Insider Addresses Odd Trade Speculation About Guardians Slugger

An insider has provided his thoughts on some rather odd early trade speculation surrounding this Cleveland Guardians slugger.

Mar 30, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cleveland Guardians first baseman Carlos Santana (41) catches a fly ball during the third inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

We are barely two weeks into the MLB season, and already, fans and media pundits are firing up trade speculation. The Cleveland Guardians faithful are not exception to this.

Thanks to a rather rough start for the Guardians, some are already wondering if Cleveland could shake things up, and first baseman Carlos Santana—who the team literally just signed over the winter—has become the center of attention. Well, at least for some people.

During a recent episode of the Bruce Drennan Show, Drennan addressed the possibility of the Guardians potentially trading Santana, and he immediately shut it down.

"No, gosh no," Drennan said. "Santana is so good defensively, you know what you're going to get from him. ... No way. Again, a combination of him, [Kyle] Manzardo, hopefully Nolan Jones and [Jhonkensy] Noel will be able to contribute. They'll certainly make up, I think, hopefully ... for [Josh] Naylor being gone."

Heading into Cleveland's Wednesday afternoon matchup with the Chicago White Sox, Santana was slashing .289/.349/.421 with one home run and three RBI over 43 plate appearances.

The Guardians added Santana as a replacement for Naylor, who they dealt to the Arizona Diamondbacks back in December.

Given that Naylor gave Cleveland over 30 home runs and 100 RBI last season, it will be a tall order to replace his production, but clearly, Drennan feels that Cleveland has enough sluggers to compensate for the loss of the All-Star first baseman.

Santana smashed 23 homers to go along with 71 RBI with the Minnesota Twins last year, registering .749 OPS. This is the 39-year-old's third stint with the Guardians.

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