Guardians' soul-crushing losing streak shouldn't disturb the search for offense

The Cleveland Guardians are mired in a long, painful losing streak that now stretches to double digits, and their hopes for a repeat postseason run to the American League Championship Series (or further) appear to be on life support.

Assuming the team's fortunes don't make a miraculous turnaround in the next few weeks, the Guardians will likely be forced to adopt the mentality of sellers at this year's trade deadline.

Considering how favorable the market is toward sellers this year, that actually might not be a bad thing, but it's still a difficult reality to accept given how promising the team looked earlier this year.

However, even if the Guardians do decide to ship off some spare parts prior to the July 31 deadline, the front office must go into the trade deadline with one prime directive: bring in a long-term answer for the offense.

Guardians' losing streak showcases just how hapless their offense really is

Zack Mesiel of The Athletic did a breakdown on the Guardians' losing streak by the numbers, and suffice to say, it isn't pretty.

Their OPS and wRC+ rank in the bottom five in the league for the season — and get disturbingly worse when you remove All-Stars José Ramírez and Steven Kwan from the equation. The Guardians scored just 15 runs total across their 10 game losing streak, five of which were shutouts. You may also remember that six of those runs came in one inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at the end of June.

The piece was also sure to point out Chase DeLauter's brilliant season and the absurd irony of the offensively-inept Guardians refusing to call him up.

You obviously don't need me to tell you how much of an improvement he could be over Nolan Jones, Jhonkensy Noel, Johnathan Rodríguez, Angel Martinez, and the rest of the motley crew of outfielders Cleveland has been running out alongside Kwan this year.

Still, the Guardians can't bank on their ability to solve their offensive ineptitude internally. This is an existential issue to this era of Cleveland baseball, and bringing in outside reinforcements as soon as possible is the only path forward.

There's no need to go for broke for someone like Alex Bregman, who will matter a lot more to an actual World Series contender than the Guardians this season.

But how about Bregman's Red Sox teammate Jarren Duran, an outfielder with an All-Star ceiling that has 3 1/2 years of team control remaining?

They could also go out and "buy" a top prospect who is on the MLB doorstep, like the Chicago Cubs' Moises Ballesteros or Owen Caissie. The trade would appear like a normal sell-side deal, but it would function as an immediate boost to Cleveland's hapless lineup.

Regardless of how they do it, the Guardians cannot sit on their hands at the trade deadline. They have to beef up their offense for 2026 and beyond if they hope to maximize what remains of this core and Ramírez's prime.