Just Make a Darn Decision Already
Like what’s the plan here?
In the immortal words of Ron Swanson, “Never half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing.” I think that’s what I’ve been struggling with as I’ve followed the Guardians so far this offseason. I don’t know what their plan is. Are we contenders? Not right now we aren’t. Are we rebuilding? Sure doesn’t look like it. If we’re not rebuilding are we going to make a move that helps us contend? Hell if I know. I can tell you right now this won’t be my most polished piece ever, but I’m writing this for me as much as I am for you because I can’t make heads or tails of all of this.
And I say this from the perspective of one of the more glass you’ll meet. I always lean towards trusting the process, that our F.O. is smart and in the aggregate it’ll all work out. After all, you don’t exactly have a decade with 8 seasons of .500 or better by being bad at your job, do you? I’ve had ways in my head to justify every move they’ve made. Trading Nolan Jones? Maybe they just wanted Juan Brito that badly. Junior Caminero for Tobias Myers? We did need pitching badly at the time. Myles Straw in center last year? They must think his defense really is that valuable. But for now I’m kind of stumped.
The amount of times I’ve started and scrapped pieces like “the case for a rebuild” only to say “you no what? No, Jose only has so many good years left” and start over with “Why we have to push the chips in this year” only to remember that we’re not going to spend any more money and there aren’t many win now moves you can make without doing that, sending me right back to “the case for a rebuild.”
I’ll admit, as I’m writing this I know full well that a Shane Bieber trade could come down and render this whole point moot, but right now I just have no idea what the plan is.
I think where I’ve landed is that I would love to try and contend next year, but I’d rather accept a rebuild than just stand pat and kick the can down the road yet again. We’ve had this farm system that’s consistently been ranked among the best in baseball but the refrain of “well they’re still a year away” feels like it’s been going on for 3 years now. Who the hell knows what the plan with Brayan Rocchio is. You’ve got two bona fide future aces in Bibee and Williams with one of the greatest players in franchise history locked down to an incredibly team friendly contract in Ramirez, you’re telling me it’s not worth taking a shot at winning this thing? If not then what the heck are you doing to ensure that we can make a decent run once Bibee and Williams are hitting their arb years?
I’m just stumped, truly stumped trying to get a sense of what the plan is here. Like we claimed Rivas on waivers and included him on the 40-man over Cal Quantrill only to DFA him once we signed Austin Hedges? Make it make sense. I get clearing Quantrill’s money, or thinking he doesn’t provide enough value to the team, but tanking your negotiation position by DFA’ing him to keep a guy you were just gonna cut anyway? I just don’t get it.
Again I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom here but it just feels like we’re in a place where the only wrong direction is to stay put, and it feels like we’re going to stay put.
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe something will happen that changes everything, if so I’ll gladly eat my words, but does any of what we’ve done make sense to you? Because if so, please help me understand.