5 expendable Guardians players Cleveland can move at the trade deadline for pitching

4. Brayan Rocchio

This one is tough and depends more on other players on the roster than it does on Brayan Rocchio. If Daniel Schneemann can settle in and prove he can play shortstop at themajorleague level, that gives Cleveland some flexibility in moving other middle infielders like Rocchio.

While Rocchio has been one of the more stable options at short for Cleveland so far this season, his offensive stats say otherwise. He's hitting just .213, only three points better than the heavily criticized and aforementioned Gabriel Arias. Rocchio has a decent on-base at .314 thanks to 23 walks but has just one home run and 11 RBI.

Defensively, Rocchio has been strong. He's posted a .983 fielding percentage with three errors on 172 chances, which is actually better than Andres Gimenez at second (.975). Albeit strong, it's a number that can be replaced.

Additionally, plenty of recent mock drafts, pretty much everyone I've clicked on in recent days, has Travis Bazzana at the top of the class going to Cleveland. Adding another middle infielder to the mix would only drop the value of Rocchio in the organization's eyes, especially if Schneemann or anyone else puts together an impressive group of games. In the short term, others can fill the void rather easily.