Analyst Throws Slight Jab at Cleveland Guardians Ownership

The Cleveland Guardians are an incredibly well-run organization, as they tend to do more with little than any other small-to-mid market team in the MLB.

The Guardians won the AL Central division title and made it all the way to the ALCS last year in spite of ranking toward the bottom of baseball in payroll, and they have notched six playoff appearances over the last nine years.

But are Cleveland owners Paul and Karen Dolan actually short-changing the fan base? Bleacher Report's Zachary D. Rymer feels it's a possibility.

In ranking all 30 ownership groups across the league, Rymer placed the Guardians a very respectable 13th and had some good things to say about the franchise.

However, Rymer also questions if the Dolans may actually have the ability to spend more money than they are letting on.

"Alas, if only there was funding to back up all this ingenuity," Rymer wrote. "The Dolans can be fairly accused of cheapness in this regard. Cleveland may be a small market, but the family is fabulously wealthy enough to afford at least an occasional push of the envelope."

This offseason is a perfect example, as the Guardians traded a couple of key players in Andres Gimenez and Josh Naylor in order to save money.

Now, to be fair, Cleveland was able to flip part of the Gimenez return to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for pitcher Luis Ortiz, and Gimenez had been struggling at the plate the last couple of years.

But the Guardians traded Naylor—who just made an All-Star appearance—for scraps and then replaced him with 38-year-old Carlos Santana.

Cleveland also did very little—if anything—to improve its roster this winter in spite of coming so close to advancing to a World Series back in the fall.

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