New trade rumors could open door for Guardians to cruise to AL Central title

For the past two seasons, the Cleveland Guardians have been the class of the American League Central. While their journey to a division crown looked drastically different in both seasons, the end result was the Guardians sitting at the top of the mountain after 162 games. 

This week is the MLB General Manager Meetings in Vegas, which, while not on the same level as the Winter Meetings, still provides a good bit of rumor and scuttlebutt ahead of the offseason going supernova. 

And thus far, that scuttlebutt has made it seem like the Guardians have a golden opportunity to win a third straight American League Central crown. 

New rumblings show how stunningly easy it could be for Guardians to win AL Central

The biggest newsworthy item came yesterday when The Athletic’s Dan Hayes reported that Twins All-Star outfielder Byron Buxton may not want to be a Twin for life.

While Buxton has gone on the record multiple times saying that he wants to spend the rest of his career in Minnesota, Hayes reported that Buxton “wants to play for a winner and may reconsider his stance for certain clubs if the Twins continue breaking up their roster.” 

The Twins initiated a full teardown by trading away 10 players at the trade deadline — one of whom was Carlos Correa, who was on a six-year, $200 million contract. Buxton has three years and $45 million remaining on his deal and has a full no-trade protection next season and the ability to block trades to five clubs in 2027 and ‘28. 

That came in conjunction with a report from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal where he mused about the possibility of the Twins trading starting pitchers Joe Ryan and Pablo López.

While neither pitcher is a lock to get traded, Rosenthal reported that the Twins have yet to give the front office a clear direction on the 2026 payroll. Earlier this summer it was reported the team has more than $425 million in long-term debt, which is believed to be one of the higher debt-to-income ratios in baseball.

Even if the Twins don’t trade Ryan and López, it would be a surprise if they just made some marginal updates during the offseason under new manager Derek Shelton. 

On the other side there’s the Detroit Tigers. While the Guardians came back from a 15 1/2 game deficit to take the division crown from the Tigers, Detroit got the last laugh by defeating the Guardians in the American League Wild Card Series. 

But not everything is roses in the Motor City thanks to Tarik Skubal’s uncertain future. Skubal is the favorite to capture his second straight American League Cy Young win later this week, but his name has also emerged in trade rumors since he’s set to be a free agent after 2026. 

While multiple executives told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand that they’d be surprised if Skubal traded this offseason, his uncertain future seems set to hang over the Tigers like a black cloud all offseason after extension talks between the two sides didn’t go anywhere.

Even though the Guardians have their own problems to handle this offseason, it seems like the rest of the division isn’t going to make any big splashes, which should open the door for them to three-peat in the division.