Guardians & Giants
Submitted by: natedub123
Guardians
| Name | Age | Level | P1 | P2 | Availability | Years | AFV | Salary | Surplus | Low | Median | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Cobb | 35 | Majors | SP | Medium | 1.7 | 32.7 | 16 | 16.7 | 13.4 | 16.7 | 20 | |
| Michael Conforto | 30 | Majors | OF | Low | 1.7 | 35.8 | 30.1 | 5.7 | 4.5 | 5.7 | 6.9 | |
| Austin Slater | 30 | Majors | OF | Medium | 1.8 | 26.2 | 9.1 | 17.2 | 13.7 | 17.2 | 20.6 |
Total Value:
39.6
Giants
| Name | Age | Level | P1 | P2 | Availability | Years | AFV | Salary | Surplus | Low | Median | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Fox | Minors | SS | 4.3 | 3.4 | 4.3 | 5.2 | ||||||
| Triston McKenzie | 26 | Majors | SP | Low | 3.8 | 55.4 | 23.3 | 32.1 | 25.7 | 32.1 | 38.5 |
Total Value:
36.4
Comments
9I keep seeing a bunch of Giants-Guardians trades. Should the Giants get to a point where they decide to become sellers, here's one I theoretically could see the Giants being interested in. This helps the Guardians immediately with offense, especially in the outfield, where they are third worst in the league (83 wRC+). Slater and Conforto help from both sides of the plate, while Cobb offers an immediate upgrade in the rotation. More than likely, cash would have to be involved, but I'd imagine the Giants would be more than happy to pay a lot down if they were going to get McKenzie for the long-haul.
Too many Cleveland fans on here are prospect huggers. At the end of the day, you have to give up talent to get talent. In all honesty, I find the Allen for Conforto+Slater trade to be a good fit as long as Cleveland resigns one of the players that get back, which they should. I prefer it be Conforto because he has more power than Slater. Looking at the Giants side, they have a surplus of outfielders and have two really good starters but after that it's kinda meh. I think both are a good fit for each other.
NEWSLETTER? SURE, SIGN ME UP!
The Giants may be interested in this, but the Guardians would say no and hang up immediately. Cleveland is not trading McKenzie.
I don't know what it is about the Guardians fans on this site, but good grief y'all are insufferable. "Immediately"???... no. If Cleveland had a chance to get one of the best LHP hitters in the game, along with immediate offensive production from Conforto AND someone like Alex Cobb, who has more WAR since 2021 than any Cleveland pitcher not named Shane Bieber, they'd at least strongly consider it. The Guardians have so much pitching depth with Williams and Espino leading the way that McKenzie would be expendable for the right price. Is this the right price for them? I don't know. But they'd be smart to consider upgrading their offense.
Cleveland fan here. I try to not be biased and I am usually more open to deals than other Cleveland fans here. I assume you're a Giants fan, would you do Logan Allen for Conforto + Slater. The only thing that I would be hesitant about is Conforto's opt out after this year and if Cleveland would pay him.
I think the following scenario is entirely possible: The Giants offer $10M (or something in that ballpark) in the event that Conforto doesn't opt out for 2024 to help Cleveland on this. But yeah, I could definitely see that and I'd imagine the Giants would be interested. Also, it's great to see a Cleveland fan willing to be reasonable about things here. You're a rarity on here.
Have you looked at what the Guardians OF has done lately? Brennan has really taken off in RF. He's been one of the best hitters in baseball over the last couple weeks. Kwan has been super unlucky, but is still playing really well overall... Straw is the CF since he's one of the best defensively out there and the manager values defense over offense at that position... Cleveland doesn't have the interest in Slater and McKenzie isn't in arbitration even, but it's an extremely high probability McKenzie gets an extension before next season. He's not going to be available in any deal right now. They plan on him leading the Starting staff long term with Bibee, Allen, Williams etc... Cleveland doesn't make trades just to make trades and Slater really isn't an interest since he's not enough of an upgrade over Brennan to merit trading what the Giants would want for him... The guy the Guardians want from the Giants is Bailey, not Slater...
Espino has not pitched since early May of 2022 so he can't be counted on at the present moment until he returns and starts pitching. Cleveland is a small market team with a smart front office. They always have to balance the needs of today, with the needs of tomorrow. All three players are short term assets and Conforto has a player option and can leave at the end of the season. This ignores the needs of tomorrow. Look at the cost of pitching. Cleveland has to grow their own pitching which they do quite well. They are not going to trade controllable starting pitching. A small trade with Slater may work for the Guardians. but it won't take McKenzie to do that.
The Giants aren't going to just hand over Slater, and the Guardians don't have another MLB starter worth it... for the record, I wouldn't trade Slater for Bieber straight up, and neither would Zaidi. (Bieber is WASHED) The Guardians need offensive help, and they need it fast, or they are going to finish third in what is, objectively, the worst division in baseball. They likely aren't going to get controllable MLB bats for McKenzie, and the prospects they might want won't help now. Again, I don't know what price would be worth it, but the Guardians have to do something if they want to win. But perhaps they don't care if they win or not.