CLEVELAND, OH - The MLB Trade Deadline is fast approaching and many contenders are surveying the market trying to see which players can be added to push them over the top for a World Series run. You can count Cleveland Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and the rest of the Guardians organization among those contenders looking to put their team over the edge.
“I would say we're actively exploring opportunities to try to improve the team,” Antonetti said prior to Thursday's game against the Detroit Tigers. “It's hard to predict what will come with that. I think it is important to remember, no matter what happens at the trade deadline, it's important to remember that the group of guys in that clubhouse are the ones that have played and put us in the position to win the amount of games we have, and our success in the second half is going to continue to be determined by that group of guys.”
Antonetti continued, “Again, if we can find opportunities to complement it, great, but I think it's important to remember that the success of our season will be dependent upon the way that group of players continue to play and perform and the way we support them to help them do that.”
While the team has an idea of what positions they would like to address, the trade deadline can be one that ebbs and flows, especially when dealing with other teams and a changing market. Antonetti shared whether or not the team has a full strategy or if they have to react to the market at the deadline.
“It's a mix of both,” Antonetti shared. “You have to be obviously attentive to what's in the market, what's available to you, and then blend that with the needs we think we might have or the opportunities we might have to improve so we have an idea of what we'd like to accomplish going in, but how we're able to execute that is hard to predict.”
What's up, Doc?
Antonetti gave an update on starting pitcher Matthew Boyd's progress towards making his Guardians debut, sharing that the right-hander would make his next start on Friday, July 26th for the Double-A Akron Rubberducks. Boyd, 33, is still recovering from Tommy John surgery that he underwent in July last year.
“The encouraging news is [Matthew Boyd] has met every benchmark along the way to continue on the path forward,” Antonetti said of the veteran pitcher. “He'll build up his pitch volume again tomorrow. Hopefully, he recovers well and is able to do that again in his next start. Once he's starting to get through a typical starter workload, at that point, you can kind of assess where he is in his readiness to join the rotation. That's certainly trending for at some point in the early to mid August at this point would be the best estimate.”
Entering July 25th, the Guardians rank 26th in baseball in innings pitched by starting pitching this season. The team will surely look to add to the rotation, whether from Boyd, in the organization, or via trade.