The 2023 Guardians are young, talented and affordable: The week in baseball
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It is one thing to be a young team in the big leagues.
It’s another to be young and talented.
The Guardians are in the second group. They proved that last season and now they are positioned to do it again.
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On Friday the Guards announced that they’d signed 28 players to one-year contracts. Among the 28 players were right-hander Triston McKenzie, second baseman Andres Gimenez and left fielder Steven Kwan.
Not only are they some of the most talented players on Cleveland’s roster, they are some of the most talented young players in the big leagues. Plus, they’re affordable, a key to Cleveland’s success over the last 10 years.
McKenzie, Gimenez and Kwan still aren’t eligible for arbitration. It means their agents had little room to negotiate with the front office. The major league minimum this year is $720,000 and McKenzie, Gimenez and Kwan fell in line with that. McKenzie signed for $739,500, Gimenez for $739,400 and Kwan for $727,300.
That’s some serious bang for the buck.
McKenzie went 11-11 with a 2.96 ERA last season. He posted career highs with 30 starts, 190 strikeouts and 191 1/3 innings pitched. Opposing batters hit .201 against him.
The Guardians’ rotation took a hit last season with the struggles of Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale, but it is still one of the better rotations in baseball. And it’s hard to beat the price.
Shane Bieber, Cal Quantrill, McKenzie, Civale and Plesac will make a combined $21,849,500 this season. Mets aces Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander will each make $43 million. Yankee ace Gerrit Cole will have to get by on $36 million.
McKenzie, 25, has two years and 74 days in the big leagues. He’ll be eligible for arbitration after this season.
All Gimenez did last year was start the All-Star Game, win a Gold Glove and hit 17 homers in his first full season in the big leagues. Not to mention batting .297 (146 for 491) and leading the American League in getting hit by pitches 25 times.
Baseball Reference had Gimenez posting the third highest WAR in the AL at 7.4 behind Aaron Judge at 10.7 and Shohei Ohtani at 9.6. Judge was the AL MVP for the Yankees and Ohtani hit 34 homers and went 15-9 for the Angels. Gimenez was definitely in the high rent district.
If anyone saw this kind of season coming from the Guardians’ left-handed hitting second baseman, they haven’t stepped forward. Gimenez, 24, hit .235 with 13 homers in parts of two previous seasons with Cleveland and the Mets.
Jose Altuve is the highest-paid second baseman in the big leagues. He’ll make $26 million this year with Houston. He hit .300 compared to Gimenez’s .297. He hit 28 homers compared to Gimenez’s 17. But Gimenez scored more runs, stole more bases and had more RBI.
When the difference in salaries is added to the calculation, it’s almost a push. Gimenez, 24, has two years and 106 days of service time. He will be eligible for arbitration after the 2023 season.
Kwan was a true rookie sensation last year. Coming straight from Class AA Akron and Class AAA Columbus, Kwan hit .298 (168 for 563) with 89 runs, 25 doubles and 52 RBI. He won a Gold Glove for his play in left field and finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.
When manager Terry Francona moved Kwan into the leadoff position on June 21, not only did he excel, but the Guardians followed. Kwan hit .311 after the move and the Guardians went 58-42 on the way to winning the AL Central.
Kwan reached base 273 times, tied for seventh in the AL. He drew more walks than strikeouts (62 to 60), the first qualified Cleveland rookie to do so since Kenny Lofton in 1992. To add a little icing to the cake, he finished second in the league with 27 infield hits.
What better way for the contact-first Guardians to start a game than having Kwan bat leadoff? He led Cleveland’s regulars with a .373 on-base percentage and stole 19 bases in 24 attempts. In the ALDS against the Yankees, Kwan hit .429 (9 for 21).
Kwan, 25, won’t be eligible for arbitration until after the 2024 season.
What the Guardians have in McKenzie, Gimenez, Kwan and their other young players is the opportunity to continue building a winning roster without being shackled by an enormous payroll. Baseball’s ultimate test, of course, is consistency from one season to the next. McKenzie, Gimenez and Kwan are just starting down that path.
Where they go from here will be compelling to watch.
It should also serve notice to the front office, if it hasn’t already, that McKenzie, Gimenez and Kwan are good candidates for contract extensions. It takes two to tango, but if they wait too long the chance may disappear.
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