6 Bright Spots from the Cleveland Guardians 2023 season

5. The Front Office Recognizing Genuine Chances of Contention

The lack of notewrothy additions to the major league roster prior to and at the trade deadline drew plenty of criticism. Contrary to the belief of local sports talk radio, which have proven to have a remedial knowledge of the game of baseball, this was the correct move.

A front office being able to properly evaluate their talent and genuine chances of contention is not something that every organization can claim to have. For example, look at how the aggressive nature of the Los Angeles Angels turned out. While it is not an exact comparison, as they are doing anything and everything they can to keep Shohei Ohtani, their acquisitions blew up in their face almost immediately. This resulted in the Angels placing the players they traded for on waivers, three of which ended up in Cleveland. Los Angeles did receive some praise at the time for their aggressiveness, but that changed after dropping seven straight games to begin the month of August. There is very much a reality that Cleveland would suffer the same fate if they took a similar route as the Angels.

There is one more thing to consider. Cleveland has not had the best success rate the past few seasons when trading away prospects. Adding more names to the already existing list of names that fans complain about is not something that anyone wants.