Ill-fated Guardians-Rockies trade looks even worse thanks to recent results

Last March the Cleveland Guardians restructured their outfield picture by trading utility player Tyler Freeman to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for Nolan Jones. 

While neither Jones or Freeman were huge names at the time, the trade still stood out for a variety of reasons. Not only were the Guardians able to make a trade with the normally-insular Rockies, but they were also able to reunite with Jones (a former Guardians top prospect) for the cost of a player who was redundant on their roster. 

Now, a little more than a year later, it’s clearly evolved into a trade the Guardians would take back. 

After struggling for all of 2025, the Guardians outrighted Jones off their roster at the end of spring training despite still being on the hook for his $2 million salary in 2026 while Freeman has played well for the Rockies this season after starting the season on the injured list with back tightness. 

The Guardians’ trade of Tyler Freeman isn’t aging very well 

Freeman’s 2026 campaign got off to a late start due to back tightness that plagued him for most of spring training. But, in the time since he made his season debut at the start of April and has gone 2-for-5 with a RBI and stolen base in two games. 

He wasted no time making an impression thanks to a pinch-hit, go-ahead single in the ninth inning against the Blue Jays. 

While that’s about the smallest sample size you can have, he’s on the Rockies’ big league roster, which is more than the Guardians can say about Jones. 

The Guardians gave Jones plenty of chances last year, but he hit just .211 in 136 games before missing the postseason due to an oblique injury. Despite that lackluster performance, the Guardians’ front office still decided to commit $2 million to him for 2026 as opposed to non-tendering him. 

That decision’s aged like milk, as the Guardians ended up outrighting him off the roster after he hit just .152 in 12 games in spring training. 

He’s played well in Triple-A (three home runs in nine games), but he has an uphill battle to return to the Guardians’ roster. 

Meanwhile, Freeman posted .281/.354/.361 slashline last year with two home runs, 31 RBI and 18 stolen bases. While he was worth -13 Outs Above Average in the field (thanks in large part to Coors Field’s spacious outfield), he was productive at the plate thanks to a contact-based skillset. 

Sure, Freeman was the third-best utility player on the Guardians’ roster, but he hit right-handed and was serviceable enough in the outfield after coming up as an infielder. 

The biggest thing to watch with him will be his health, as he was a late scratch from the Rockies’ lineup on Sunday after his back tightness popped up again, so it seems like that’s something he’s going to need to manage all season. 

But regardless of how much that’s going to impact him, it’s going to take a lot for this trade to look like anything but a loss for the Guardians.