The New Guardians

 

 

From what seems like a galaxy of ideas, suggestions and options Cleveland’s baseball team has selected“Guardians" as its new nickname for the 2022 season.

Inspired by the Guardians of Traffic statues on the city’s Hope Memorial Bridge, the club will retain it’s blue and red color scheme with logos inspired by the Guardian statues’ headgear.

Reaction to Friday’s announcement on social media was instant and in many cases extreme. Fans either really like the new layout, or really don’t. Below are a few instant Twitter posts on what fans like and dislike about the new team name.

The Cleveland Indians are changing their name next season to the Cleveland Guardians, the Major League Baseball club announce Friday morning, after the old moniker drew criticism for decades from Native Americans.

"You see, there's always been a Cleveland -- that's the best part of our name," actor Tom Hanks says in a video announcement he narrated for the team, which posted it on Twitter "

 

And now it's time to unite as one family, one community, to build the next era for this team and this city."

 

The move is part of a larger cultural shift across the US as corporate brands reexamine their use of racist caricatures and stereotypical names.

 

Get ready for merchandise in the form of The Guardians of the New Galaxy !

 

Behind the plate , AL East style

 

 

The American League East is shaping up to be one of baseball’s most exciting divisions in 2021 and beyond with the Rays, Yankees and Blue Jays looking to return to the postseason as the Red Sox and Orioles work to rebuild after sub-.500 seasons in '20.

 

There’s been plenty of change in the division, most notably with Tampa Bay dealing lefty Blake Snell to the Padres and Toronto signing outfielder George Springer to a six-year deal, but not much has changed behind the plate, where these clubs will have plenty of talent to carry over into 2021.

Here’s a look at what we know, and what we don’t, about the catching position in the AL East.

 Blue Jays
The known:
Toronto has five young catchers on its 40-man roster in Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk, Gabriel Moreno, Reese McGuire and Riley Adams. Given the value of young catching across baseball, this could be a group the Blue Jays eventually deal from, but they’re in a good place entering 2021. Jansen is the presumed starter, and while he’s coming off a .183 average with a .671 OPS in '20, that’s a sample size of just 43 games. The club expects Jansen's numbers to improve in '21. Kirk generated plenty of buzz in just nine games last season and hits everything. Moreno is the club’s number 8 prospect with Adams at number 23 prospect, giving Toronto a variety of talents and styles behind the plate. It’s a great problem to have.

The unknown:
The name to watch from this group is Kirk. That’s not a knock on Jansen, either, who’s just 25, and at this point, potentially underrated. Kirk is the most unique player of the five, though, and one of the most unique players in the organization. The Blue Jays believe in him behind the plate, but he’ll need to prove that in both the short and long term. Kirk hadn’t played above Class A Advanced when Toronto promoted him to the big leagues in 2020, so this is a tricky development case. But Kirk’s bat is MLB-ready and development can still take place at the Major League level. It will be up to Kirk, though, to determine how big a share of playing time he receives, which will trickle down to everyone around him.

 

Orioles
The known:
Until top prospect Adley Rutschman arrives, at least, the Orioles appear set behind the plate with the platoon of Pedro Severino and Chance Sisco, who have more or less split catching duties in Baltimore for the past two seasons. Both Severino, 27, and Sisco, 25, are relatively young, bat-first players who have shown more flashes than consistency at the big league level. Their offensive strengths complement each other. Severino has big power (18 home runs in 144 games over the past two seasons) and a big arm behind the plate, but he can be overaggressive and consequently prone to slumps and defensive miscues. Sisco’s strong plate discipline (.345 on-base percentage since 2019) hints at more offensive upside, but he is viewed as the weaker defensive player of the two. Either would profile as potential trade chips with strong starts in ’21.

The unknown:
It’s all about when Rutschman will arrive. Rutschman has been considered as a generational prospect since the O’s made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2019, and nothing has happened in the past year and a half to alter that perception. The problem is Rutschman hasn’t played all that much, for reasons outside of his control: Only 37 games after he was drafted and then zero in '20 after the cancellation of the Minor League season. There isn’t necessarily a rush, either. Rutschman will turn just 23 in February and the O’s remain very much in rebuild mode, potentially several years away from serious contention. Still, there are some who think Rutschman could play in the big leagues right now. Will he in '21? 

 

Rays
The known:
Tampa Bay only has three catchers on its 40-man roster: Mike Zunino, Francisco Mejía and 23-year-old prospect . It'll have non-roster depth options, but Zunino and Mejía seem set as its top two.

The Rays brought back Zunino, who will turn 30 in March, by re-signing the veteran to a $2 million contract with a club option for next season. Zunino is a quality defender who is familiar with Tampa Bay’s pitching staff, and capably handling that deep group of arms is the foremost responsibility for any Rays catcher.

Tampa Bay acquired Mejía, 25, from the Padres as part of its return in the Snell trade. Mejía was once a highly regarded prospect, ranked No. 28 overall by MLB Pipeline in 2018, known for his ability at the plate as exemplified by a historic 50-game hitting streak in the Minors in '16.

The unknown:
Mejía spent some time in the outfield for Cleveland and San Diego as a way to get his bat in the lineup, and general manager Erik Neander admitted, “There’s parts of his game behind the plate that he’s going to need to continue to develop.” But his bat produced a .225/.282/.386 slash line in 128 games the past four years, so it’s fair to wonder what kind of player they have on their hands here.

The knock on Zunino, meanwhile, has always been his offense. In 118 games with the Rays over the past two years, he hit just .161/.233/.323 with a 36.2 percent strikeout rate. But he was clearly the club’s top choice last October, starting each of their last 10 games and all but two overall in the postseason.

Do the Rays view Mejía as a good hitter who can still develop into a potential front-line starting catcher, or is he merely a backup with long-term club control? Will they platoon the right-handed-hitting Zunino with the switch-hitting Mejía, or hope one of them claims most of the playing time? How will the Rays balance their desire for more offense with Zunino’s experience and savvy behind the plate?

 

Red Sox
The known:
The Red Sox could have one of the best catching duos in the league with starter Christian Vazquez and backup Kevin Plawecki. Two years ago, Vázquez came into his own offensively by belting 23 homers in his first season of getting over 500 plate appearances. In last year’s shortened season, he was less consistent, but the overall numbers likely would have been the same over 162 games. Vázquez also cleaned up what was a major weakness in his game in ’19 -- blocking balls in the dirt. Plawecki had a seamless transition to the Red Sox in ’20 and hit better than anyone expected while playing the strong defense he’s been known for throughout his career.

The unknown:
What happens if Vázquez or Plawecki suffers an injury? Last year, the Red Sox had a veteran in Jonathan Lucroy waiting in the wings at the alternate training site. While they have no such luxury at the moment, Connor Wong could have what it takes to fill the void if an injury occurs. Wong was the third player the Red Sox acquired in the trade for Mookie Betts, and the club has optimism of the player he can become. Wong advanced to Double-A for the final 40 games of his final season in the Dodgers organization and had a strong showing, hitting .349 with nine homers and 31 RBIs. But with no Minors season last year, it’s hard to know if Wong is ready yet. 

 

Yankees
The known:
Gary Sanchez will enter the spring aiming to reclaim his role as the starting catcher, coming off a season in which he batted .147 and started only two of the Yanks’ seven playoff games. Sánchez earned plaudits from the organization by volunteering to play winter ball, believing that he needed to pick up at-bats after the pandemic-shortened season. Sánchez will continue to work with catching coach Tanner Swanson to hone his pitch framing, including the one-knee-down approach he tried in 2020.Kyle Higashioka is entrenched as the backup.

The unknown:
The Yankees considered non-tendering Sánchez in December, a move that would have been unthinkable as recently as 2019, when he earned selection as an All-Star before fading in an injury-marred second half. Sánchez burst onto the big league scene as the fastest player in American League history to slug 100 homers, but he has been approximately a league-average player over the past three years, posting a .200/.296/.453 slash line.. Which one is the real Sánchez?

Spring has arrived

 

The Blue Jays have agreed to a six-year deal with star outfielder George Springer, a source confirmed to MLB.com.

The deal, which is not yet official and has not been confirmed by the Blue Jays, is pending a physical. It will be worth a reported $150 million over six years, according to MLB.com's Mark Feinsand and MLB Network insider Jon Heyman, making it the largest in the organization's history. Brendon Kuhn of bluejaysnation.com was first to report the agreement earlier Tuesday.

Springer has been the Blue Jays’ No. 1 target all offseason and, while they pursued other notable free agents, all roads eventually led back to the 31-year-old center fielder. When finalized, this deal not only represents a significant upgrade to a team that returned to the postseason in the shortened 2020 season, but a message to the rest of baseball that the young Blue Jays are no longer developing. They are officially in win-now mode.

 

The Blue Jays and Mets have been the two finalists for Springer for much of this offseason, but New York’s additions of star shortstop Francisco Lindor and others put the Blue Jays in the driver's seat, where they could use the payroll flexibility that comes with such a young team. According to Feinsand, the Mets’ final offer to Springer came in around six years, $120-$125 million.

This is similar to what the Blue Jays did last offseason with ace left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu: They eventually jumped out in front of the rest of the market by giving him a fourth year for a total of $80 million.

 

Springer is coming off seven excellent seasons with the Astros, where he has hit a career .270 with an .852 OPS. The Blue Jays were attracted to Springer not just for his positional fit -- they’ve coveted a star center fielder for years -- but for how he fit their specific lineup and vision. With a career on-base percentage of .361 and the power to flirt with 40 home runs, Springer has the ability to change the game with one swing of the bat while also hitting near the top of the lineup.

This signing also gives the Blue Jays something that most young clubhouses lack: postseason experience. Springer, who won a ring in 2017 as a member of the Astros, has appeared in 63 postseason games with numbers that fall comfortably in line with his regular-season performance, hitting .269 with an impressive 19 home runs and an .895 OPS.

 While a move to a corner outfield spot is possible in the latter half of Springer’s deal, he is fully expected to take over as the everyday center fielder, leaving the Blue Jays with the good problem of also having Randall Grichuk Teoscar Hernandez and Lourdes Gurriel, jr. in their outfield group. The Blue Jays have plenty of options there, from a corresponding move to using their available DH reps, but there is still plenty of time between now and Opening Day to sort that out.

 Given that the Blue Jays built much of their offseason around the pursuit of Springer, the rest of their plan can now come into focus. The club has also agreed to deals with relievers Tyler Chatwood and Kirby Yates recently, shoring up their bullpen, and they are expected to further explore the starting pitching market, too.

Not since Devon White patrolled the outfield, has Toronto has both a defensive presence and an offensive weapon such as George Springer.

Spring has finally arrived in Toronto..

The Mets have won the off season,so far, but Padres have scored

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Mets sent a jolt through the baseball world by trading for shortstop Fransisco Lindor and right hander Carlos Carrasco from Cleveland on Thursday. The move came exactly a week after the completion of a three-day wheel-and-deal whirlwind of seismic proportions out west by the Padres.

The two clubs have lit up the Hot Stove, and they’ve been the biggest stories in baseball. So the question is: Who’s winning the offseason so far?

Let’s break it down into two categories: potential impact on the field, and overall shock value.

 We had the privilege of watching a Dodgers-Padres National League Division Series last October, and you’re not alone if you got the feeling these two clubs will be battling at the top of the NL West for years to come. The Dodgers showed why they're the defending eight-time division champs. But fast-forward a couple of months and add former American League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and 2020 NL Cy Young Award runner-up Yu Darvish to San Diego’s rotation. Oh, and we can’t forget that the Padres also won the Ha Seong Kim sweepstakes. 

How much closer does this bring the Padres to the World Series champs? We obviously can’t know until the 2021 season plays out, but if we’re already talking about a club that had a legitimate shot last year to become the first team other than the Dodgers to win the NL West since 2012, it’s pretty clear these teams are not far apart. Last season, San Diego swung a deal with Cleveland to acquire Mike Clevinger for the stretch run, but he’ll be out for the 2021 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Well, the Padres certainly made up for that loss and then some with their recent moves.

After his Cy Young Award campaign in 2018, when he posted a 1.89 ERA and 32 percent strikeout rate, Snell struggled to a 4.29 mark in an injury-shortened ’19, when he had to undergo elbow surgery. But he bounced back in the abbreviated ’20 campaign, finishing with a 3.24 ERA and 31 percent K rate over 11 starts. He then worked in and out of trouble through the first three rounds of the postseason before turning in a sterling performance in Game 6 of the World Series, yielding one run and striking out nine Dodgers over 5 1/3 innings for the Rays. And Snell just turned 28 last month.

 

Darvish was as good as he’s ever been in 2020, pitching to a 2.01 ERA  while fanning 31 percent of the batters he faced over 12 starts. The right-hander owns a career 3.47 ERA in eight MLB seasons, and there’s no reason to think he won’t pick right back up where he left off when he takes the mound in a Padres uniform.

Kim can play all around the infield, but was mostly a shortstop in seven Korea Baseball Organization seasons (he’s still only 25 years old). He had a huge 2020 with the Kiwoom Heroes, slashing .306/.397/.523 with 30 home runs and 23 steals in 138 games. Acquiring Kim was, of all things, a very Dodgers-esque move -- he’s likely going to be deployed as a super-utility player.

The Dodgers, for their part, have been rumored to be in the mix for some big names, but have yet to make a major move this offseason. Of course, they are the defending champs, and the Friars’ aggressiveness isn’t necessarily causing anyone to lose sleep in L.A. Still, San Diego has moved significantly closer to Los Angeles, and we’re not talking geography.

Mets: The Braves have won three consecutive NL East titles, and the Nationals are only a season removed from winning the World Series. But they’ll be stepping right up to greet some new Mets in 2021, specifically a pair that may very well shift the balance of power in the East. Lindor is one of the best shortstops in the game, and Carrasco has the stuff to be a sleeper Cy Young Award candidate year-in and year-out.

They call Lindor “Mr. Smile,” and he just brought a smile to the face of countless Mets fans in Queens and beyond.The 27 year old shortstop is entering the final year of his current contract, but an extension to stay in New York certainly isn’t far-fetched, particularly if the club makes a deep postseason run in ’21. He’s won two Gold Glove Awards and a Platinum Glove Award, owns a career .833 OPS and hit 30-plus homers in each year from 2017-19 before launching eight in last year’s shortened campaign.

Carrasco joins a rotation that already features Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard (though he’ll be out until midseason due to Tommy John surgery) and Marcus Stroman. Outside a 2019 campaign in which he missed a big chunk of the season undergoing treatment for leukemia before making an inspirational return to the mound in September, Carrasco hasn’t posted an ERA above 3.63 since he became a full-time starter in 2015. He was stellar in 12 starts last year, finishing with a 2.91 ERA (157 ERA+) and 29 percent strikeout rate. With him in the fold, the Mets have bolstered a rotation that entered the offseason with a lot of question marks, now with three ace-caliber starters at the front.

Like the Dodgers and most other teams so far, the Braves have had a relatively quiet offseason, though they did make a big move to add veteran depth to a loaded young starting rotation by signing Charlie Morton.

Edge: Padres. This is a tough call because the Mets made big strides viz-a-viz the Braves in one fell swoop Thursday. But while New York added two impact players, including one to bolster the starting rotation, San Diego transformed its starting staff with two elite arms. Its rotation stacks up well with the Dodgers’ group -- we can’t forget about Dinelson Lamet (2.09 ERA in 12 starts last year) and Chris Paddack (a season removed from a 3.33 ERA over 26 starts as a rookie).

Last season, the Padres’ rotation was third in baseball with a 3.46 ERA, behind the Dodgers’ 3.29 and the Indians’ 3.17. But San Diego’s staff had a better FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching), at 3.71 to the Dodgers’ 4.11. With the offseason additions, it’s not crazy to suggest San Diego’s group might even be slightly better than the defending World Series champs’.

Padres: General manager A.J. Preller had an incredibly prolific calendar year in 2020, right up through the very last day. Preller and company showed just how committed they are to winning, and winning now with their flurry of big splashes. San Diego was the first team to truly light the Hot Stove, so there are major points for that when it comes to shock value. And the Padres were already the darlings of the NL, a fun group of young players led by the most exciting player in the game -- Fernando Tatis Jr. Building even more around him and Manny Machado raised a lot of eyebrows and ramped up anticipation of the NL West race in 2021.

Mets: From Day 1 of new owner Steve Cohen’s administration in Queens, it was clear the Mets were going to be major players this offseason. And somehow Cohen and Co. still managed to send shockwaves across baseball with the acquisition of Lindor and Carrasco on Thursday. A big reason why may be that while it wouldn’t surprise us if the Padres were done with big moves this offseason, it certainly would surprise us if the Mets were. It is anticipated that Thursday’s blockbuster was just the beginning for the makeover taking place in Queens.

Edge: Mets. It’s the Big Apple. The lights are brighter and the stage is bigger. The Yankees have owned that town for several years now, and suddenly their brothers from another borough are flexing. The Mets-Yankees dynamic, combined with the first significant move of the Cohen era makes New York’s acquisition of Lindor and Carrasco of higher shock value than the Padres’ big moves out west, though that's not to take away from the significance of San Diego's aggressiveness.

It’s still early January in an offseason unlike any other due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So there’s still a long way to go and many moves to come around baseball. That could certainly change the calculus here, and it’ll be fun to see what comes next.

The Mets are reportedly trying to stay under the luxury tax threshold this year, but haven’t ruled out big spending on free agents --George Springer has been the name that has popped up the most in connection with the Mets, but they’re a wild card in free agency with their new ownership, so anything seems possible.

While the Padres have already packed an entire offseason worth of activity into three days in late December, more maneuvers from San Diego aren't out of the question. Preller has surprised us too many times for us to count him out.

The San Diego Chicken was spotted trying out for the padres bullpen, but all he could muster was egg on his face.