News and Notes: Rangers Win World Series. Guardians Sign Alfonso Rivas

Hey, everyone, the Rangers won their first World Series, for which fans have been waiting 63 years. This produces feelings of sadness among Guardians fans who have been waiting 75 years, but I, for one, still enjoy watching videos of fans being happy:

Meanwhile, the Guardians claimed a person named Alfonso Rivas from the Pirates. Rivas is not a good hitter with a career wRC+ of 90 in 459 major league plate appearances.

Well, surely he’s young enough to expect some improvement?

He’s 27.

Well, he’s probably a right-handed hitter who hits lefties well?

No, he’s a lefty with a career wRC+ against left-handed pitching of 1. You read that right: ONE.

Well, he plays centerfield, right? 90 wRC+ from a player who can play good defense in center would make perfect sense for u...

Rivas is a first baseman. He has played 370+ innings in the minors in the corner outfield though and a handful in the Majors. His numbers look like a worse defending Will Brennan out there.

The best news is that this is just the offseason. Maybe the Guardians, famous hitter-fixing team, have identified something about Rivas’s swing and approach they think can unlock the player who had a 156 wRC+ at Triple-A last year with a .582 slugging percentage. Or, maybe this is an ominous sign of an offseason of making underwhelming waiver wire claims to try to fix the roster. We shall see.

No new Guardians’ managerial rumors today, but the Athletic’s Will Sammon reported that the Guardians “made an aggressive pitch” to Craig Counsell. We will see if there is any announcement today or on Monday! I’m impatient to know who it is, I don’t know about you.

I wish Chris Antonetti would be this bluntly accountable, just once.

I find it insane that Mandy Bell, Guardians’ beat reporter for MLB.com, says simply that the Guardians will not add in free agency because Mike Zunino and Josh Bell disappointed. I hope she’s just speaking off the cuff and not relaying a team narrative, because, geez.

Joe Jimenez re-upped with Atlanta, taking one of my favorite potential relief targets off the market. Jimenez has similar numbers to Reynaldo Lopez, but Jimenez was slightly better than Lopez in 2023 and is a year younger. Jimenez got 3/$26 million so we probably have a general ballpark of what it would take to retain ReyLo’s services. Reasonable, in my opinion, but I doubt the Guardians will feel that way. Sigh...

Only Christian Cairo of the Guardians is playing in the Peoria Javelinas game on as I write this article, and he has two walks. On Wednesday, DeLauter hit a double, Manzardo had a walk, Ryan Webb went 4 and ¹⁄₃ innings allowing 1 hit, 3 walks, 2 runs and racking up 6 strikeouts, Eric Sabrowski had a scoreless inning with a walk and two strikeouts, and Bradley Hanner had a hit and a walk and two strikeouts in a scoreless inning.

If anyone knows how to access box scores from LIDOM, I will be glad to include Guardians’ highlights from there.

ICYMI, here are some important dates upcoming in the MLB Offseason: