Guardians Need To Pursue Trade With This NL East Team
The Cleveland Guardians need more starting pitching. It’s uncharted territory for an organization that routinely develops All-Star caliber arms, but this is the reality they face almost halfway through the season.
MLB’s trade deadline is on July 30 which is still six weeks away. It would be shocking if the Guardians didn’t make some sort of move before that. However, waiting until the final days of July could end up costing them the division and chance at the playoffs.
Cleveland needs to make a move now and there is a team that could be ready to make a deal with.
Will Sammon and Katie Woo of The Athletic reported late last week that the Miami Marlins are open for business and would be willing to make a trade with a team well before the deadline. This makes sense for a team that is 25.0 games out of first place in the NL East and 12.0 games out of the Wild Card.
The obvious trade candidate here is LHP Jesus Luzardo. (Cleveland Baseball Insider went into detail last week about why Luzardo is a perfect trade candidate for the Guardians.)
Luzardo isn’t the only pitcher who would be a good fit with Cleveland though. As Zack Meisel points out, adding another bullpen arm may be something Cleveland needs to do as well. Tanner Scott (1.80 ERA, 1.167 WHIP) or Declan Cronin (2.65 ERA, 1.35 WHIP) would be great additions.
The Guardians are also reportedly looking for another bat that could supply some pop and extend Cleveland’s lineup. Miami does have a few candidates who would be a great fit for the Guards.
Bryan De La Cruz is hitting .245/.297/.416 with 13 doubles, 12 home runs, and 33 RBI and could be a great option to plug in the middle of the order. It also helps that De La Cruz has a career 1.083 OPS at Progressive Field. Jazz Chisolm Jr. is another intriguing option considering he has a career-best slashline of .266/.333/.446.
The bottom line is that the Marlins have players that would help make this Guardians team better right now. If they’re open to making a trade, there’s no reason to wait until the end of July.
TOMMY WILD