As this blog is posted, my Cleveland Guardians are on the brink of their season. It all might end today — or not. But either way, I must say it has been a pleasure following this team.
It's been mighty frustrating at times, and if you follow the Cleveland Guardians as closely as I do, my overall prediction of this season likely will come true. My prediction: "These offseason moves will ensure we do worse than last year."
But before we get into that ominous, and inevitable, prediction, let's celebrate what the Guards did right. They battled — and battled — and set a Major League Baseball record for winning their division, despite being 15 1/2 games out in July. No team ever came back from a deficit that large, and we did. A ridiculous accomplishment! That is ginormous. Wow, wow, wow.
How in the world did they do that?
My answer: Grit and magic.
Cleveland is a place of grit and magic. We really don't have a reasonable offense to compete, so it makes no sense they'd come back like they did. In fact, this year, they had the second worst batting average of all 30 teams at .226. Only the Angels batted worse at .225, but Anaheim actually scored 30 more runs than Cleveland.
Through gritty pitching and magic and the Detroit Tigers on tilt, they won the AL Central. We could itemize the starting pitchers who really came into their own, especially Gavin Williams, Joey Cantillo and Parker Messick, but to consistently win with such a low-octane offense is grit and magic.
Most people I run across, sadly, have zero grit or magic. Or if they ever had grit or magic, they quickly turn it into stupidity. If you are too much into money or are mesmerized by appearances, you have zero grit. If you believe too much into magic and make it your life's purpose, you no longer have magic. You have certainty; that ain't magic.
I sense that Bani, Dominican Republic, is full of grit and magic, and that is why Jose Ramirez took a contract below market value to become one of the best players — and leaders — of his generation. You could only possibly do that if you have grit and magic and come from a place like that, like Bani. Jose Ramirez: Mr. Grit and Magic.
So on the brink of the season ending, I must say that with the offseason moves, the management of the Guardians assured they would not improve upon making it to the American League Championship Series.
After being one series from the World Series, they traded an All-Star first baseman, Josh Naylor, and a Gold Glove winning second baseman, Andres Gimenez. Both are on teams with AL playoff byes right now. Gimenez is with top-seeded Toronto, and Naylor is with second-seeded Seattle. Oftentimes, the best move in poker is to check. Why didn't you just stay pat, guys?
I don't skirt away from the economics of the game. I understand that the Guards are in a perpetual "cut payroll" mode and that they want to get something for players before they leave as free agents. But they absolutely, positively needed Josh Naylor this year as a bat who could hit behind Jose Ramirez, regardless of who is on the mound.
Without Naylor, in yesterday's Game 1 loss to the Tigers, they had a minor leaguer hitting fourth who had no business being on a playoff roster, let alone backing up Jose Ramirez. Of course, being down 2-1 in the ninth inning, Jose led off the inning by getting a single and getting to third with no outs. The Guards simply had no one who could bring him home in that situation. Josh Naylor would have.
I'm not sure I'll ever see my Guardians win a World Series in my lifetime, and I'm at peace with that. They have been oh-so-close in 1997 and 2016, making it to extra innings in Game 7 of the World Series in both of those years.
But I've learned that sports, and life, isn't only about the final result. It's about the process, and even though I'm bitter about letting Naylor go when we still had him under contract, I still don't believe there is a more enjoyable club to follow than Cleveland.
So, yeah, I'm critical of the moves because the Cleveland media — mostly owned by the Guardians — somehow glossed over the huge negative impact of getting rid of Naylor and Gimenez. However, honestly, the franchise is absolutely excellent at developing pitchers, and that is what matters most.
Pitching, yes, is much, much more valuable than hitting, but you can't have completely inexperienced minor leaguers behind Jose Ramirez. That's disrespectful to both Jose and the fans.
Grit and magic. Jose has it. Josh Naylor has it. Let's hope that management understands that when you have grit and magic, you keep it as long as possible. If not, you face elimination on Oct. 1 and are lucky to just be there.
