For The Cleveland Guardians’ Two Corey Kluber Trades, Timing Was Everything

Major League Baseball’s August 2 trade deadline is less than a week away. It’s one of those times of the year when general managers earn their money by knowing when to hold them and when to fold them. Which players should they pursue in a trade? Or which players should they attempt to shop in a trade?

One of the better groups in making those kinds of decisions is the Cleveland Guardians’ front office. A reminder of how good will come Saturday night at Tropicana Field, when the Guardians will face the Tampa Bay Rays, whose scheduled starting pitcher is Corey Kluber.

When it comes to career crystal ball reading, it would be hard to top the double-bull’s-eyes executed by Cleveland’s front office, which traded for Kluber at exactly the right time in his career, and then, nine years later, traded him, again, at exactly the right time.

In between, no American League pitcher won more Cy Young Awards than Kluber, who established himself as one of the greatest pitchers in the pitching-rich history of the Cleveland franchise.

On July 31, 2010, in a three-team deal between Cleveland, St. Louis, and San Diego, the Guardians traded pitcher Jake Westbrook to the Cardinals. The Cardinals traded outfielder Ryan Ludwick to the Padres, and the Padres traded to Cleveland a little-known minor league pitcher, who at the time had a record of 9-13 and a 4.56 ERA in a combined 28 starts at Class-A and Double-A.

The pitcher’s name was Corey Kluber.

Cleveland fans yawned.

Four years later, Cleveland fans cheered. In 2014 Kluber led the American League in wins with a record of 18-9. He led all players with a bWAR of 8.1. His 2.44 ERA sparkled, as did his average of 10.3 strikeouts, and 1.9 walks per nine innings, as he won the first of his two Cy Young awards.

How great was Kluber in Cleveland? In 2015 he led the league in losses and STILL finished ninth in the Cy Young voting.

In 2016, he went 18-9, with a 3.14 ERA, led the league in ERA+ (144) and FIP (3.26), and finished third in the Cy Young voting.

The following year, 2017, Kluber peaked. He won his second Cy Young Award in four years by leading the league in virtually everything, including wins (18-4), ERA (2.25), WHIP (0.869), and ERA+(202). He also allowed the fewest walks per nine innings and had the most strikeouts per walk.

In that 2017 season, the Guardians set an American League record by winning 22 consecutive games. During that streak Kluber started four games and went 4-0 with a 1.41 ERA. In 32 innings he struck out 35 and walked two. Opposing batters hit .170 against him, with a .148 on-base percentage.

The thrills continued in 2018. Kluber was 20-7 with a 2.89 ERA. He led the league in complete games, shutouts and innings pitched, and again finished third in the Cy Young voting. It was the fourth time in the previous five years that he finished in the top three of the Cy Young voting, and the only year he didn’t, he finished ninth.

His career seemed to be on a Hall of Fame trajectory. But in May of 2019 he got hit by a line drive, fracturing his right forearm. He only appeared in seven games that year. He was 33 years old. Ten days before Christmas, Cleveland traded one of the greatest pitchers in franchise history to the Texas Rangers.

In his nine years in Cleveland Kluber had a record of 98-58, and a winning percentage of .628 which is the second highest in Guardians’ history, trailing only Cliff Lee (.634).

Kluber left his name all over Cleveland’s record book. His career average of 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings is a franchise record. His career WHIP of 1.086 is second in Cleveland history to Hall of Famer Addie Joss (.968). Kluber’s 1,461 career strikeouts ranks third in franchise history behind only Bob Feller (2,581) and Sam McDowell (2,159).

The trade of Kluber in December of 2019 did not come as a surprise. He was 33, coming off an arm injury, and his $17 million salary had become too rich for the financially-conservative Guardians. Instead of losing Kluber to free agency, they traded him to Texas for outfielder Delino DeShields, and a 21-year-old reliever with only 21 career appearances in the big leagues.

His name was Emanuel Clase. In a year-and-a-half as Cleveland’s closer Clase has 45 saves, a 1.30 ERA, and he’s held opposing hitters to a .181 batting average. Pitching the ninth inning for the winning American League team in this year’s all-star game, Clase got the save by striking out the side, in order, on 10 pitches. That will not be Clase’s last all-star game.

Kluber only pitched one inning for Texas in 2020. He missed the rest of the season with a shoulder injury. He signed with the Yankees as a free agent in 2021, and signed with Tampa Bay as a free agent this year. In a combined 35 starts the last two years he is 11-9 with a 3.87 ERA.

The premature arrival of the twilight of his career has been due to bad luck more than bad pitching. He’ll be in the Guardians’ Hall of Fame one day. If there was a franchise Hall of Fame for front office decisions, the one that brought Kluber to Cleveland, right on time, would be in it.