Guardians Claim José Tena

The Guardians have claimed infielder José Tena off waivers from the Nationals, per a team announcement. He’d been designated for assignment earlier in the week. Tena was originally a Cleveland signee as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic but was traded to the Nats back in the 2024 deadline deal that brought outfielder Lane Thomas to the Guardians.

Now 25 years old, Tena once ranked as one of the top prospects in Cleveland’s system. He sat ninth in their system at MLB.com ahead of the 2022 campaign and 11th at Baseball America’s rankings. He’s a lefty-swinging infielder who’s experienced at every spot on the dirt to the left of first base, though he’s far better suited at second and third than he is at shortstop.

Tena has appeared in parts of four major league seasons between Washington and Cleveland. He’s taken 659 plate appearances in the bigs and turned in a .240/.303/.358 batting line — 17% worse than average, by measure of wRC+.

It’s not an especially encouraging line, particularly when juxtaposed with Tena’s career 27.5% strikeout rate (including a 31.3% mark in a career-high 288 plate appearances this past season). However, he has good bat speed, makes plenty of hard contact and boasts a stout .295/.362/.486 batting line in nearly 700 career plate appearances at the Triple-A level. There’s above-average raw power in Tena’s bat, but his penchant for whiffs has undercut his ability to drive the ball.

Tena is out of minor league options, so he’ll have to either break camp with Cleveland next year or else be designated for assignment once again. If the Guards can manage to sneak him through waivers at some point, they could outright him to Triple-A Columbus to stick around as a depth option without occupying a spot on the 40-man roster. For now, he profiles as a lefty-hitting bench option who could back up third baseman Jose Ramirez, second baseman Travis Bazzana and, in a pinch, shortstop Brayan Rocchio.