How Guardians' previous frustrating free agent missteps can explain quiet winter

While the Cleveland Guardians haven't made any major league additions to their lineup this offseason, it’s been at the top of mind for nearly every Guardians fan this offseason. 

And even though the Guardians’ front office hasn’t made one of those splashes, it seems like it’s been front of mind for them as well. 

We got some evidence of that last week when Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti acknowledged the Guardians need to get better while also citing his belief that the team’s internal prospects would help with that growth. 

But it looks like there’s a chance that their previous free agent missteps could have been a factor in their quiet winter. 

On Monday, Cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto published a new story about the Guardians’ offense that included a quote from general manager Mike Chernoff, who provided some insight into the kind of thinking the team’s decision makers have. 

“We don’t play (try to sign) top tier free agents,” Chernoff told Pluto. “Do you go to the level before that? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

The Guardians' previous free agent mistakes seem to have impacted this year's offseason

Last offseason the Guardians dipped into that tier last year when they signed Carlos Santana to a one-year, $12 million contract. That ended up being an abject failure, as Santana struggled at the plate and failed to live up to the billing that came with him being the signing in response to Josh Naylor being traded. 

While Santana wasn’t mentioned publicly at the press conference, Pluto wrote that he thinks that the Guardians’ signing of Santana was the biggest reason they stayed out of this offseason’s free agent market. 

In fact, the Guardians arguably haven’t hit on a free agent hitter since 2016. In the time since, they’ve kicked the tires on veterans like Carlos Gonzalez and Hanley Ramírez while spending too much on disappointing players like Josh Bell and Mike Zunino. 

Ramon Laureano was their big signing in 2024 ($5.1 million), but they cut him after he hit just .143. He’s since blossomed into an everyday player. 

The biggest signing in that time was Edwin Encarnación, who they signed to a three-year, $60 million deal before the 2017 season. Although he hit 70 home runs in the first two years of his deal, the Guardians traded him to the Mariners ahead of the 2019 season. 

The good news for the Guardians is that they’ve done a good job building up a strong base of MLB-ready position player prospects in the form of Chase DeLauter, Travis Bazzana, C.J. Kayfus and others. 

And while it's great that the organization has put itself in a position to have such a strong prospect base, it's still a bit frustrating that they didn't address something that was such a clear need.

At least there's always the trade deadline.