Where They Stand Now: AL Central

Continuing our division-by-division look at how the MLB offseason has gone so far.

On to Day 2 of our “Where They Stand Now” series, where we go division by division and look at where the clubs stand now. This is obviously a moving target; in the few hours since writing the American League East on Tuesday, the Yankees traded for Cody Bellinger. I mean, I guess it’s probably more accurate to say the Yankees BOUGHT Cody Bellinger, since they traded Cody Poteet, who is definitely a fictional character in a William Faulkner novel and not a 30-year-old pitcher who has made 13 career big-league starts.

Bellinger definitely does feel to me like a PSSH—Pinstripe Superhero—who will suddenly shapeshift back into his MVP form once he puts on the Yankees uniform, but we’ll see.

Before we get to the American League Central, we have a little old business:

— The Holiday PosCast is now up for your listening, um, pleasure? The “Who won?” poll will be following shortly.

— We’re finalizing the last details for our get-together in London, but here’s the latest: We’ll be gathering at Moonshot Social—where, according to their delightful website, you can “Experience the best of American Baseball Culture in the Heart of London”—on Jan. 4. Mike Schur and Brandon McCarthy will be joining, and we might do a live PosCast, we might not, that’s one of the things we’re still figuring out. Also, the exact time… I think it will be in the late afternoon/early evening, but that’s still up in the air.

The idea will be to talk about what it’s like being a baseball fan in Europe—definitely hoping to add a few more special guests—but we’re also hoping that we can get cricket fans to come along to join the fun and talk about the difference between being a fan of each sport.

If you’ve emailed your interest in being there, thank you, no need to do anything else, we’ll send you an email invitation as soon as all the details are locked up. If you would like to join, you can still GMail us at PosCastRaffle.

— With the holidays achingly close, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention: A JoeBlogs subscription makes for a great holiday gift!

— With the holidays achingly close, I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention: WHY WE LOVE FOOTBALL and WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL can be ordered over the next couple days and still arrive in time for Christmas!

— And if you’d like to sign up for JoeBlogs to read the rest of this series, plus all the other fun stuff we do here… you can do that below:

Let’s talk a little baseball…

Cleveland Guardians (92-69, lost to Yankees in ALCS)

• Hello: Luis L. Ortiz

• Goodbye: Matthew Boyd, Andrés Giménez, Nick Sandlin, Eli Morgan

The most depressing move of the offseason so far, in my view, was Cleveland dumping Andrés Giménez’s salary. Ugh. It hurts my eyes to even look at the sentence.

Just about all salary dumps are kind of depressing, but this one really stings. You look at the puzzle pieces of the 2024 Guardians team and there seems absolutely no way to put together a 90-win season and an ALCS appearance. I mean, this team couldn’t hit, especially after Aug. 15, they lost their best starter, and four of their other starters—Carlos Carrasco, Logan Allen, Gavin Williams and Triston McKenzie started 73 games combined—were ALL sub-replacement level. You can’t build a division winner like that.

And yet, they did. How? They did it with hidden value, and perhaps nobody in baseball provides more hidden value that Giménez. He was a four-win player despite his 82 OPS+… that’s because of his sensational defense, aggressive baserunning and knack for doing a bunch of little things like getting hit by a few more pitches than most. José Ramirez is famously the team’s leader, but, in many ways, Giménez was the heart. The Guardians dropped him with the same enthusiasm that Browns receivers drop passes… and this was already a team with the third-lowest payroll in baseball. Like I say: depressing.

Cleveland’s loss is Toronto’s gain. (Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Detroit Tigers (86-76, lost to Guardians in ALDS)

• Hello: Alex Cobb, maybe?

• Goodbye: Nobody

I’m not exactly sure what the Tigers’ goal is this offseason, but I feel confident in saying that what they’re doing so far—or not doing—does not inspire a whole lot of confidence.

I mean, lookit*—the Tigers’ fantastic and entirely unexpected finish in 2024 lit up the city. Baseball is hot in Detroit again. And following that up feels crucial. Let’s not kid anybody. The Tigers can’t hit. Their pitching falls off a cliff after Tarik Skubal (though that’s admittedly a high cliff). There are so many opportunities out there to make this team slightly better, significantly better, dramatically better. And that matters so much because I don’t think running this team back will accomplish much.

*I think the word “lookit”—defined by Wiktionary as “behold!”—is delightful and wildly underused.

I hope the Tigers make some moves, take some chances, and aggressively try to take advantage of the good vibes that reverberated out of nowhere in 2024. Staying the course just will not cut it. There’s a real opportunity here.

Kansas City Royals (86-76, lost to Yankees in ALDS)

• Hello: Jonathan India

• Goodbye: Brady Singer

Detroit’s early inactivity is a reminder: The aggressiveness the Royals have displayed under general manager J.J. Piccolo the last couple of years is not only admirable… it’s bloody rare.

When you look around the game and see how many small- to mid-level teams are too timid, too cheap or too conservative to at least TRY to get better, you realize that the Royals are really rowing against the tide here.

The problem with being so aggressive is that some stuff just won’t work. You have to know that every signing will not turn out like Seth Lugo and every Aroldis Chapman trade will not bring back Cole Ragans. There will be real setbacks. Mistakes will be made. Brent Rookers will be waived. Hunter Renfroes and Adam Fraziers will struggle. Will Smiths will not get jiggy with it.

But the thing is to beat on, boats against the current, and already the Royals have traded a fine pitcher in Brady Singer for former Rookie of the Year Jonathan India, and you suspect they’ll keep boldly going after offense this offseason, and they might keep winning, they might fall back, but there will be no regrets.

Minnesota Twins (82-80)

• Hello: Nobody

• Goodbye: Kyle Farmer

The Twins have given every early indication that they’ll be invisible this offseason. I’m never a fan of teams standing still, but at least the Twins can make an argument for it. That argument goes like so: They have the best offense in the division, and if they could just get healthy seasons from Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis and Byron Buxton, the offense could be better in 2025.

And they have three solid starters in Pablo López, Bailey Ober and Joe Ryan.

So, the argument for standing pat or making very subtle moves is that if this team can just get more out of the bullpen—the first Air Force Academy graduate in baseball history, Griffin Jax, could play a huge role in that—they’re probably the division favorite coming in.

On the other hand—the Twins do feel pretty flat and lifeless right now. They could really use an infusion of energy and enthusiasm.

Chicago White Sox (41-121)

• Hello: Will Venable and Mike Tauchman

• Goodbye: Garrett Crochet

Seeing that 41-121 in black and white is a reminder that this White Sox season really happened. They really were the worst team in baseball history, and don’t go back and talk about the Cleveland Spiders or whatever. For an established team—with a mid-tier $142 million payroll—to lose 121 games in the 21st century is unprecedented and astonishing and awe-inspiring in its own way.

What should a team do when it’s this far down? I don’t think there’s much to do except, as Coach Dale says, break them down and build them back up. The process already started with the Garrett Crochet trade. I imagine that if they can find any buyers, they’ll deal away Luis Robert, too. Believe it or not, that would leave them without a single every-day player who had even 1 WAR in 2024.

The good news—or at least the best news—is that when things are this bad, you can’t break anything. So, the White Sox should absolutely try a whole bunch of crazy, wild, spaghetti-against-the-wall ideas. They should sign as many players looking for a fresh start as they can. They should go into the laboratory and try all the wacky strategies they’ve always wanted to test out. They should hire a tire salesman to be manager and sign Wesley Snipes to be the leadoff hitter. I mean, try to create a Disney movie. Why not? The next three years are lost, anyway. Viva 2028!

Random Thought of the Day

I think that in the past I’ve done a countdown of Coen Brothers movies—if not, that’s something I should probably do—but it occurred to me a couple days ago that whatever my FAVORITE Coen Brothers movie might be (stay tuned!) the one I watch the most is definitely “The Hudsucker Proxy.”

It seems like right around this time every year, I will say to the family: “You know what? Let’s watch ‘Hudsucker,’” and everybody goes “Yeah!”—which means something, because we never agree on which movie to watch.

Anyway, we watched it again the other day… and it’s just such a great movie. It’s very funny and utterly delightful, you know, for kids, but what really struck me this time is what a beautiful movie it is, the cinematography, the music, the way the narration builds*—it really is a work of art.

*I don’t think anybody does narration the quite like the Coen Brothers. Obviously, everybody knows about the way Sam Elliott narrates “The Big Lebowski,” but Bill Cobbs’ narration as Moses in “Hudsucker” is an all-timer.