The Cleveland Guardians offseason has been defined by relief pitchers. Like, a lot of relief pitchers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And while those bullpen reinforcements were well-needed given the fact that Emmanuel Clase has likely thrown his last pitch ever for the Guardians, there is still clearly a huge hole in the Guardians\u2019 lineup that needs to be addressed between now and Opening Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
St. Louis\u2019 Brendan Donovan has stood out as one of the top options to fill that hole for most of the offseason, and\u00a0 it looks like the clock could be ticking on their chances to get him in a trade.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom spoke to reporters at the team\u2019s fan fest and said that he would \u201cideally\u201d like to have Donovan\u2019s situation<\/a> wrapped up by the start of spring training.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although there\u2019s been a lot of public posturing about Donovan\u2019s trade market, Bloom going on record about Donovan\u2019s timeline adds some added pressure to potential suitors <\/a>like the Guardians.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Guardians are going to need to move quick if they want to trade for Brendan Donovan\u00a0<\/p>\n While Bloom didn\u2019t outright say \u201chey we\u2019re looking to trade Brendan Donovan,\u201d his comments have added a much-needed deadline to his trade talks. And the Guardians should be in the thick of those trade talks given how easily he could fix a big hole in the team\u2019s lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s a utility savant who has a Gold Glove and an All-Star nod under his belt<\/a> and has mashed double-digit home runs in three straight seasons. He\u2019s best suited as a right fielder (which was a black hole for the Guardians last season) and a second baseman (which wasn\u2019t much better).\u00a0<\/p>\n Donovan hit a career-best .287 last season with 32 doubles, 42 walks and just 67 strikeouts while appearing at three different positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n That versatility would also give him a chance to stick on the Guardians\u2019 roster after Travis Bazzana or Khalil Watson is recalled since he\u2019d be able to move around the diamond as opposed to being stuck behind either rookie.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the reasons the Guardians\u2019 front office hasn\u2019t added any position players this offseason is because Chris Antonetti wants to give the team\u2019s young players<\/a> as much of a chance to get everyday playing time, but Donovan wouldn\u2019t stand in their way the same way a less-flexible addition would.\u00a0<\/p>\n Donovan\u2019s trade talks have been a roller coaster (the latest buzz prior to Bloom\u2019s update was that the Royals weren\u2019t going to trade for him<\/a>), but it seems like he\u2019s available for the right price. The Guardians hoard prospects like no one\u2019s business<\/a>, but it likely wouldn\u2019t take a ton to wiggle him away from the rebuilding Cardinals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Donovan wouldn\u2019t solve all the Guardians\u2019 problems, but he\u2019d be a welcome addition to a lineup looking for a shot in the arm. The clock\u2019s ticking. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Guardians offseason has been defined by relief pitchers. Like, a lot of relief pitchers.\u00a0 And while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-418887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}