Guardians just picked a strange time to make roster move fans have long begged for

A little less than six years ago, Gabriel Arias arrived in Cleveland as one of the promising prospect pieces in Cleveland’s trade deadline fleece of the San Diego Padres. 

In the time since that trade, Arias stepped up to the plate more than 1,000 times and recorded an OPS+ of 76.

While most players with that kind of middling production wouldn’t get that many opportunities, the Guardians always seemed to be tantalized by Arias’ skillset highlighted by an incredible throwing arm and unrivaled power. 

It seems like they finally reached their limit. Earlier today, the team announced that Arias had been designated for assignment to make room for the production of Angel Genao, which was first reported last night. 

Although there has been a pretty solid subsect of the Guardians’ fanbase that’s been calling for Arias’ head for a while, his DFA coming now is a bit surprising considering he’s actually been playing well as of late. 

The Guardians continued their roster remake by designating Gabriel Arias for assignment

Even though Arias has posted a .244/.284/.386 slashline this year, he’s had some spurts that have shown why the Guardians never seemed to be able to quit on him. 

He opened the year with a great series against the Cubs, but all the momentum he gained from that series quickly dissipated when he suffered a hamstring injury that kept him out for two months. 

He returned in the middle of June at the same time that José Ramírez went on the injured list, but really struggled and was benched after a five strikeout game that also had a lack of hustle. 

But he’s quietly turned a corner since then, and has recorded a .714 OPS since the start of July. That said, he was 0-for-8 since the start of August with five strikeouts. 

While it always seemed like the Guardians were going to give Arias a long leash this season due to his lack of options, it’s surprising that they decided now was the time to quit on him. 

He’s going to be eligible for arbitration for the first time in his career after the season and was a clear non-tender candidate, so today’s move helped them get ahead of that. 

Arias’ demotion is another move in what’s been an aggressive trade deadline roster makeover complete with Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe replacing David Fry and Kyle Manzardo along with Foster Griffin replacing Slade Cecconi in the rotation. 

Now Arias will head to waivers, and it’s hard to believe he won’t be claimed by some team.

His 42.5% strikeout rate will likely scare some teams away, but he has one of the best throwing arms in the game and has played every position but catcher in his career (though he’s mostly an infielder at this point in his career). 

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him end up with a rebuilding team who can afford to give him at-bats every day. There are 25 homers waiting in his bat so long as a team is willing to put him with his extreme swing and miss. 

Regardless of whether this was the right time to designate Arias for assignment , the move is still an exciting development given it clears a path for Genao, who is one of baseball’s top prospects. 

A new era has officially arrived in Cleveland, and it came at Arias's expense.

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