5 Biggest Guardians Offseason Priorities That Must Be Addressed

5. Bench or Trade Myles Straw

Straw may be under contract for three more seasons (at least), but 2023 should be the final straw for the light-hitting outfielder.

In fact, Straw has been one of the worst everyday hitters in baseball over the last two years. In 2022 and 2023 combined, he batted just .229/.296/.284 with 1 home run and 61 RBIs in 299 games.

While his speed and Gold Glove-winning defense still make him a useful player, we just can't afford to keep penciling him into our lineup everyday. The lack of power would be more palatable if he had a good batting average and was getting on base, but he falls short in those areas as well.

You need offense from your outfielders, and at the end of the day Straw doesn't provide enough of it. He's a fourth outfielder miscast as a starter in Cleveland, and that needs to change.

Straw would be a nice bench piece for us if he's willing to accept a demotion, but if not then he needs to be traded ASAP. Speed and defense inevitably decline as a player gets older, and Straw is going to be 29 next season.

His contract is still a pretty good deal in a vacuum, but he's only going to get more expensive. His salary is nearly doubling from $2.9 million this year to $4.9 million next year and keeps going up from there, which will make him less attractive to other teams as well.

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