Cleveland Guardians non-tender Anthony Gose, Luke Maile; 7 others tendered contracts
The Guardians non-tendered relief pitcher Anthony Gose and catcher Luke Maile and tendered contracts to seven arbitration-eligible players ahead of Friday night's deadline.
Gose is recovering from Tommy John surgery and was designated for assignment last week. He struggled to follow up a positive, albeit brief, performance in 2021 (1.26 ERA in 14⅓ innings), posting a 4.71 ERA in 21 innings before going down with the injury.
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Maile acted as the club's backup to Austin Hedges at catcher for most of the year, hitting .221 with a .627 OPS in 206 plate appearances. Both are known for their defensive abilities behind the plate, and both are now free agents. Hedges became a free agent at the conclusion of the World Series. At least one could return, as the only catchers on the club's 40-man roster are rookies Bo Naylor and Bryan Lavastida.
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The Guardians have seven arbitration-eligible players who were tendered contracts Friday night. That list includes, with MLB Trade Rumors' arbitration projections in parentheses, Shane Bieber ($10.7 million), Amed Rosario ($9 million), Cal Quantrill ($6 million), Josh Naylor ($3.5 million), Zach Plesac ($2.9 million), Aaron Civale ($2.2 million) and James Karinchak ($1.4 million). Rosario will be eligible to be a free agent at the end of the 2023 season, barring a multi-year extension. Bieber can hit free agency after the 2024 season.
Nolan Jones traded to Colorado Rockies
Nolan Jones, once the club's top prospect, is on the move. The Guardians dealt Jones, who didn't have a clear path to the majors, to the Colorado Rockies for infield prospect Juan Brito, who then had his contract selected and was added to the 40-man roster.
Jones made his MLB debut in 2022, hitting .244 with a .681 OPS in fewer than 100 plate appearances. But with Jose Ramirez locked in at third base, Josh Naylor taking over first base and Steven Kwan and Oscar Gonzalez emerging to secure the spots in the corner outfield, Jones' path to any significant playing time in the majors was blocked. For years, Cleveland shifted Jones around in the minor leagues hoping to create an opportunity. That chance did arise, but Kwan and Gonzalez carving out significant roles left Jones as the odd man out.
"We continue to believe that Nolan is going to go on and be a really productive Major League player," said president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti. "However, as we started to look at our roster composition for next year of where there may be opportunities for Nolan, maybe his path was a little bit less clear at this point. So, we thought it was a deal that made sense on a few levels."
"For us, it was about the opportunity to acquire Juan. He’s a really athletic middle infielder. He played most of the time at second, but we also think he could slide over to the left side and play some short and third. Really good switch-hitter, great command of the strike zone, he had more walks than strikeouts last year with some power. We felt that was a really interesting skillset to bring into the organization."
Brito, 21, posted an .877 OPS in 497 plate appearances last season at Single-A.
The Guardians also dealt pitcher Carlos Vargas to the Arizona Diamondbacks for right-handed pitcher Ross Carver and selected the contracts (meaning they were added to the 40-man roster) of left-handed pitchers Joey Cantillo and Tim Herrin and infielder Angel Martinez. Kirk McCarty, along with Gose, was designated for assignment. McCarty finished the season on a high note, posting a 2.45 ERA in the second half.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Guardians at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cleveland-guardians. Follow him on Twitter at @ByRyanLewis.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Guardians non-tender Anthony Gose, Luke Maile
