Cleveland

Guardians

The Mariners have also approached the Red Sox about trading for Triston Casas, so they appear to be serious about upgrading at first base this off-season. For the Guardians, trading Naylor makes sense if they are getting a big enough return. The 27-year-old is set to be an unrestricted free agent after this season and may be out of Cleveland’s price range. The team could look to trade him now when they are likely to get more in return than if they waited for the trade deadline. With Kyle Manzardo on the roster, the team also has a built-in replacement at first base, so this is a situation that’s worth monitoring.

Nuñez augments Cleveland’s organizational catching depth with another veteran presence behind Bo Naylor, Austin Hedges and David Fry heading into next season. He could factor into their plans at some point as an emergency stopgap due to injury with Fry coming off elbow surgery that is expected to prevent him from catching next year. The 29-year-old backstop has gotten into 111 games at the highest level dating back to 2019. He posted a .669 OPS with two homers in 263 plate appearances last year at Triple-A Columbus.

The deal, which was agreed to last week, is now official. Bieber is expected to miss at least some time during the first half of the impending season as he continues to recover from Tommy John surgery, but he figures to be ready to bolster Cleveland’s starting rotation at some point next season. The 29-year-old right-hander is unlikely to return to form as an upper-echelon fantasy starter, especially since his average fastball velocity has officially dipped into the low-90’s range, but he should miss enough bats to make an impact for fantasy managers again. Given his extensive track record, he’s at least worthy of a speculative late-round pick in fantasy drafts next spring.

Ortiz has shown occasional flashes of brilliance and represents a fascinating gamble for Cleveland’s pitching development apparatus. The hard-throwing 25-year-old righty boasts an impressive fastball/slider combo, but hasn’t made enough progress with a third pitch to excel as a starter. That might change with the Guardians, who have had success with pitchers like him in the past. He should be in the mix for a spot in Cleveland’s season-opening rotation, which would make him intriguing for fantasy purposes, especially in extremely deep mixed leagues.

Hartle represents the proverbial lottery ticket in the deal as a towering left-hander who was selected in the third round of last year’s MLB Draft. The 21-year-old southpaw made just one appearance this past season in his professional debut. He’ll be a long-term project for Cleveland’s player development engine.

Kennedy was a fourth-round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft and has yet to pitch above High-A. We’re not doubting Cleveland’s ability to develop young pitchers, so it wouldn’t be shocking if he wound up reaching the majors in a couple years.

It’s merely a procedural move as Horwitz was subsequently shipped to the Pirates for righty Luis Ortiz and a pair of left-handed pitching prospects. We’re assuming Cleveland doesn’t want to put too many obstacles of top prospect Travis Bazzana, who was selected first overall in last year’s MLB Draft.

Mitchell is the proverbial lottey ticket in the larger deal for Cleveland. The 21-year-old outfielder was a fourth-round pick in last year’s MLB Draft and batted .289/.350/.467 for Single-A Dunedin in his professional debut.

MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand adds the Guardians are getting left-handed pitching prospect Josh Hartle and Michael Kennedy, in addition to big-league righty Luis Ortiz in the deal. Technically, Horwitz hasn’t been officially traded to the Guardians yet. However, once that deal is announced, he’s going to be on the move again, this time to Pittsburgh. No word yet on the return from the Pirates. The 27-year-old, who makes a ton of contact and boasts strong plate disciple as well, figures to take over as Pittsburgh’s primary first baseman, unless they make some additional moves in the lead up to spring training.

Sandlin has been a mainstay in Cleveland’s bullpen for the last four years, posting a strong 3.27 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 223/92 K/BB ratio across 195 1/3 innings (209 appearances). The 27-year-old righty will bolster Toronto’s relief depth heading into next season.