Trading Franmil Reyes isn’t a sign the Cleveland Guardians is giving up on the season

Franmil Reyes is rumored to be on the block by the Cleveland Guardians.

The Cleveland Guardians are rumored to be looking to trade Franmil Reyes. The team is currently 40-41 and is 4-17 in their last 21. The team is skidding offensively and there’s really no reason as to why. One of the things that is pretty evident though is that Reyes came back right when the skid happened and while he was responsible for a few good at-bats that got a team a win or two, He’s largely maintained a lot of the issues now that he’s had all year.

In my opinion, a trade of Reyes isn’t a sign the Cleveland Guardians are giving up on the season, just that they’re giving up on Reyes.

While it’s true his average is up about 20 points from before his injury, he’s still just hitting .212. Not only that, but he’s accrued 32% of his strikeouts this season in just 16 games. He has 27 strikeouts since he’s come back.

To further highlight just how awful, and I mean dog-house awful he’s been, he has a .192 batting average with runners in scoring position. To further highlight that, he is dead last in WAR on the team and that includes the likes of Bobby Bradley. That’s right, Bradley, who had just two hits this year has a higher WAR than Reyes.

Trading Franmil Reyes may actually save the Cleveland Guardians’ season

Reyes has been a bad hitter since he came into the majors. Yes, he got away with it for a long time until people realized he was overly aggressive at the plate and swung at all sorts of just meatballs sent his way.

His rally-killing strikeouts are notorious and while he’s hitting the ball better, anything above where he was is still better, even if he’s still hitting like dirt. And he is.

If he didn’t have the power he had, he wouldn’t have lasted this entire time, and the only hope, the only hope the Guardians have is that someone isn’t looking at Reyes and seeing the giant hole in his swing, or his inability to shore it up.

The strikeout issue is only getting worse for Reyes, and I’d be surprised if the Guardians find a taker for him. Regardless, this team needs to be done with him. If you don’t think a big reason why they’re 4-17 over the last 21 is that he returned to the lineup, then you haven’t been paying attention.