Guardians Front Office On Starting Rotation, Potential Trade

Originally posted on Cleveland Guardians on SI
By Tommy Wild | Last updated Dec 6, 2023 8:10 PM ET

Will the Cleveland Guardians trade Shane Bieber? What will their rotation look like heading into 2024? How will Cleveland improve on offense?

These are all questions fans are asking themselves as MLB's winter meetings move on in Nashville. While none of those have clear-cut answers, Guardians GM Mike Chernoff did speak on these, and gave a little clarity on where they stand in terms of their rotation and making a potential trade.

"You know it's hard to transition one young starter to a major league team, we did three last year [Logan Allen, Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams]. Triston McKenzie and Shane [Bieber] both had injuries last year and that really, you know, forced us to make some tough decisions and put us in a tough spot last year and we had a hard time competing. Well, those guys are both back and healthy this year. So, I think the expectation going into next is that is the strength and foundation of our team from which to build and we really need to attack our offense and hopefully improve there."

It's clear that pitching is the strength, and taking any of that away could obviously affect the strong depth they have going for themselves. However, we can't ignore Cleveland's needs, and that starts with adding another bat to the mix.

Chernoff didn't shy away from talking about whether a trade is a possibility.

"But at the same time, you know our jobs as general managers. It's our obligation to listen and we take that responsibility seriously. So, you never know exactly what's going to happen."

A possible trade could involve Bieber who is already reportedly drawing interest from opposing teams.

Chernoff has been pretty consistent with this stance the entire offseason, and that stays the same here. At the GM Meetings in early November, he had a very similar stance on how the organization feels about Bieber's future with the team.

A GM obviously isn't going to admit they're shopping someone such as Bieber, and there have been reports of teams being interested.

So where does that leave us as fans?

Right now, the plan is that Shane Bieber is a part of the team and its rotation. But the front office will listen to anyone who calls asking about the 2020 Cy Young Award winner's status. Will he get traded? Who knows. It doesn't appear off the table.

However, we do know how much the organization values its starting pitching, and Bieber is a massive part of that.

This article first appeared on Cleveland Guardians on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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