Guardians need to stay away from trading for this flawed Astros outfielder 

Last season the Guardians went on a wild run through September to earn a postseason debut despite having one of the worst outfields in baseball. 

While the Guardians have some promising rookie outfielders who are better options than what Cleveland had to roll out last season, they still have a golden opportunity to upgrade that outfield picture at this week’s Winter Meetings. 

One of those options who could be available is outfielder Jesús Sánchez, who was traded from the Marlins to the Astros at the trade deadline. 

Jesús Sánchez could help add some power to the Guardians outfield 

The trade rumors around Sánchez hit a fever pitch last week when The Athletic’s Chandler Rome published a story highlighting the Astros’ offseason plans, where he wrote that “Houston believes its best avenue to acquire an established starting pitcher is via trade.”

One of the ways they can do that is by potentially trading Sánchez or center fielder Jake Meyers, both of whom present different free agent cases. 

While Meyers has better stats and is coming off a breakout year, he missed two months with an injury and had his power numbers take a big dip last season. 

And on the other side there’s Sánchez. As mentioned above, he was traded to the Astros at the deadline but slashed just .199/.269/.342 in 48 games with Houston.

Those struggles made him a potential non-tender candidate, but the Astros made the surprising decision to tender him a contract. 

But one of the reasons they did that could be due to the fact that he could potentially help the Astros net something in return in a trade because of his prodigious power. 

While he has a career OPS+ of 98 (meaning he’s been two percent worse than league-average since making his debut), he has mashed 72 home runs in that time and hit a 480-foot home run off Jakob Junis in 2024. 

That 2024 season stands out as one of his best at the plate, as more than half of the balls that he put in play were classified as hard-hit along with having an average exit velocity of 92.5 miles per hour. Last year he had a hard-hit rate of just 43.4%, though his average exit velocity was around 91 mph. 

Those struggles will undoubtedly hurt his trade value, so there’s likely no way the Astros will be able to get the same kind of return for Sánchez compared to what they gave up (pitcher Ryan Gusto, infield prospect Chase Jaworsky and outfield prospect Esmil Valencia). 

Sánchez has some clear red flags in his approach and profile, but he could be an intriguing (albeit expensive) option. His projected $6.5 million contract would make him the third-most expensive player on the Guardians roster, which is a bit of a steep price for a player with such clear flaws. 

The Guardians have those aforementioned young outfielders like Chase DeLauter, George Valera and Petey Halpin while also having Nolan Jones in the fold after tendering him a $2 million contract. 

Jones is also coming off a rough season, but he’s cheaper and is a known commodity. The Guardians have some players who could serve as trade chips, but using them in a trade for Sánchez wouldn’t be the best use of them.