The Cleveland Guardians have agreed to contracts with six of seven arbitration eligible players on Tuesday. Franmil Reyes, Amed Rosario, Austin Hedges, Cal Quantrill, Bradley Zimmer, and Josh Naylor were the players agreeing to deals. Shane Bieber was the only arbitration eligible player to not agree to a deal.
(After the original publication of this post, Bieber and the Guardians managed to avoid arbitration).
Reyes, Rosario, and Quantrill were among the more important players for the Guardians last season. Naylor performed around his career-average rate in his injury shortened season, but his production was not of the exciting variety. Zimmer and Hedges were both rather forgettable at the plate. Bieber appeared in just 16 games due to injury with a bit of stat correction when compared to his 2020 campaign.
Having made deals with six of their seven arbitration eligible players should give the organization some clarity in regards to how to handle any possible additions. Considering that the team has not done much in that department, additions of any kind would (mostly) be welcome. As time goes on it does appear that the team is not going to make any substantial changes.
