Latest / Foul Territory / Cleveland Guardians team preview w/Mandy Bell
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: It's hard to ever doubt him because you're playing the
- 0:02Speaker 1: game of the trust father time of Okay, at some
- 0:04Speaker 1: point he's going to start waiting, But it's Jose Ramirez.
- 0:14Speaker 2: Here we go. MLB dot COM's Mandy Bell joining us
- 0:17Speaker 2: right now to talk about the Cleveland Guardians happy off season,
- 0:21Speaker 2: almost spring training to a Mandy and hope you're staying
- 0:24Speaker 2: warm wherever you are stationed at the moment. Are you
- 0:26Speaker 2: in Cleveland right now?
- 0:28Speaker 3: Yeah? It's actually warm today. It's twenty two degrees.
- 0:32Speaker 2: Whoa there, you go?
- 0:34Speaker 1: Not bad?
- 0:36Speaker 2: All right, Well, we're gonna die.
- 0:37Speaker 4: Almost as warm as Florida.
- 0:39Speaker 2: Pretty close the morning there, the morning's yeah, we're almost there.
- 0:43Speaker 2: We'll spring training as soon.
- 0:44Speaker 4: You know what Joe Kim Noah said, what ain't nobody
- 0:47Speaker 4: ever said they want to go on vacation in Cleveland?
- 0:49Speaker 2: I'm just saying, did he say that?
- 0:51Speaker 4: As he said that one time when he was playing.
- 0:53Speaker 5: For the Bulls.
- 0:54Speaker 4: He said, Wow, So do you never hear about anybody
- 0:57Speaker 4: saying they're going on vacation to Cleveland?
- 1:00Speaker 5: I love cleve.
- 1:00Speaker 2: Cleveland in the summertime.
- 1:01Speaker 3: Cleveland rocks. Yeah.
- 1:02Speaker 2: All right, Well, we got to get Mandy back on track.
- 1:05Speaker 2: And get a nice smile. Okay, there it is all right,
- 1:08Speaker 2: So Mandy, we're gonna hit storylines. Let's get to biz
- 1:11Speaker 2: and queue up the twenty twenty five mole piece that
- 1:14Speaker 2: we have here. Okay, Mandy, let's talk about the Cleveland
- 1:26Speaker 2: Guardians and what they are expecting heading into this twenty
- 1:29Speaker 2: twenty five campaign. We're gonna go over the first base swap,
- 1:32Speaker 2: Big Christmas, Jose Ramirez, and the Travis Pisana potential of
- 1:39Speaker 2: making an impact in twenty twenty five. Of course, they
- 1:42Speaker 2: also added a reliever. We can do that on the
- 1:44Speaker 2: back end. So let's start with what I think is fascinating.
- 1:48Speaker 2: I'm going to be watching Mandy, Carlos Santana and Josh
- 1:52Speaker 2: Naylor this season have bat for at bat and seeing
- 1:56Speaker 2: if it was worth them acquiring what a pick and
- 2:00Speaker 2: an arm in order to ship off one of the
- 2:03Speaker 2: heart and soul guys of the team. Your thoughts on
- 2:05Speaker 2: this swap.
- 2:08Speaker 1: Yeah, you're not going to be the only one. I
- 2:09Speaker 1: think every Cleveland fan out there is going to be
- 2:12Speaker 1: watching every single bat to compare the same thing.
- 2:15Speaker 3: It's tough. I don't know.
- 2:17Speaker 1: This one's hard to see because it's just it seemed
- 2:20Speaker 1: like it made so much more sense to hang on
- 2:22Speaker 1: to him until maybe the trade deadline and figure things
- 2:24Speaker 1: out and allow this offense to maybe still have some stability.
- 2:28Speaker 1: That's not saying that they won't, but to think of
- 2:31Speaker 1: Carlos Santana, who's starting to inch closer and closer to
- 2:34Speaker 1: forty years old of being maybe your cleanup guy, it
- 2:38Speaker 1: just seems like they're missing a couple pieces in their
- 2:40Speaker 1: offense right now. And I know Josh Naylor wasn't as
- 2:43Speaker 1: consistent as he was in years past last year, but
- 2:47Speaker 1: he also added more power, and for a lineup that
- 2:49Speaker 1: hasn't had much power, I think there was a lot
- 2:52Speaker 1: to say for being able to just have that threat
- 2:54Speaker 1: behind Jose Ramirez. So I think there's going to be
- 2:57Speaker 1: a lot to learn. And I do think that this
- 2:59Speaker 1: opens the door a little bit for Kyle Manzardo, who
- 3:01Speaker 1: was great and his second stint up in the big
- 3:03Speaker 1: League last year allows him to get more at bats.
- 3:06Speaker 1: But if they're starting to look at him maybe in
- 3:07Speaker 1: that two spot, because that's where they liked him toward
- 3:10Speaker 1: the end of last year, still not giving Jose Ramirez
- 3:13Speaker 1: a lot to work with behind behind him. So I
- 3:17Speaker 1: don't know. I think it's gonna be. It was obviously
- 3:20Speaker 1: a risk, ends up being that Carlos Santana is more
- 3:23Speaker 1: expensive than Josh Naylor, so you can't even just say money.
- 3:26Speaker 3: So I'm not really sure.
- 3:28Speaker 1: I think the offense is gonna have to really figure
- 3:30Speaker 1: some things out and a lot of things are gonna.
- 3:32Speaker 6: Have to go right.
- 3:34Speaker 4: My thing is is Josh Nayler prodicted Jose Ramirez his energy,
- 3:38Speaker 4: his passion, his big hit ability. That's what I don't
- 3:42Speaker 4: know that Carlos intent. And now listen, he had a
- 3:43Speaker 4: nice year last year. He hit twenty plus homer hit
- 3:45Speaker 4: twenty three homers, and I know Naylor obviously out did that,
- 3:49Speaker 4: but can he bring the protection because that's the biggest
- 3:52Speaker 4: key for me. Who's gonna protect Jose Ramirez? And Josh
- 3:55Speaker 4: Naylor did a great job. Josh Nayler was the kind
- 3:57Speaker 4: of guy when they walked Jose Ramirez, he wanted a bet.
- 4:00Speaker 4: I'm not saying Carlos Santana isn't that guy, but that
- 4:03Speaker 4: was the biggest thing for me, is who's going to
- 4:05Speaker 4: protect JSI Ramirez? And can't Carlos Santana.
- 4:08Speaker 5: Be that guy?
- 4:09Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 4:10Speaker 3: I mean Josh Naylor was a presence.
- 4:11Speaker 1: This was a guy that would head butt his bat
- 4:13Speaker 1: running down the first baseline like he was a presence
- 4:16Speaker 1: in the box no matter what he was doing statistically,
- 4:19Speaker 1: and he was a power threat, and that was a
- 4:21Speaker 1: threat to have behind Jose. We don't know exactly what
- 4:24Speaker 1: Carlos Santana is now. He had a solid year last year.
- 4:27Speaker 1: Before that, it started to look like he was starting
- 4:29Speaker 1: to decline, as it happens whenever you start to get older.
- 4:32Speaker 1: So we don't know what version of Carlos Santana that
- 4:35Speaker 1: the Guardians are going to get this year, but it
- 4:38Speaker 1: doesn't seem like right now it's easy to project that
- 4:40Speaker 1: that will match the same threat that they had in
- 4:43Speaker 1: Josh Naylor. So I don't know if you have the
- 4:45Speaker 1: same protection now. I know they loved the fact that
- 4:48Speaker 1: he was always walking and that he was exceptional with
- 4:52Speaker 1: his plate discipline. But again we've started to see those
- 4:54Speaker 1: numbers start to slip as he gets older. And again,
- 4:57Speaker 1: all of this is supposed to happen as you get
- 4:59Speaker 1: closer to forty. So that's why it's not supposed to
- 5:01Speaker 1: be the guy that you're really revolving your whole lineup
- 5:04Speaker 1: around so I think that's why there's just so many
- 5:06Speaker 1: questions right now.
- 5:08Speaker 5: We showed the projected lineup before, and maybe we can
- 5:10Speaker 5: put that back up again. Is there any way that
- 5:13Speaker 5: we can get Big Christmas into that lineup more often?
- 5:17Speaker 5: Or does Cleveland feel like his thirty three percent strikeout
- 5:21Speaker 5: rate is only going to go up if he's in
- 5:23Speaker 5: the lineup more?
- 5:25Speaker 1: Trust me, I think just for the nickname alone, we
- 5:27Speaker 1: need to get him in there more often. I think
- 5:29Speaker 1: it's fun to say, but I mean, I don't know
- 5:32Speaker 1: it's going to be where he has to show that,
- 5:33Speaker 1: and it's going to start in spring training. Now. They
- 5:36Speaker 1: have a lot more to still see with Will Brennan.
- 5:38Speaker 1: They're starting to get an idea of who he was,
- 5:40Speaker 1: and last year just wasn't the guy. But when we
- 5:42Speaker 1: think back to twenty twenty two when he came up
- 5:44Speaker 1: and he was in the postseason, that's the taste that
- 5:47Speaker 1: everyone's like, oh my gosh, Okay, So there is potential
- 5:49Speaker 1: in there. So everyone's waiting for that to come back.
- 5:51Speaker 1: But the longer you wait, the harder it is, because
- 5:54Speaker 1: then you're not giving opportunities to other people. So they
- 5:56Speaker 1: did this thing where they were really going back and
- 5:58Speaker 1: forth between John Kn's well and Will Brennan last year,
- 6:01Speaker 1: and maybe they do the same thing again this year,
- 6:03Speaker 1: but they need to figure out how to get consistency and.
- 6:07Speaker 3: To always flip flop.
- 6:08Speaker 1: It's just it's hard to get someone like John Canty
- 6:11Speaker 1: the Well going because he is going to have a
- 6:13Speaker 1: high strikeout rate, and so when you're giving him the
- 6:15Speaker 1: smallest ample sizes to try to prove himself, it's not
- 6:18Speaker 1: like he really has that time to get going. So
- 6:20Speaker 1: I think it's going to have to be starting in
- 6:22Speaker 1: spring training where he's showing that he can improve that
- 6:26Speaker 1: played discipline as much as he can not just be
- 6:28Speaker 1: swing happy at the plate and really try to show
- 6:31Speaker 1: that he can get more of an opportunity than what
- 6:34Speaker 1: anyone's projecting him to get going into the season because
- 6:36Speaker 1: that bad. That's a threat that they need, especially after
- 6:39Speaker 1: Josh Naylor leaving.
- 6:40Speaker 4: Now Andy already brought it up. My question is Jose
- 6:45Speaker 4: Ramirez can he repeat the year he had last year?
- 6:47Speaker 4: He almost had forty forty, He was one home run
- 6:49Speaker 4: short and they got rained out, indn't they the last game
- 6:52Speaker 4: he missed his chance to go forty forty, which stunk
- 6:54Speaker 4: for him because I guarantee probably would have hit a
- 6:56Speaker 4: home run just because that's just what Jose Ramirez does.
- 7:00Speaker 4: But can he go forty forty and again, it kind
- 7:02Speaker 4: of goes back to my Carlos Santana question. Will he
- 7:05Speaker 4: have the protection to get the pitching to enable him
- 7:08Speaker 4: to get that many pitches to hit.
- 7:11Speaker 1: That's the tough part is just I don't know if
- 7:13Speaker 1: there's enough protection behind him to make this quote unquote
- 7:15Speaker 1: easy for him to get there. But I think he
- 7:20Speaker 1: It's hard to ever doubt him because you're playing the
- 7:22Speaker 1: game of do you trust father time of Okay, at
- 7:24Speaker 1: some point he's going to start waiting, But it's Jose Ramirez,
- 7:27Speaker 1: and anytime he says he's going to do something, you
- 7:29Speaker 1: just know he's going to figure out how to do
- 7:30Speaker 1: it the same way you just said. I think we
- 7:32Speaker 1: were all expecting Game one sixty two to have a
- 7:34Speaker 1: homer because we just were ready for that forty forty
- 7:37Speaker 1: because he said two weeks before that, whenever he got
- 7:39Speaker 1: that fortieth steal, we were asking him what that was like,
- 7:42Speaker 1: and he was like, yeah, it'll only be good if
- 7:43Speaker 1: I get that fortieth homer. Like it's just like he
- 7:45Speaker 1: knows what he wants and he's going to go get it,
- 7:47Speaker 1: and he put on that full court press to make
- 7:49Speaker 1: sure that it was coming down to the wire.
- 7:51Speaker 3: When no one thought it was even going to come
- 7:53Speaker 3: that close.
- 7:54Speaker 1: So it's hard to ever rule him out, and he'll
- 7:56Speaker 1: figure out a way to will it to happen. It
- 7:58Speaker 1: just seems like that's going to be one of my
- 8:00Speaker 1: predictions for the year. That was one of my predictions
- 8:02Speaker 1: in a story that I wrote earlier this month. I
- 8:04Speaker 1: think it was that Jose was going to go forty
- 8:07Speaker 1: forty because if he says he's going to do something,
- 8:09Speaker 1: he's going to do it. And we all know that
- 8:10Speaker 1: he's going to run out of time at some point
- 8:12Speaker 1: to be able to put up these types of numbers.
- 8:14Speaker 1: So I think he'll figure out a way, but it
- 8:16Speaker 1: is going to be much more difficult if he doesn't
- 8:18Speaker 1: have bats behind him to offer him any protection. So
- 8:21Speaker 1: a lot will be on Carlos Santana in the year
- 8:24Speaker 1: that he's able to have and if John Kenzie Nowell
- 8:26Speaker 1: can pan out to be a higher in the order
- 8:28Speaker 1: bat than what he was last year, there's a lot
- 8:30Speaker 1: of a lot of ifs going into twenty twenty fives.
- 8:34Speaker 5: Many an article you need to write is about how
- 8:36Speaker 5: Jose Ramirez will never age. You need to write it
- 8:39Speaker 5: in spring training when it's warm. He is the Highlander.
- 8:42Speaker 5: Jose Ramirez looks exactly the same, smiles, exactly the same,
- 8:46Speaker 5: plays exactly the same as when he first got called up.
- 8:49Speaker 5: So he will never age. Don't worry about that. He'll
- 8:52Speaker 5: play until he's fifty in Cleveland.
- 8:54Speaker 3: That's true. It's true. It seems like it.
- 8:57Speaker 1: He never ages, and it seems like it's so impress
- 9:00Speaker 1: because every year everyone's kind of waiting for it to happen.
- 9:03Speaker 1: And that's why fans are getting so frustrated at times
- 9:06Speaker 1: where they're not going all in in the off season
- 9:09Speaker 1: to try to make it seem like this is the
- 9:10Speaker 1: win now approach, because everyone's saying, we're wasting Jose's prime.
- 9:14Speaker 1: We're wasting his prime. The longer that he's here, the
- 9:17Speaker 1: less chance there is. But I don't know, just with him,
- 9:20Speaker 1: it just doesn't seem like he'll ever allow father time
- 9:23Speaker 1: to win.
- 9:24Speaker 5: All right. Well, then to a young guy number one
- 9:27Speaker 5: overall pick, Travis Bazanas. He close enough to the big
- 9:30Speaker 5: leagues that we see him in a major role. They
- 9:33Speaker 5: kind of moved Andre Samenez out of his position. For him,
- 9:37Speaker 5: there's kind of an opening there. Is it something that
- 9:40Speaker 5: he gets a chance in spring training? Is it something
- 9:42Speaker 5: later in the season. What's the outlook for Travis Bazana.
- 9:48Speaker 1: I think they'll hide him a little bit in spring training,
- 9:50Speaker 1: especially from vote, to try to not get him a
- 9:52Speaker 1: little bit too excited to get him up there.
- 9:55Speaker 3: They didn't.
- 9:55Speaker 1: They don't have him on the non roster invitee's list
- 9:58Speaker 1: right now. They'll keep him on the minor leagues, i'm sure,
- 10:00Speaker 1: just to try to get him into a routine. But
- 10:03Speaker 1: they like to do this with some of their really
- 10:05Speaker 1: highly regarded prospects. I know they definitely did it with
- 10:08Speaker 1: their pitching prospects when Tito was here, because he was
- 10:10Speaker 1: just like, no, I want him now. I don't care
- 10:12Speaker 1: how far along he is, I want him now. So
- 10:15Speaker 1: I think he's going to be more on the minor
- 10:17Speaker 1: league side a little bit. He'll come up and fill
- 10:19Speaker 1: in some late innings in those early Cactus League games,
- 10:21Speaker 1: I'm sure, and I'm sure fans will be so excited
- 10:25Speaker 1: to see him every single inning that he gets.
- 10:27Speaker 3: But I do think that at some point.
- 10:30Speaker 1: This year he's going to be in the major leagues. Now,
- 10:32Speaker 1: that's a huge jump for an organization that rarely ever
- 10:35Speaker 1: rushes its prospects. But I think it's pretty telling that
- 10:37Speaker 1: they're starting to carve out that path for him by
- 10:41Speaker 1: moving Andre Jimenez. Now, there was a lot of money
- 10:44Speaker 1: guaranteed to him for a guy who wasn't really producing offensively,
- 10:47Speaker 1: so that played a role. But you don't really commit
- 10:50Speaker 1: to that if you don't have that second basement waiting.
- 10:52Speaker 1: So I know they're excited about Wan Brito coming up
- 10:55Speaker 1: and being the second baseman too at some point if
- 10:58Speaker 1: he's not on Opening Day and getting his chance in
- 11:00Speaker 1: the big leagues. But this is a path for Bizanna,
- 11:02Speaker 1: and I really do think that he gets up here
- 11:04Speaker 1: at some point this year.
- 11:06Speaker 3: It's just a matter.
- 11:07Speaker 1: I mean, really, it's going to be up to him
- 11:09Speaker 1: and his production and how quickly he's knocking on the
- 11:12Speaker 1: door and bursting the door down to say you have
- 11:15Speaker 1: no option, like, I'm doing everything I can.
- 11:17Speaker 3: It's my time to be in the majors.
- 11:19Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 11:20Speaker 2: I could see him doing that very quickly with a
- 11:22Speaker 2: fast start, you know, at whatever level he starts at
- 11:24Speaker 2: coming up this season, all right, So we hit the
- 11:27Speaker 2: big four story lines. We purposely didn't include the bullpen
- 11:30Speaker 2: because I don't think anyone's like, oh, what if you
- 11:32Speaker 2: know what will the bullpen look like? It was freaking
- 11:34Speaker 2: awesome last year, and they added Paul Seawald to the mix.
- 11:39Speaker 2: So do you think that this is again going to
- 11:41Speaker 2: be one of, if not the best bullpen in baseball?
- 11:47Speaker 1: I mean, if you're basing it solely on last year,
- 11:49Speaker 1: it's hard to think anything else because all these guys were.
- 11:52Speaker 3: Just so excellent.
- 11:53Speaker 1: But I mean it's hard to do that again. I mean,
- 11:56Speaker 1: class A had a once in a lifetime type of
- 11:59Speaker 1: season where he was just unbelievable, untouchable to the point
- 12:03Speaker 1: where it was ridiculous, and you just sort of thought
- 12:06Speaker 1: it was weird if he ever allowed a runner to
- 12:08Speaker 1: get on base like that.
- 12:09Speaker 3: It's not supposed to be that dominant.
- 12:11Speaker 1: And cade Smith was a rookie and he was unbelievable, truly,
- 12:17Speaker 1: and you can't expect a guy to just be perfect
- 12:19Speaker 1: his whole career. Andrew Walters and Eric Sebrowski came up
- 12:23Speaker 1: in September and they didn't allow a single run, and again,
- 12:27Speaker 1: that just doesn't happen. So you have to think that
- 12:29Speaker 1: there's at least some sort of regression for these young guys,
- 12:33Speaker 1: But I think everyone's general opinions are this bullpens okay,
- 12:37Speaker 1: and I think they're gonna be doing just fine again
- 12:39Speaker 1: because now they all do have experience, So yes, there's
- 12:42Speaker 1: gonna be regression, but they also have all been there before,
- 12:45Speaker 1: and now they can learn they can take that into
- 12:47Speaker 1: the off season and figure out how to have a
- 12:49Speaker 1: major league off season where they prepare for a season
- 12:52Speaker 1: of that workload, things that they hadn't worried about maybe
- 12:55Speaker 1: as much in the past, and so they know what
- 12:57Speaker 1: to expect now. I think that will help a lot.
- 13:00Speaker 1: And I think adding Paul s Weald into the mix
- 13:02Speaker 1: not only will.
- 13:03Speaker 6: Just be like a guy who's been there and has
- 13:07Speaker 6: just like a track record of having success on the mound,
- 13:09Speaker 6: but it's more just like that leader for this young
- 13:12Speaker 6: group because you look at everyone else's names, almost everybody
- 13:15Speaker 6: else is in their first or second year in the
- 13:17Speaker 6: big leagues, maybe third, and so it's just I think
- 13:20Speaker 6: that's going to be a huge, huge asset for this
- 13:22Speaker 6: team to be able to have that type of clubhouse
- 13:25Speaker 6: presence where you have that veteran to lean on and
- 13:28Speaker 6: help you show you the way of.
- 13:29Speaker 3: How this is supposed to go.
- 13:32Speaker 4: Hey, Mandy, you're talking about veteran presence. We're gonna show
- 13:37Speaker 4: you the Guardian's rotation. Isn't it missing somebody? Because there's
- 13:41Speaker 4: a big piece on here, a guy that want to
- 13:42Speaker 4: cy young not that long ago. Here's Tanner Biby. There's
- 13:46Speaker 4: Tanner Biby. There's Ben Lively, There's Gavin Williams, there's Lis Ortiz,
- 13:49Speaker 4: there's Tristan McKenzie. But where's Shane Bieber. Where is Shane Bieber?
- 13:52Speaker 4: Because he's not listed on their Is he healthy? I
- 13:54Speaker 4: thought he was healthy and ready to rock this year.
- 13:57Speaker 3: He's not.
- 13:58Speaker 1: He's probably going to be second half. So that's why
- 14:02Speaker 1: they were needing to get as much help as they
- 14:04Speaker 1: were able to get elsewhere beyond just signing Shane Bieber,
- 14:08Speaker 1: because they just don't have the depth. And so it's
- 14:10Speaker 1: great to bring Breether back. That was a huge pickup
- 14:12Speaker 1: for them, only possible because he did have to get
- 14:16Speaker 1: Tommy John last year and now recovering and diminished his
- 14:20Speaker 1: value enough to allow him to come back to Cleveland.
- 14:22Speaker 1: But they have to bridge the gap to get to him.
- 14:25Speaker 1: Until he's healthy, and I think that the most optimistic
- 14:29Speaker 1: type of outlook would be maybe June, but like it's
- 14:32Speaker 1: certain to look where it's going to be that second
- 14:34Speaker 1: half of the season. We'll he'll play a big role.
- 14:36Speaker 1: You just have to bridge that gap to get there.
- 14:40Speaker 2: Oh, Mandy, this was awesome. Thank you for the download.
- 14:42Speaker 2: On the Cleveland Guardians, I felt like we didn't cover
- 14:45Speaker 2: them enough this off season. Obviously they were a little
- 14:48Speaker 2: quiet but making a late push here.
- 14:50Speaker 4: I had the Yankees on the brink Man, they had
- 14:51Speaker 4: the Yankees they did.
- 14:52Speaker 2: That's why it was a freaking cool year for Cleveland fans.
- 14:56Speaker 2: So we'll see if they can replicate it. Everyone give
- 14:59Speaker 2: Mandy a file on Twitter. She's at Mandy Bello two.
- 15:03Speaker 2: I'm actually wearing the Baseball's Best shirt today. Mandy's best
- 15:07Speaker 2: friend is Sarah Lang, so you can get more information
- 15:09Speaker 2: on her Twitter. You can always contribute to causes that
- 15:11Speaker 2: are special near and dear to Mandya, to Sarah and to.
- 15:14Speaker 1: All of us.
- 15:15Speaker 2: So Mandy, great to see you, and we'll catch you
- 15:17Speaker 2: in spring training in Arizona.
- 15:19Speaker 3: All right, Thanks guys,