New Cleveland Guardians trade chatter conjures name of A’s Matt Olson

If the lockout ever ends, the Cleveland Guardians will have to get to work, and in a hurry, to improve the roster for the 2022 campaign.

Since no transactions can actually be made during the work stoppage, writers are left to speculate what Cleveland may do when business can go on as usual.

A case was recently made for the G-Men to acquire Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar, while Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes answers a fan questions concerning the Guards’ potential interest in A’s first baseman Matt Olson.

Like us, Hoynes would only be guessing at the Guards’ interest, but the future Hall-of-Fame scribe wrote Cleveland’s interest, “…Makes sense, but that doesn’t make it true.”

Olson carried a 5.8 WAR last season, while also earning his first All-Star nod. He hit .271 (.911 OPS) with 39 bombs and 111 RBIs.

Obviously, those numbers are highly desirable for the Guards’ 2022 lineup, however, knowing this organization, I doubt they’d pull the trigger.

Josh Naylor’s long-term fit is probably at first, but there’s no telling what type of shape he’s in coming off that gruesome ankle injury suffered last summer. If I had to guess, the Guardians would probably like to see more of Bobby Bradley, even though we  know that he’s going to strike out a ton (35.5 percent of his 2021 PA’s resulted in strikeouts).

However, going for Olson signals the Guards would be serious about contending around a pitching staff that should be good enough to keep the franchise in the divisional race throughout the season.

What would a Cleveland Guardians trade for Olson look like?

Hoynes suggested that if the Guardians got serious about making this deal, Bradley could very well be included since Oakland would need someone to play first.

Obviously, that’s not going to be enough, so Oakland would also pull something from Cleveland’s deep pitching well, or maybe their deep middle-infield well.

As has been the case in the past, there’s a lot of moving parts going with the Guardians, as the organization is waiting to see which guys fit into needed roles.

Adding Olson would take the guessing out of first base, though, which would be a nice feeling for fans wearing of ownership’s fiscally conservative ways.

Olson is arbitration eligible and will earn $12 million this season. That should be affordable for a franchise that, as of right now, is projected to have a payroll around $50 million. He’s also under arbitration next year. He hits free agency after the 2023 season.