Regrading all Cleveland Guardians trade deadline moves from last year

There's no denying the 2024 season was a clear success for the Cleveland Guardians. After entering the season with low expectations, the Guardians stormed out to a hot start and entered the trade deadline 23 games over .500, which led to them being clear sellers.

And although they only ended up making two moves at the trade deadline, they both ended up making an impact on the second half of Cleveland’s season. 

Here’s how they look a year later.

Regrading all Cleveland Guardians trade deadline moves from last year

Guardians attempt to fix their outfield issues
Cleveland acquires OF Lane Thomas from Washington for LHP Alex Clemmey, SS Rafael Ramirez Jr. and  INF José Tena

The Guardians had a clear hole in their outfield (sound familiar?), which led to them making a swing for Thomas, who still had a year and a half of team control left at the time of the deal. 

The deal made sense at the time, but it hasn’t morphed into the clear win we all thought it would be. The early returns weren’t great as evidenced (Thomas only hit .209 in 53 regular season games with the Guardians last season), but he turned all of Cleveland into believers with two big postseason swings. 

That may end up being the high point of Thomas’ Guardians tenure. 

Thomas is currently in the midst of the worst season of his big league career, as he’s hit just .160 in 39 games and has had three separate stints on the injured list. 

While there’s still a chance that he could come back and set the world on fire once he gets back (he’s currently dealing with plantar fasciitis), this isn’t the kind of production the Guardians were expecting when they gave up three prospects for him. 

At the time, it seemed like the top prospect in the trade would be Tena, who appeared in 21 games with the Guardians prior to the trade and was internally viewed as one of the team’s top prospects. 

And while he’s been okay in his time with the Nationals, there’s a chance that Clemmey could end up turning into the one who got away. He slotted in as the Nationals’ No. 5 prospect in MLB Pipeline’s newest rankings, boasts a 2.87 ERA in 75 1/3 innings at High-A and was just named to the Futures Game. 

Although his departure stings a little less due to the Guardians’ pitching factory, he’s the kind of prospect who could come back to haunt the Guardians.

Tena hit .274 in 41 games with the Nationals last year before hitting just .248 in 44 games this year before being demoted to Triple-A in the middle of June. That said, they called him up on Sunday and he’ll likely serve as the team’s backup infielder for the time being. 

Ramirez is hitting .211 in Rookie Ball, but is still just 20.

Thomas’ big swing has helped this trade not be a total abject failure, but it’s looking more and more like this trade isn’t going to age well. 

Grade: C+