3 Cleveland Guardians who won’t return and where they’ll go

3) Cleveland Guardians SP Zach Plesac – Chicago Cubs

Of the three players on our list, this is, undoubtedly, the most surprising but Zach Plesac’s time in Cleveland might be coming to an end.

Plesac, 27, is one of Cleveland’s elder statesmen now as he will be arbitration-eligible for the first time this offseason. But this year, he was a big disappointment in multiple ways.

He went 3-12 with a 4.31 ERA in 25 games (24 starts) for the Guardians this year. His WHIP (1.322) and hit rate (9.3 H/9) were career-highs too.

However, he, once again, was a disappointment by his actions of the field. He missed the entire month of September after he broke his hand after punching the mound after allowing a home run in late August.

Last season, he went on the IL after breaking his thumb. He broke his thumb because he was ripping his shirt after a bad outing and slammed it into a chair.

In 2020, he broke MLB’s COVID protocols and was suspended by the team for over a month. They did not have him on their playoff roster in 2020, partially because of that, either.

With Cleveland’s pitching depth currently and upcoming (three of their top 20 prospects are pitchers that have already made their MLB debut or are in Triple-A), Plesac is expendable.

A team like the Chicago Cubs could use Plesac, a native of Crown Point. Ind. (a Chicago suburb) could use him to help their rotation. The Cubs are probably going to be spending some money on the free agent market this year so trading for Plesac would be a way to improve their rotation (20th in starter ERA in 2022) while not spending much in the way of money.

Then, what they save could be used on bigger free agents at other positions.