With Steven Vogt as manager, the Cleveland Guardians have been an above-average team. He’s won 127 games and lost 101, making the postseason in 2024 and going on a solid run before falling to the New York Yankees.
But with 2025 not off to the start the Guardians were hoping for, they are expected to make a significant move at the MLB trade deadline.
According to Jim Bowden in The Athletic, the Guardians “have been asking around about the availability of possible right-field upgrade options, hoping to improve the production in the middle of their lineup.”
The Guardians are looking for a right fielder, and one who can slide into the middle of the batting order, not hit at the bottom. For the team right now, Nolan Jones is the primary right fielder. But, he’s been disappointing for the Guardians since they acquired him in the offseason for Tyler Freeman.
Jones, in his Guardians tenure, is batting .208 with two home runs and 16 RBI across 61 games. It’s been a disastrous experiment in right field with Jones, and the Guardians are looking to end it by trading for a new right fielder.
Part of the issue with the Guardians looking for a middle-of-the-order right fielder is that there aren’t many clear options available. While there are plenty of intriguing outfielders likely to be available on the market, most are left fielders and center fielders.
If the Guardians were to make a move, they would need to either move their current center fielder or the player they trade for to right field. Any left fielder would not get priority over Steven Kwan, so Jarren Duran, Taylor Ward, and any other left fielder would have to be content with shifting to center or right if the Guardians traded for them.
But, with a lack of quality right fielders on the market, the Guardians might not find what they’re looking for. Bowden’s report for the Guardians is different from a lot of the rest of the trade reports.
The Guardians are the only team that is “asking around about the possibility” of acquiring their desired trade target. Other teams have just as clear needs, but significantly more prominent available targets. The guardians are in a tricky spot, as they need a position that doesn’t have any noteworthy trade targets.
