Mets trade deadline sell off presents new-look Guardians with great jumping off point 

The fun thing about the trade deadline is that it can lead to teams looking completely different very quickly. 

In the case of the Cleveland Guardians, that change is an exciting one, as it means the addition of three big league regulars in Foster Griffin, Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe. 

But for the Mets, it means a new-look roster with a lot less big league talent than it had 48 hours ago. 

Even the Mets still have some bonafide former All-Stars in Francisco Lindor and Bo Bichette, their cupboard is more bare thanks to the departures of *deep breath* Clay Holmes, Tyrone Taylor, Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley, Huascar Brazoban, Freddy Peralta and A.J. Minter.

Throw in their trade of David Peterson from earlier in the season, and the Mets traded away one-third of their active roster this year.

If you’re reading this, the Mets may ask you to cover some innings for them at Progressive Field this week. 

When this year’s schedule was announced, this was a series that we immediately circled because of the assumption the Mets were going to buy aggressively at the deadline. Now it’s as close to a must-win series the Guardians may play all season considering how different the Mets look. 

The Guardians need to win their series against the Mets

Thanks to all the Mets’ pitching departures, the Guardians are going to face Sean Manaea later today, who has a 4.42 ERA but has a 3.77 ERA in July. On Wednesday, Cleveland will face off against Nolan McLean, who is a budding ace. 

But those two starters can only do so much, and both of them will be forced to turn the ball over to a bullpen that’s missing most of its impact arms.

Devin Williams is still at the back of the bullpen as a closer, but the rest of their bullpen is made up of Kodai Senga, old friend Xzavion Curry, Daniel Duarte, Dedniel Núñez, Jefry Yan, Nate Lavender and Chayce McDermott.

On the Guardians side, we're going to get our first look Adell against the left-handed Manaea, while Lowe could come off the bench as a matchup option against a right-handed pitcher at some point later in the game. 

The one player we may need to wait and see Griffin in a Guardians uniform, as Joey Cantillo will get the start today, while Slade Cecconi will go on Wednesday and Tanner Bibee will close the series out on Thursday. 

Chris Antonetti already solved the Guardians’ position player logjam by sending David Fry and Kyle Manzardo down to Triple-A, but there’s still some mixing and matching that needs to be done in the starting rotation. 

The Mets are still a dangerous team thanks to a lineup led by Francisco Lindor and Bo Bichette, but there’s a reason the Mets have a record of 47-66 and just had a full-scale fire sale. 

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