It makes sense for The Cleveland Guardians to trade Shane Bieber

The Cleveland Guardians skid is just one reason why the team should trade Shane Bieber.

The Cleveland Guardians are not doing well this year, and part of that is years of drafting contact hitters and pitchers over big, slugging types. Granted, it’s harder to hit home runs on guys who hit home runs, but the lack of power has disabled the Guards’ ability to stay competitive in games as late.

All is not lost, the team still has a shot to take control of the AL Central, but even if they can, they shouldn’t dismiss the idea of trading Shane Bieber while they can. Now, some fans are going to get mad at the thought of trading Bieber. That’s fine, they’re just looking for reasons to be mad.

They’re not looking at Bieber as the player he is, only the player he was. Bieber is no longer the AL Cy Young winner, and the longer the team holds out that he’ll regain his form, the less value he gets on the trade market.

The Cleveland Guardians are watching Shane Bieber decline in real-time

None of what’s about to be written are opinions. His speed on his pitches has fallen off to the low 90s. His ERA has gone up each year since 2020. His strikeouts have gone down, drastically since 2020. There’s a good chance he was impacted by the MLB banning specific sticky substances that were once legal. That’s just speculation, however.

The Guardians have two pitchers, who are rookies, who are every bit as good as Bieber right now. They’re about to get Triston McKenzie back. They’re not far off from the return of Aaron Civale. You always want more starting pitching, but you only need so much of it. The Guards could probably get four or five Top 30 prospects right now if they trade Bieber.

He’s still a very good pitcher, but he’s not striking out guys anymore at the same rate, and he’s giving up more home runs than ever before. He’s tied with the most home runs given up in a season so far with an HR9 of 1.0, tied for a career worse. That number is only going to go up as his arm fatigues more and more.

With his downfall very much happening in real-time, the team needs to optimize the window of deception that still revolves around him and cash him out for all he’s worth.