The Guardians cleared three roster spots yesterday as the deadline to add players from the 60-day injured list back to the roster arrived, and as they prepared for the Rule-5 deadline on November 18th
and the non-tender deadline on November 21st.
Re-added to the roster are: Will Brennan, Andrew Walters and Sam Hentges. Allowed to reach free agency are infielder Will Wilson, catcher Dom Nunez, lefty relievers Kolby Allard and Matt Krook, and right-handed starters Ben Lively and John Means.
The Guardians may seek to retain any of those seven free agents (my money would be on Lively and Allard) but apparently were not interested in doing so at either the expense of their projected arbitration figures or a precious 40-man roster spot. Keeping Walters was an obvious move. Retaining Brennan while seeking external improvements makes sense as Brennan has minor-league options remaining and keeping Hentges MAY indicate optimism regarding his recovery process from shoulder capsule and knee surgeries.
One would expect that the Guardians will add shortstop Angel Genao, right-handed pitcher Austin Peterson, outfielder Kahlil Watson and PROBABLY right-handed pitcher Yorman Gomez ahead of the Rule 5 deadline. I’d expect a few moves in the weeks ahead.
Lots of outlets are releasing their top 50 free agent lists and Quincy Wheeler will have a review of names of interest to the Guardians a little later today. Here is MLBTradeRumors’ article who generally has the most accurate numbers in terms of salary projections.
