It's time for the Cleveland Guardians to move on from Gabriel Arias

Enough is enough already. There is no reason at all for the Cleveland Guardians to continue to deploy Gabriel Arias on a regular basis, as he has beyond proven he is not an MLB-caliber player with his play.

The first seven games of the season looked like to be the beginning of a breakout for the 25-year-old, but to anyone with a trained eye, it was very clear that his 7-21 line to begin the season was an outlier that was going to be corrected rather quickly, and corrected it was.

Since his first seven games, Arias has a .217/.276/.329 slash line (31-143), with seven doubles and three home runs, while striking out 46 times compared to just 10 walks. Some may want to categorize this as a slump, but the fact of the matter is this is just who he is as a hitter. Arias's performance over these past 42 games is far closer to his career .216/.279/.351 slash line than his little hot streak to begin the season was, and that has not been mentioned nearly enough during this very much expected drop in performance.

The month of May has been extremely tough on Arias, going 14-73 at the plate, with only two of his hits going for extra bases (both doubles). The strikeout-to-walk ratio sits at 23-6 in 21 games played, further emphasizing how little of an impact he has made with a bat in his hand as this season progresses.

The wait-and-see and let-him-develop timeframe has come and gone for Arias, as he has shown very few if any, qualities that teams want in a major league hitter. It would be different if Arias had shown a certain level of hitting skills as he made his way through the minors rather than beating up on Triple-A at the end of 2024 and performing moderately well during the Venezuelan Winter League this past winter.

What Arias was able to "accomplish" during those times is what is expected of a professional hitter. Championing anything he did during that time is completely ingenuine and is only setting those who still believe in his skillset up for a massive disappointment. What needs to be evaluated is how he fares against major league pitchers in actual major league games, not those played in the minors or during the winter. When focusing solely on those, it is pretty clear that Arias is not the answer to any problem the Guardians may have.

Now, some may pose the question, Well, if not Arias, then who? Well, those asking that particular question are not assessing the situation in the right order. First comes identifying players who are not good enough (Arias), then comes putting together a group of possible answers to their problem. Once Arias has been removed from the equation (hopefully soon), then and only then can a genuine conversation involving his replacements take place. But that cannot happen as long as he is on the major league roster, and that is something the Guardians must rectify sooner rather than later if they are going to act in their best interest and play at their highest collective level.

It's beyond clear that Gabriel Arias is not good enough and that this team will be far better off without him on the roster. Hopefully, the decision-makers in Cleveland's front office recognize that and act accordingly so they can focus on other areas of the roster that need to be improved between now and the trade deadline to put together the best possible team for a playoff run.