Guardians quiet offseason vindicated thanks to bizarre Harrison Bader injury 

Last offseason, the Cleveland Guardians didn’t do much of anything despite having some pretty big holes in their lineup. 

While part of their inaction seemed to stem in their belief that Chase DeLauter and George Valera could be big league regulars (a 50% hit rate isn’t bad), it also seems like part of that inaction could have stemmed from Cleveland not being blown away by any of the free agent options in front of them. 

One of the biggest names who seemed to make sense on paper for the Guardians was Giants outfielder Harrison Bader, who had mashed against left-handed pitching and wouldn’t break the bank. 

But Bader ended up on the other side of the country by signing a two-year, $20.5 million contract with the Giants that looked like an absolute steal. 

Well, about that… 

While Bader’s signing looked bad coming into the week since he only managed 20 games this season due to a hamstring strain and a bout of plantar fasciitis, it got even worse this week when news began to trickle out that Bader had sustained more injuries to his foot over the weekend in a scooter accident. 

According to SFist, Bader sustained the injury around 1:50 a.m. last Sunday when he crashed his scooter into the back of a San Francisco Fire Department fire engine, which caused the wheel of his scooter to run over his foot. 

Bader’s signing has been a clear misfire for the Giants, and one the Guardians were lucky to avoid. 

Harrison Bader's injury shows the Giants were smart to avoid him in free agency

It’s anyone guess if Bader’s seeming character concerns played into the Guardians staying away from him. Although he had previously sustained an injury in a scooter accident while in college at the University of Florida, there weren’t any reported incidents involving him during his big league career. 

And it had been quite an up-and-down career for him prior to signing his contract with the Giants. He opened his career with a productive six year stint with the Cardinals before joining the Yankees in 2022, where he became a postseason folk hero against the Guardians. 

He bounced around MLB after that, but seemed to turn his career around last year with a productive season split across time with the Twins and Phillies. 

That helped him earn his aforementioned contract with the Giants, which made it seem like he’d be a fan favorite in the Bay Area.

But now we’re at a point where he’s not fully cooperating with the Giants’ investigation while the team’s PR staff has had to backtrack on their rookie manager’s comments about the injury.

Even if the Guardians' outfield hasn’t been a unit of world-beaters this year, Bader’s injury saga is a good reminder that it could always be worse. 

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