Will the Guardians make an intra-state trade to fill the need they have for a right-handed hitter?
You can view our larger trade deadline piece here as we discuss a wider pool of options the Guardians may consider. To make my position clear, I expect the Guardians to make smaller moves, like trading Bo Naylor and getting a castoff/undervalued reliever. But, in the interest of exploring potential larger moves, we are doing a series looking at some of those bigger names, beginning with Spencer Steer
from the Cincinnati Reds.
Steer is a 28 year-old right-handed first baseman/outfielder/DH under arbitration team control through 2028. For his career Steer has 103 wRC+, 21.7/10 K/BB% and .180 ISO. He grades out as a good defensive first baseman by DRS at +13 for his career and average by OAA at +1. He has occasionally popped in at second and third, but isn’t a good glove there and his corner outfield numbers defensively are also poor. For his career, Steer has a 184 wRC+ against LHP and a 77 wRC+ against RHP. He is a very good short-side platoon bat, which isn’t something MLB has a lot of right now.
For the Reds, trading Steer might make sense because he is older, because his positional value is limited and because he isn’t really playable against 75% of pitchers in MLB. Because, as I mentioned, right-handed hitters who reliably mash lefties are scarce in the bigs right now, Steer may fetch a higher value than what he should probably net on paper as a league average bat who can only reliably be trusted to defend at first base. Cincinnati is also 8 games under .500 in a tough National League, so doing a little rebuilding/retooling makes sense, especially for a notoriously cheap ownership group that probably wouldn’t mind trading the occasional late-arb player like Steer for some younger talent.
For the Guardians, Steer would immediately replace David Fry. While it’s impossible to ignore Fry’s 2024 heroics and his good-guy persona, he’s just not a very good baseball player. The team doesn’t trust him to catch and he’s simply passable at first base and outfield, at best. Since his generational April-May of 2024, Fry has put up an 82 wRC+ with an xwOBA of .264 (which would put him closer to 72 wRC+). Most damningly, he has an 85 wRC+ against left-handed pitching during that time, which is supposed to be his role – mash southpaws. Despite his reputation in the clubhouse and our affection for his good humor and playoff heroics, Fry’s spot on the roster should be the number one place the team can upgrade at the deadline.
Unfortunately, as noted above, I think Steer, if traded, will come at an inflated cost due to the lack of reliable bats to punish lefties available. The Guardians have a strong minor league system with a lot of talent at Double-A and above, so they can beat any offer should they desire to do so. Leaving aside actual valuable players in the Guardians’ current pen, rotation and lineup, I would not consider Angel Genao, Ralphy Velazquez, Braylon Doughty, or Juneiker Caceres in a potential deal, but everyone else in the minors is on the table in talks to be included in a package for me.
A post-trade lineup of:
1. Kwan CF
2. Jose 3B
3. DeLauter RF
4. Steer 1B
5. Hoskins DH
6. Rocchio SS
7. Martinez LF
8. Hedges C
9. Bazzana 2B
would look pretty formidable against LHP to me. Tell me your thoughts on Steer in the comments below!
