Guardians place veteran outfielder on waivers

The Guardians have placed center fielder Myles Straw on waivers, reports Zack Meisel of The Athletic. 

Any team will have the opportunity to claim him, although doing so would require taking on the entirety of the three years and $19.25M remaining on his contract. That appears quite unlikely. 

Straw figures to clear waivers, at which point the Guardians could assign him outright to a minor league affiliate.

While Straw’s 4.112 years of MLB service time give him the right to reject that outright assignment, he’s still short of the five years necessary to reject an outright and retain the money he’s owed. 

There’s no chance he’d forfeit that $19.25M to go into free agency, so the likely outcome seems to be Straw clearing and heading to Triple-A Columbus while no longer occupying a spot on the 40-man roster. 

It’s also feasible that the Guardians could simply be gauging whether there’s a taker for Straw and, if not, could simply plug him back into their center field spot. 

He can be optioned to Triple-A if the club keeps him on the 40-man roster. A player does not have to be assigned outright to a minor league affiliate after clearing waivers (though that’s the most common outcome).

With Straw in limbo for the time being, that leaves Steven Kwan and Ramon Laureano as locks in the Cleveland outfield. The former will see regular reps in left field. The latter had been slated for right field work but can handle center. 

It’s also possible the Guardians will go with Will Brennan and/or Estevan Florial to fill outfield roles. Infielder Tyler Freeman has also gotten looks in center this spring. Brennan has all three minor league option years remaining, while Florial is out of minor league options. 

Top outfield prospect Chase DeLauter could be an option eventually, but he was never a full-time member of big league camp and was only called up on occasion to fill at-bats as needed, Meisel notes. He was never considered to make the Opening Day roster.

Cleveland originally acquired Straw in a 2021 deadline swap sending right-hander Phil Maton to the Astros. He made a strong first impression, hitting .285/.362/.377 with plus defense and baserunning down the stretch. 

That brought his season-long line to a solid .271/.349/.348 — just shy of league-average production (98 wRC+). Paired with Straw’s speed and glovework, it was a strong effort that catalyzed the Guardians to sign him to a five-year, $25M extension with a pair of club options for two additional seasons.

Unfortunately, Straw’s bat has cratered since putting pen to paper on that deal. Over the past two seasons, he’s turned in just a .229/.296/.284 in 1,114 trips to the plate. 

That’s about 32 percent worse than average, by a measure of wRC+. Straw is a light-out defender in center (23 Defensive Runs Saved, 17 Outs Above Average over the past two seasons) and offers blazing speed (41-for-48 in steals since 2022), but his lack of offensive ability has severely capped his overall value. 

For an immensely cost-conscious Guardians club, his contract has reached a point where they’ll see if another club is willing to take him on for no return other than salary relief.