Always Two Sides
For those that may be unaware, there were two moves yesterday involving players to and from Cleveland. So we are all on the same page here’s the breakdown: Cleveland acquired RHP Luis L Ortiz, OF Nick Mitchell, LHPs Josh Hartle and Michael Kennedy, Pittsburgh acquired 1B/2B Spencer Horwitz, and Toronto received 2B Andres Gimenez and RP Nick Sandlin. With the way fans are polarized in one camp or the other, there are two camps whenever a trade has been completed or a free agent signed elsewhere. Either A) you see the player movement model as many front offices do: cold, callous, names and numbers on a spreadsheet with arrows pointing up or down with player development inputs or B) you become attached to the guy in your system and any move that removes them from your lineup sucks ass. Burdened with the inescapable ability to see both sides, I feel like it’s my job to tell you both sides of the Andres Gimenez trade that sent the Platinum Glove second basement to the Toronto Blue Jays alongside sidearm reliever Nick Sandlin.
Side A: Cold Reality
Let’s get this much out of the way: I don’t care about Nick Sandlin. Personally, I was never a fan, he doesn’t move the needle too much one way or the other on the field and if a team values him highly enough to send me a prospect, sure. Okay cool.
As for Gimenez, his 2022 was likely the height of his powers. A 6-WAR season, a wRC+ of 141, with some of the best defensive metrics at any position, he earned the extension he got from the front office. However, the next two years showed why he traded. The bat fell off in a big way: 40+ points of average and 60+ in OBP in both seasons scream “2022 was the exception not the rule”. Cleveland’s front office likely looked at the projection models with the last two seasons and couldn’t come up with enough reason to employ Gimenez’s defense over what gains could come from Juan Brito, Angel Martinez, and eventually Travis Bazzana at the plate.
Gimenez’s defense at second was breathtaking; he made plays that you only see in Marvel movies from characters that are pumped full of super soldier serum. But amazing second base defense is like pizza: bad pizza is still just pizza, and good pizza is still just pizza. The moral of the story with regards to trading away Gimmy for pitching help is that the pluses you get from Gimenez’s defense don’t outweigh the gains you might get on offense from a future player like Bazzana or pitching help down the road by trading him.
Summation of Side A:
The 2025 Guardians will be fine at second base with some combo of Juan Brito and Angel Martinez and the addition of Luis Ortiz [Acquired from Pittsburgh in a deal for Spencer Horwitz who came over from Toronto] will bolster the rotation.
Side B: Fandom Cometh
This sucks. This is bullpucky. This is a guy who wanted to be in Cleveland, who was the prize of the Francisco Lindor trade, who made your lineup deeper by being there. The “night night” home runs over the Minnesota Twins, the swagger and style and swing that endeared him to many fans…is now gone for a pitcher that was good not great and a bunch of prospects. [Spencer Horwitz was the return from Toronto, but was later flipped to Pittsburgh in a different deal.]
The move feels like a complete failure of the Lindor trade, and wrenches a fan favorite player making not-too-much money from a team that outplayed their skill level in 2024 based off the power of friendship and a stick-to-it personality. As a Guardians fan, it often feels like we are told to eat our vegetables with the promise of dessert if we finish, but nobody has gone to the bakery or creamery in a decade and there are no sweet treats coming. A team that made the 2024 ALCS and could have possibly made it to the World Series if the bullpen hadn’t imploded shouldn’t be making moves that look like salary dumps. Is that what this move is? You’ll need a lot of conversations with Side A to make me feel better about it.
Summation of Side B:
This sucks, Paul Dolan blows, complete the sale of the team and get your fingerprints off my favorite players.
Where am I? Always in the middle, as I usually am. I get the move. Adding to the rotation is of utmost importance this season, and we expected that was going to happen by some sort of move that was going to make us fans feel uncomfy. Luckily, Cleveland is blessed with an abundance of middle infield depth organizationally and the on-the-field production might actually be better with who’s coming up the pike. But man, will it suck not watching Gimenez play second base for my favorite ball club. Yes, the bat has slipped over the past two years, but he has shown the ability to be an MVP-caliber player, and he was “ours”. He wasn’t a homegrown player like Jose Ramirez, but he felt as associated with “Cleveland baseball” as JRam does.
I’m sad a favorite player of mine won’t be on the team this year and into the future. A quick personal story: two years ago, we took our girls to their first Guardians game. It was Andres Gimenez bobblehead day, but we arrived too late to get one. On our way out of the stadium, a woman approached us and bent down to talk to my then-4-year-old. She said, “We have an extra bobblehead, it looks like you didn’t get one. Would you like ours?” She nervously nodded yes and carried it the 10-some blocks to our car, excited about the idea of getting something. Andres now sits on a shelf in their room amongst princesses and a painted axolotl. Yesterday I told her that her bobblehead guy got traded. She asked, “why are you trading away my bobblehead?” and I had to explain why her toy was staying on the shelf, but the player wasn’t going to be on the Guardians again next year. It sucks having this be a part of Cleveland fandom; trying to not get attached too much to any one player because eventually, the jersey you purchased will be defunct and/or featured in a Zack Meisel tweet. But until there is a full change in ownership or a change in the revenue sharing in MLB, this is the life Guardians fans will have. We shouldn’t have to look at both sides of trades…we should be able to just be fans.
