stood out enough to be a player who was going to stick around. 

When the Rockies traded for him last year, they were under different management and were largely regarded as one of the most insular organizations in all of professional sports. They may still be bad now, but they have a new leadership group that has a clear plan. 

And, for the second time in his career, Freeman is out of his team’s plans. He also showed flashes during his time in Cleveland (who can forget his fantastic catch against the Twins), but he always seemed to be the lowest man on the totem pole. It also didn’t help that the Guardians had him learn the outfield on the fly. 

His most “productive” season came in 2024 when he hit .209 (but was worth 0.9 bWAR), and the Guardians used that season to sell high on him in their deal with the Rockies. He was better at the plate last year, but was worth -13 Outs Above Average. 

Freeman was worth -8 OAA for the Rockies this season prior to getting outrighted. 

Freeman’s outright all but guarantees he’s going to be non-tendered after the season, which means he’ll likely have to settle for a minor league contract in the offseason. He has enough talent to be productive in the big leagues, but his path to get back there just got a lot tougher. 

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