Rays ALCS beatdown just created even more buyer’s remorse for Guardians 

For the second straight year, a team filled with former Guardians is going to be playing in the Fall Classic. This year, it’s a little different. 

Last year the Guardians spent most of the postseason watching from the sideline as Andrés Giménez, Shane Bieber and Ernie Clement helped the Blue Jays make a run toward the Fall Classic. This year was a different story, however, as the Guardians got a first-hand look at their former player contingent in their six-game loss to the Rays in this year’s American League Championship Series. 

And it wasn’t like those former players were sitting on the periphery. Oh no, far from it. On Monday, the Rays bested the Guardians in Monday’s Game 6 behind six RBI from former Guardians Yandy Díaz, Richie Palacios and Junior Caminero. 

It would be bad enough if all three of them were just on the Rays’ roster; instead the three of them were in the middle of the action that ended the Guardians’ season. 

And if that wasn’t bad enough, all three of them recorded a signature moment. 

Richie Palacios, Junior Caminero and Yandy Díaz haunted the Guardians in the ALCS

The first signature moment came in the top of the second inning when Palacios gave the Rays the lead with a two-run double that resulted in him screaming at second base while Stephen Vogt walked out to the mound to pull Tim Herrin off the mound. 

The next one came later when Junior Caminero smashed a homer off the left field foul pole off Cade Smith that led to a 38 second home run trot that featured two separate primal screams. 

It looked like that was going to be the defining image of the Rays’ win over the Guardians until Díaz hit a two-run homer of his own an inning later after Cleveland’s offense had crawled back into the game in the top of the eighth inning. It may not have had the histrionics of Caminero’s homer, but it came with a bat toss that is going to linger long into the Cleveland winter. 

All three players ended up going from Cleveland to Tampa in different ways. Díaz was the first to complete the trek when he was included in a three-team trade in 2018 between the Mainers, Rays and Guardians, and he became an immediate contributor to the Rays. 

The Rays acquired Caminero three years later as a minor leaguer in exchange for Tobas Myers. By now you know the story. 

Palacios had the most circuitous route. The Guardians cut him loose in 2022, and he spent the ‘23 season with the Cardinals before joining the Rays. They moved him to the infield and helped him unlock his swing, and now he’s the kind of role player who can help swing a postseason series. 

There’s plenty of time to debate the context around the Guardians’ decision to part with all three of them (and we’ll have a long winter to do so), but they’re all going to get a chance to add another part to their Rays story in the World Series. 

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