How I want the Cleveland Guardians to spend their money

Much was made about the Cleveland Guardians' money problems over the past 12-24 months, and rightfully so. Their broadcasting service went bankrupt and attempted to drop them because they didn't want to pay their rights fees at the agreed-upon amount, which tied up money last season and this winter. Even with a new part-soon-to-be-full-ownership group in town, spending what you don't know you have is not good business. But now we have a fraction of closure, as last week Diamond Sports Group and the Guardians agreed upon a lower fee percentage and an agreement for a one-year contract for 2024. The sides can extend that if they choose, and the team may desire to, now that Diamond Group theoretically has the backing of Amazon and their streaming platform.So what's next? We don't know. Pitchers and catchers report on February 15th, with position players the next day or so after. The team has some holes that could be addressed and some extensions that they could sign some guys to, and the front office usually tries to get those done in spring training. Who are the extensions I'd like to see? The free agents that could be interesting for a Cleveland team in need of offense? Let's dive in, step by step. Disclaimer: I'm fully aware that I'm being a nosy little prick acting like I know what I'm doing, asking for a franchise to heed my desires. I don't care. I've made this wishlist pretty simple and reasonable, so it's not like I'm operating under the premise of unlimited resources. Anyway...Step 1....Step 1: Extend Josh NaylorIt should be easy to get done. JNaylor seems to love Cleveland, Brother Bo is up now and will be the starting catcher more often than not in 2024 and beyond, and even with the acquisitions of Deyvison Delos Santos in the Rule 5 draft and Kyle Manzardo via trade from Tampa Bay, there is room enough for the Guardians best non-Jose Ramirez hitter in 2023. Yes, his ankle is a seeming ticking time bomb of duct tape and rosin and some of Tito's old sunflower-seeds-and-bubble-gum, but he's the heart and soul of the lineup and locker room. He's got one more year of arbitration, then he's a free agent, and his Arb3 contract in 2024 is for $6.5m. If Cleveland can get him extended for three more years for ~30-35$m, an AAV of $10-12m, buying out his last arb year and two of free agency would make sense; he would be 30 at the end of his deal, and could re-sign if there's still space or find a spot somewhere else. This is truly priority No. 1 for me, as it shows your younger players what can happen when you produce.Step 2: Work out extensions for two of Steven Kwan, Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, or Kyle ManzardoI'd love to see extensions of any of these four players, as they all represent the future at work, but getting any of them inked would be important. I also have these in order of importance to me. Kwan should have gotten signed last spring, coming off his rookie season when he was at the "height" of his leverage, but his 2023 fell slightly flat and so the math might not be mathing for the two sides. If 2023 represents his floor, which I do, it's a pretty damn good floor, and Cleveland would be lucky to have that production locked in, as anyone that has watched baseball and seen the flailing arms of Quad-A bats in Guardians unis can tell you, a three-win player is not nothing. Kwan has one more pre-arb year and, like JNayls, is set to be a free agent at age 30. Can you get him in a five-year, $65m extension? $70 million? I hope so, and it wouldn't be far off what he's likely to make AAV-wise.The window to sign Bibee might have already passed. When he finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year awards last year, he unlocked a full year of service time, meaning he's under team control/pre-arb for three seasons before he starts negotiating his deals. And he earned every bit of that service time year too, finishing with a 2.98 ERA, a 3.52 FIP, and nearly a strikeout per inning in 142 big league innings. He's one of the next aces on the staff and fits into the model the organization did for Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco rather than Mike Clevinger. Buying out his team control and arbitration years will mean losing a little bit of surplus value, but as we've said: knowing what you got going out is helpful when you're a small market team. It would mean a seven-to-eight-year commitment for Cleveland to make it make sense, getting a year or two more of Bibee and buying out his cheaper TC/Arb years, but something like 7/$50-60m is feasible if it's a little more backloaded.I would love to see Gavin Williams stick around in Cleveland for the long term, but he is a Scott Boras client which means any kind of extension talks come after he's been either dealt away or on his second big league contract. Williams was not as successful as Bibee but never had the bad bad outing you might expect from such a volatile pitcher. Only three times did he ever give up four or more runs, and only twice did he have a GameScore under 32. I'd give an estimate on a contract but it's so unlikely that it's folly.A long-term deal before the player has even one big league at-bat is not something the Guardians do but it would make sense for the team to lock up Kyle Manzardo now while he's still uber-cheap. The Milwaukee Brewers and Detroit Tigers have both signed big-name prospects to long-term deals, Jackson Chourio and Colt Keith, respectively. Keith's number is much cheaper, six years and $28.6m whereas Chourio's was eight for $82m. Manzardo thumped Triple-A pitching as well as some in the Arizona Fall League and looks every bit the steal for three years of Aaron Civale. If Cleveland were to get into this market, I'd expect Manzardo to be somewhere in the middle.Step 3: Find a bat for right fieldThe front office did well in dealing the oft-injured Cody Morris for Estevan Florial, who I figure to if not start at least be in the mix in center field. Florial's defense should be at least as good as incumbent Myles Straw's defense last season and his bat projects to be light-years better. Alas, the team was really in need of two outfielders, not just one and therefore the acquisition of Ramon Laureano in 2023 is *the* addition for this season as well. However, there are still some bats that would be considered upgrades over any potential platoon between Laureano and Will Brennan. Top of mind is the obvious Cody Bellinger, but Cleveland and Bellinger's agent Scott Boras don't mix much. Adam Duvall, Austin Meadows, Jorge Soler, Tommy Pham, Kole Calhoun, Randall Grichuk, and Whit Merrifield could and would all conceivably fit into right field and give the lineup either some oomph or a veteran approach without breaking the bank or causing long-term stagnation of the next new kids on the block in George Valera, Johnathan Rodriguez, Angel Martinez, and Chase DeLauter. Throw anything from $5-10 million at any of those bats and end the Will Brennan experiment/experience and you've improved your roster.Step 4: Add one more bullpen armLike Danny Ocean in "Ocean's Eleven", I ask you...what's one more? The team has added Ben Lively on a major league deal and Carlos Carrasco on a minors one over the winter, so feasibly the SP6/long-man out of the pen is between those and in-house options of Xzavion Curry and Hunter Gaddis. That's settled enough to where you don't need to add more fuel to that fire, but I'd love to see the team try to maximize the pen with another veteran arm. They dealt away Enyel De Los Santos to San Diego for Scott Barlow in a deal that made many start freaking out about an Emmanuel Clase deal, but it's much more likely Cleveland saw an opportunity to lock down the 8th with Barlow and set themselves up with an emergency backup should something befall Clase. Signing one of Mychal Givens, Liam Hendriks, Mark Melancon, Josh Fleming, or Alex Reyes makes a ton of sense for the Guardos because of their past performance and the relatively low cost they should bring with them. And if the wheels fall off the season, these are all players that have closing experience that could be swapped at the deadline for a Double-A bat that hasn't figured it out yet.I have hope that some of these will get done. The extensions help create and build on the culture that you have already established, and new manager Stephen Vogt will help keep that going. Josh Naylor's should be a no-brainer, and I expect at least one of the others in Step 2 to get done. The one I least expect would be Step 3, as it seems like they would rather go into the season and let battles commence rather than muddy the waters further. I can understand that logic, but this is also the time to strike. Minnesota can awaken at any time. Detroit is on the up-and-up and could surprise sooner rather than later. Kansas City and the White Sox are down, but some moves here and there and they have some players still like Bobby Witt and his new deal in KC and Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez, and others in Chicago. You know what you have to work with, so work with it Cleveland. Get your fans enthused again.