Cleveland Guardians Praised for Making This Offseason Trade

After the Cleveland Guardians were three wins away from the World Series last season, the front office made a couple of blockbuster deals, trading away some of the roster's mainstays.

One of those trades was sending Andres Gimenez to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Spencer Horwitz. Then they quickly flipped Horwitz to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a package centered around Luis Ortiz.

Bradford Doolittle of ESPN recently named Cleveland's acquisition of Ortiz one of last offseason's under-the-radar trades.

"Ortiz hasn't been an ace, but he's second on Cleveland in starts and innings and leads the club in strikeouts. The Guardians' pitching program has long been lauded for its ability to push hurlers to a higher level of production, and they've displayed that trait with Ortiz in vivid terms," wrote Doolittle.

"With Cleveland, Ortiz has cut back on use of his sinker, added velocity to his four-seamer and ramped up the frequency of what was a seldom-deployed changeup. The end result: Ortiz's strikeout rate has soared from 19.2% to 25.2%."