With a new uniform and a new team name, the Cleveland Guardians will be hitting the reset button on their franchise’s history and will have a fresh start in 2022. In a largely wide-open AL Central division, the Guardians, like the White Sox, Tigers, and Twins are a few moves away from being legitimate threats to win the division in the upcoming campaign.
The club will have their uber-popular manager Terry Francona returning to the helm after stepping away from the team and missing the second half of 2021 due to a multitude of health issues. Francona will enter 2022 as the longest-tenured MLB manager as he joined Cleveland back at the beginning of 2013.
It was announced on December 20 that David Blitzer, best known as a partial owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils of the NBA and NHL respectively, had acquired a large minority stake in the Guardians. As MLB Trade Rumors pointed out in their recap of Blitzer’s addition to the Guardians, he had also made an attempt at purchasing the Mets from the Wilpon family before Steve Cohen took over. It will be interesting to see if Blitzer’s addition in Cleveland will change the club’s spending habits.
David Blitzer, part owner of the 76ers and Devils, is a acquiring a large minority stake in the @CleGuardians 1st: @Sportico
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 20, 2021
Sandy Leon‘s minor-league contract was the biggest move made by the club before the Major League Baseball lockout froze all big league transactions. The Guardians have a multitude of areas in need of an upgrade if they are truly looking to contend in the near future.