5 Guardians Playing Their Last Game in Cleveland This Week

The final week of the MLB regular season is here, so this is the end of the road for the Cleveland Guardians. The Guardians have already clinched a losing record and been eliminated from postseason contention, so there will be no October baseball in Cleveland this year.

Unfortunately, that means this is the last time several players will ever wear a Guardians uniform. Some will leave as free agents or be traded this offseason, while others may join Terry Francona in retirement.

With that in mind, here are five Cleveland players who will be moving on this winter.

5 Guardians Playing Last Game in Cleveland

1. Lucas Giolito

Giolito has only been here a month, but we've already seen enough to know that we don't want him back next year.

To be fair, this season has been very strange for Giolito. He opened the year with the Chicago White Sox and pitched pretty well, going 6-6 with a 3.79 ERA in 21 starts. But the White Sox imploded, so they traded him to the Los Angeles Angels.

And that's when things went off the rails for the former All-Star. He went 1-5 with a 6.89 ERA in six starts for the Angels, who cratered shortly after the trade deadline. That led them to put a bunch of their players on waivers, which is how we got him in late August.

It was a low-risk, high-reward move, but unfortunately it hasn't panned out. Giolito's struggles have continued in his return to the AL Central, as he's 1-3 with a 5.64 ERA in four starts for Cleveland.

So yeah, not a good first impression on his part. And with Giolito set to be a free agent this winter, it's hard to imagine him sticking around. He's going to want a bigger contract than we can afford, and we need to focus on adding offense rather than bringing back another starter. A mutual parting of the ways seems inevitable.

We wish Giolito well and hope he figures things out with his new team (as long they don't play in our division, of course).