Insider Exposes Jaw-Dropping Trade Candidate for Cleveland Guardians

The MLB trade deadline is inching closer and closer, which means that the Cleveland Guardians will have some difficult decisions to make over the next couple of weeks.

While the Guardians almost surely won't be doing anything wild like trade Jose Ramirez, they do have a bunch of players that could potentially be on the move before the end of the month.

We have heard Emmanuel Clase and Steven Kwan's names bandied about in trade speculation, but now, another shocking Cleveland player has emerged as a possible trade piece: star reliever Cade Smith.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic published a trade deadline update on Thursday, and in his piece, he actually mentioned Smith.

"The AL Central is the division to call for controllable relievers. The Cleveland Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase and Cade Smith are two trade candidates," Rosenthal wrote.

Now, Rosenthal did include a qualifier, saying that both Clase and Smith "might be difficult" to "pry loose" from the Guardians, so the chances of Cleveland moving Smith are still probably slim. But just the fact that he was even brought up is surprising.

Smith emerged as a lynchpin in the Guardians' bullpen during his rookie campaign last year, pitching to the tune of a 1.91 ERA while racking up 103 strikeouts over 75.1 innings of work.

The 26-year-old has not been quite as dominant in 2025, but he has still been good, logging a 3.07 ERA while allowing 34 hits and fanning 61 batters across 41 frames.

Smith is under team control through 2030, so Cleveland would ask for an arm and a leg in any potential trade discussions for the right-hander.

The Guardians will most likely hold on to Smith, but we have certainly seen this team make jaw-dropping trades in the past.

Read More Cleveland Guardians Coverage