Well, I spent all night. Tirelessly working and writing about the trade that the Cleveland Guardians made with the Toronto Blue Jays. Okay, it really wasn’t that much work and I was just chillin’ in bed, drinking Diet Coke and writing away. Honestly, too much detail. So why am I bringing this up?
Well, the Guardians originally traded 2B Andres Gimenez and RHP Nick Sandlin to the Blue Jays for 1B Spencer Horwitz and minor league OF Nick Mitchell. Most fans were disappointed in the Guardians’ decision to give up a player like Gimenez, but it clearly wasn’t over.
Just hours later, the Guardians took Spencer Horwitz and subsequently traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The team received in return RHP Luis Ortiz, LHP Michael Kennedy and LHP Josh Hartle.
Imagine being Horwitz and booking your ticket to Cleveland, looking to buy a house or whatnot and then the phone rings again. “Sorry, Spence. You’re going to Pittsburgh, actually, so we hope you didn’t buy anything.”
Here are some details on said pitchers received by The Guards:
“Luis Ortiz, 25, is coming off his best season in the majors, recording career bests in wins, strikeouts (107), innings pitched (135 2/3), ERA and WHIP (1.11). He began 2024 in the bullpen, posting a 2.51 ERA in 20 appearances before joining the rotation in June.” – USA Today
Michael Kennedy is 20 years old and a minor-league pitching prospect. While Josh Hartle is 21 years old and also a minor-league pitching prospect as well.
Thus, this move is to load up for the future as well as add an arm for this coming season. Putting everything together and many will still be disappointed that the team traded Gimenez away to begin with, frankly. However, it’s not as if trading away someone such as Spencer Horwitz is going to crush anyone with his pedestrian statistics, to begin with, last year (.265 for 12 home runs and 40 runs batted in).
Well, time will tell. There’s no way to really know how these arms will fare in the future until the time comes. After all, these guys are barely allowed to drink. Thus, it’s really simply going to be something judged much in the distant time when these players make it to the big leagues.
However, Ortiz is going to be able to make a mark in Cleveland in the big league and so he will be able to shine sooner rather than later. That’ll certainly be interesting here in the coming years. For the other two, it’s once again simply a matter of time.
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