The Cleveland Guardians should not go “all-in” to get Shohei Ohtani

The Cleveland Guardians should not go all-in to get Shohei Ohtani.

The Cleveland Guardians are coming into the 2023 MLB season as a dark horse to compete for the AL Central title and possibly a birth in the World Series. They made some big signings with Josh Bell and Mike Zunino, and their minor leagues are as fruitful as ever.

They have stellar pitching, great hitting, and arguably the best defensive squad in the league from positions one through nine on the scorecard. They’re pretty stacked. What they lack is name value, but that’s the thing about sports; name value doesn’t equal talent.

They’re primed and ready to go, yet the topic of the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show centered around trading every minor leaguer worth having to go get Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Ohtani is the only two-way player in the Majors right now, doing incredible work as a pitcher and a hitter for the Angels, and his performance in the World Baseball Classic has set the sports world on fire.

But is he good enough on his own to win a World Series? Well, the likes of Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show seem to think so. The hosts of the show fawned over Ohtani and suggested gutting the team’s minor league system to land the two-way star for just one season.

Which would be a totally foolish endeavor.

The Cleveland Guardians would be foolish to follow this advice

The world of baseball is not determined by one player. Basketball is, but not baseball. You need good teams. Good talent at every position, that’s how you win championships. With the advent of free agency, you also have to be able to replace certain guys as they leave. Not to mention worse yet, replacing guys as they age out and retire.

If you’re a major market like San Francisco or New York, you don’t need to worry about that. You can just take a run at a major free agent or three. The Guardians don’t have that luxury. They have to keep a fully stocked minor league system at all times so they can continue competing year after year.

And therein lies the problem. Talking heads like you find on Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show don’t think about every aspect of owning a pro sports team. While a World Series is nice for fans, being profitable is the biggest thing for every sports team owner.

If a team isn’t making money, they won’t be in the city long-term. The best way to raise your chances of making money is to always have a competitive team you can field. If you’re always in the playoff race, or almost always in the playoff race, you stand to make more money than if you sell out for one year and go for broke.

More importantly, there isn’t a guarantee you win the World Series even if you make this trade. The team could fail to deliver, and Ohtani could stink it up in the playoffs. It happens all the time. More than likely you make the trade, get eliminated in the playoffs (if you make it at all), then you can’t re-sign him (he’ll demand $500 million easily), and have to live with the fact that you lost four, five, six or even 10 of your best prospects, and for what?

Nothing.

So not only are you unlikely to win a World Series by trading away your best and brightest, but you’re also now screwed long-term. With no top prospects to help ease the loss of guys in free agency, your team will decline, your record will tank and you’ll start a rebuild that could last five years.

That means you’ll have to trade away Shane Bieber and Jose Ramirez while they’re still in their prime, as they won’t be as useful when you’re ready to compete again.

Teams are capable of winning World Series without having to sell their future, and that’s the way the Guardians need to go. Try to win today, while preparing for tomorrow. That’s how you have a healthy and successful franchise; not by selling off your future for a slightly better chance of winning today.