News and Notes: Guardians Win a Game, Make a Trade

News and Notes for Tuesday, July 29th, 2024

The Guardians beat the Tigers 8-4 as Detroit prepared for a sell-off, and Cleveland acquired Lane Thomas as they prepped for a playoff run.

Jose Ramirez had a double and two home runs (the second one tying him with Albert Belle for second-most homers in franchise history), Josh Naylor had two hits and Bo Naylor had a three-run homer to lead the Guardians’ offense. Tanner Bibee threw six shutout innings before running into some trouble in the seventh, which Pedro Avila adeptly cleaned up. Bibee didn’t walk any batters while only striking out two, so good and bad there, but he handled the Detroit lineup that had given him some issues, so no complaints here. Now, let’s watch some homers:

Meanwhile, the Guardians made a move (perhaps the first of more?) before the trade deadline, acquiring 28 year-old, right-handed hitting outfielder Lane Thomas from the Nationals. The Guardians will have him under team control through his final year of arbitration next season as well. You can read more on Thomas here.

The Athletic's Zack Meisel had a great article as always, emphasizing the impact this trade has on the team's morale. Interestingly, he mentions that Cleveland shopped Clemmey in multiple potential deals.

We will see if the Guardians make any further move before the deadline at 6PM EST today, but it’s great to see them at least send a message to the team that they believe in their abilities and want to give them the best chance to make a playoff run they can, even if it requires sacrificing some significant future assets in players like Alex Clemmey, Rafael Ramirez Jr and Jose Tena, traded for Thomas. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal provided an extensive list of starting pitchers being shopped.

Around MLB:

The Twins lost.

The Royals won.

The Brewers traded for Frankie Montas from the Reds, the Astros gave up an absolute haul for Yusei Kikuchi from the Blue Jays, the Mariners got Justin Turner from the Jays, the Dodgers got Amed Rosario (again!) from the Rays, the Braves got Jorge Soler (again!) from the Giants, and the White Sox, Dodgers and Cardinals executed a fascinating three team deal:

A fair few trade pieces should still be moved so here’s to an exciting Tuesday, hopefully including a fun afternoon Guardians’ win to secure the season series against the pesky Tigers!