The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Guardians quiet while others spend
This is the last weekend before the start of Major League Baseball’s regular season, so now is a good time to examine what the American League Central Division teams did in the offseason.
We’ll start with the Guardians. This won’t take up much space.
The Guardians declined the option on veteran catcher Robero Perez and signed catcher Luke Maile to backup Austin Hedges.
To quote cartoon legend Porky Pig, “That’s all, folks!”
Maile, though, suffered a hamstring injury running from first base to third in a Cactus League game on March 23 and will begin the season on the injured list.
The Guardians informed backup catcher Sandy Leon he would not make the opening day 28man roster (rosters will be reduced to 26 on May 2). That leaves Bryan Lavastida, who was the catcher for the Guardians’ HighA Lake County Captains for 48 games last year, as Hedges’ backup while Maile heals. Lavastida played seven games with Triple-A Columbus last year.
The Guardians had the second-lowest payroll in the Majors last season at $50,670,534, according to spotrac.com. Only the Orioles had a lower payroll.
The media told the organization had the green light to spend in the 2022 offseason. That didn’t happen, but not for lack of trying, according to team president Chris Antonetti.
“We did have a subset and a target of players — and more often than not, they didn’t end up here,” Antonetti told reporters at spring training in Goodyear, Arizona. “On that level, it can be disappointing, but it doesn’t take away from my excitement with the group we have. And there have been other times when we didn’t have those options to turn to internally and therefore our net was a little bit wider in that we would have taken almost anyone to fill a spot. We don’t feel like we’re at that point.”
The Guardians 2022 payroll — $37,410,000 — ranks 29th, ahead of only the Orioles once again.
Antonetti said he has the financial freedom to be active if the Guardians are in contention at the July 31 trade deadline.
A look at the rest of the AL Central:
• The Chicago Whie Sox won the A.L. Central by 13 games over the second-place Indians in 2021. They lost starting pitcher Carlos Rodon (13-5 in 2021) to the Giants through free agency. Second baseman Cesar Hernandez signed with the Washington Nationals. Relief pitcher Ryan Tepera signed with the Angels.
Chicago’s only offseason addition was signing veteran relief pitcher Kendal Graveman, who had 10 saves with the Mariners last season.
The White Sox are counting on full seasons from two key players sidelined by injuries last season. Center fielder Luis Robert was limited to 68 games in 2021 after missing three months in midseason with a hip flexor. He hit .338 with 13 home runs and 43 RBI.
Left fielder Eloy Jimenez suffered a torn pectoral muscle in a spring training game in 2021. He played in 55 games with the White Sox and homered 10 times with 37 RBI while batting .249.
• The Minnesota Twins finished last in the division last season with a record of 73-89. When it became evident they would not crawl out of the pit they were stuck in from the beginning of the season, they traded starting pitcher Jose Berrios to the Blue Jays.
The Twins got busy after the lockout ended last month. They traded third baseman Josh Donaldson to the Yankees for third baseman Gio Urshela and catcher Gary Sanchez. They acquired starting pitcher Sonny Gray in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds. Minnesota sent right-handed pitcher Chase Petty, the 26th overall pick in the 2021 draft, to the Reds.
Minnesota’s biggest offseason move was one of the biggest in all of baseball. They signed free agent Carlos Carrea, the star shortstop from the Houston Astros, to a threeyear contract. Carrea hit .279 with 26 home runs and 92 RBI last season.
Along with trading Donaldson to the Yankees, the Twins traded starting catcher Mitch Garver to the Rangers for infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa and minor-league right-hander Ronny Henriquez.
Starting pitcher Michael Pineda (9-8 last season) signed a one-year free agent contract with the Tigers.
• The Twins’ last place finish in 2021 was a surprise because they won the Central Division in 2019 and 2020. The Detroit Tigers were the opposite. They were an abysmal 47114 in 2019 and last in the division in 2020 at 25-35. They were third in the division at 77-85 last year.
The Tigers tried to build on 2021 by signing starting pitcher Eduardo Rodríguez from the Red Sox along with Pineda. Rodriguez was 13-8 last season. He led the American League with 34 starts in 2019, when he finished 19-6.
The Tigers showed they are serious about competing for a playoff spot when they signed shortstop Javier Baez to a sixyear, $140 million deal. He hit 31 homers and drove in 87 runs with the Cubs and Mets last season, but he also led the Majors by striking out 184 times.
Detroit traded infield
prospect Nick Quintana to the Reds for veteran catcher Tucker Barnhart. Barnhart, who played eight seasons for the Reds before being traded, is best known for the way he handles a pitching staff and plays defensively, but he is no slouch at the plate. He hit .247 last season with seven homers and 48 RBI in 116 games.
The Tigers strengthened their bullpen by signing left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin from the A’s to a two-year contract.
Starting pitcher Matthew Boyd, who played seven years with the Tigers, signed a one-year deal with the Giants. Boyd had flexor tendon surgery last September and is starting the season on the Giants’ 60-day injured list. He is projected to pitch again in June.
• The Kansas City Royals were almost as quiet as the Guardians. They signed 38-year-old Zack Grienke to a one-year, $13 million contract. Grienke, selected by the Royals with the ninth overall pick in the 2002 draft, was 11-6 with the Astros last season. He also pitched for the Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Brewers and Angels in his career. He has a career record of 219-132.
The Royals traded starting pitcher Mike Minor to the Reds for left-handed relief pitcher Amir Garrett. Garrett appeared in 63 games with the Reds last season. He was 0-4 and had 10 saves to go with a 6.03 ERA.
Mayfield set for podcast
Baker Mayfield is set to appear on the podcast “Ya Neva Know: You Know What I Mean?” according to Brad Stainbrook of CBSSports.com. The podcast is released on Wednesdays, although the release date for Mayfield’s appearance has not been determined, according to Stainbrook.
“‘Ya Neva Know: you know what I mean?’ is a lifestyle podcast hosted by platinum recording artist Mike,” the podcast’s website at ynkpodcast.com explains. “Athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians and other artists come on the show every Wednesday to discuss the adversity they overcame to turn their dreams into reality.”
The “overcoming adversity” theme is right in Mayfield’s wheelhouse. He has been motivated to prove doubters wrong ever since he was a walk-on freshman at Texas Tech in 2013. Now here he is, the
No. 1 overall pick of the 2018 draft and a quarterback without a team.
The podcast in the past has featured baseball players Trevor Bauer when he was with the Reds, Logan Allen of the Indians plus Christian Yelich from the Brewers and Jaguars wide receiver Christian Kirk, formerly of the Cardinals, among others. A podcast with Johnny Manziel, a first-round pick by the Browns in 2014, is in the site’s archives.
Mayfield has gone dark since requesting the Browns trade him after he learned they were interviewing Deshaun Watson last month to potentially replace him. The Browns told Mayfield they would not honor his request, but that was before Watson announced he would waive the no-trade clause in his contract and accept a trade to Cleveland.
It will be interesting to hear what Mayfield has to say on the podcast. Will his agents suggest he take the high road to prove he is “an adult?” Or will he rip the Browns for playing him when his left shoulder was injured last season, and then giving up on him two months after surgery to repair the torn labrum on his non-throwing shoulder.
Someone in the Browns organization told Chris Mortensen of ESPN the Browns need “an adult” at quarterback. Team owner Jimmy Haslam in a separate Zoom call after the Deshaun Watson news conference on March 25 said the insult directed at Mayfield did not come from ownership.
Trading Mayfield and his guaranteed $18,858,000 contract would have been difficult before the Browns lavished Watson with a fiveyear $230 million contract fully guaranteed. Now unloading Mayfield and getting a fair return will be even more difficult.
The Browns most assuredly will be stuck paying a portion of Mayfield’s salary in any trade they make. Still, they would prefer trading him to releasing him. If they release him, he could sign with any team. The Steelers might be intrigued despite signing Mitch Trubisky.
Any team signing Mayfield if he is released would have to pay him only $1.035 million — the minimum salary for a fifthyear veteran. The Browns would be on the hook for $17,823,000 — the balance of his guaranteed salary.
The money owed Mayfield would count against the Browns salary cap even if he isn’t with the team. According to overthecap.com, the Browns currently have $18,901,459 of effective cap space. That is fourth most in the NFL.
I didn’t know that
… until I read my Snapple bottle cap.
Popsicles were invented in 1905 by an 11-year-old boy named Frank Epperson. … A Galapagos tortoise takes up to three months to digest a meal. … The first vacuum was so large it was pulled to a house by horses starting in 1901. … The state of Hawaii has only one school district. … The pupils in a goat’s eyes are rectangular. … Chicago is named after smelly garlic that once grew in the area.