3 hopeful teams pull off an old-fashioned baseball swap

What does a front office do when it is trying but unable, for whatever reason, to compete in free agency? Make a good, old-fashioned baseball trade, of course.

That is what the Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Guardians, and Pittsburgh Pirates agreed to do Tuesday night, executing what became a three-way deal.

First, the Blue Jays surprised the baseball world by acquiring 2023 Platinum Glove winner Andrés Giménez and a relief pitcher from the Guardians for promising left-handed hitting infielder Spencer Horwitz and a fringe outfield prospect.

Later in the night, the Guardians flipped Horwitz to Pittsburgh for starting pitcher Luis Ortiz and a pair of mid-tier pitching prospects.

What's fascinating about this trade is the teams involved are trying to compete in 2025, and all of them dealt at least partially from strengths on their major-league rosters to address needs.

As Seattle Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto told theScore in 2023, teams should trade more often because they all have different organizational strengths and needs.

• The Blue Jays have a surplus of young, tweener bats like Horwitz and a pile of cash that superstar free agents do not seem to want.

• The Guardians just made a second baseman, Travis Bazzana, the No. 1 pick in the draft last July, which complicated Giménez's future with the club. Coming out of college, Bazzana shouldn't be too far away.

• The Pirates are a rare club in baseball with quality, pre-arbitration pitching depth already at the major-league level.

All three teams have urgency and notable deficiencies.

• Toronto is in need of lineup upgrades after a poor season and entering the final year of salary control over Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.

• The Guardians are seemingly unable to compete in the free-agent pitching market because of ownership constraints. Meanwhile, their MLB-ready pitching depth has thinned.

• The Pirates have glaring lineup voids and only so much team control over young ace Paul Skenes, who just earned a full year of service time by winning the National League Rookie of the Year award.

Mix it all together and we get Tuesday's deal.

It's the kind of trade where there does not have to be clear winners and losers.

The headliner is Giménez.

The Blue Jays appear to be doubling down on GM Ross Atkins' run-prevention mantra, which has not gotten them where they want to be the last two seasons. But Giménez is not just a good defender, he's a great one. He was awarded the Platinum Glove in 2023, given to the game's best overall defender regardless of position. He's won the last three American League gold gloves at second base. Giménez leads baseball in defensive runs saved in that span (59).

The ban on infield shifts has elevated the defensive importance of second base, as range and arm strength become crucial.

Since the new rules were put in place, he's produced 43 DRS at second base, 40 more than the fifth-ranking second baseman, Bryson Stott. That's equivalent to four wins of value.

Giménez is still just 26, and there is upside lurking. The big question is whether his bat can rebound to its 2022 level when he hit .297 with an .837 OPS and 140 wRC+ and finished sixth in MVP voting. If it does, the Blue Jays added a star at a discount.

But his last two seasons have featured below-average offensive output. He's lost his power and his discipline has waned, though he's reduced his strikeout rate three years running. For his career, he's a 103 wRC+, or a league average hitter. But it's been a bumpy ride.

There's reason to think he can improve, add more power, and clean up some swing decisions. But even with those two down seasons, from 2022-24 he produced 12.8 WAR, good for 26th among all position players.

In some ways, the Giménez addition is similar to the Jays' addition of Matt Chapman in 2022 - another Platinum Glove winner with an uneven bat.

By WAR, they are almost identical players over the last three years. Chapman just signed a six-year, $150-million contract with the Giants.

While some believe the nearly $100 million left on Giménez's five-year deal is too rich for a glove-first player, his glove is so good that it fuels a 3-WAR Steamer projection.

Giménez also gives the club versatility.

He was a shortstop prospect and might be a Gold Glove-caliber defender there should the club eventually part with Bichette. An argument can be made to play Giménez over Bichette at shortstop this season.

As for the Guardians, they seem unlikely to add a significant arm in free agency. The oft-injured Alex Cobb, a Guardian last season, just signed a one-year, $15-million contract with the Detroit Tigers. Matthew Boyd left on a relatively modest deal with the Cubs.

Moreover, Cleveland's impressive run of pitching development has cooled, so to improve a thin rotation the club had to make a deal.

Luis Ortiz is an interesting arm to invest in. The 25-year-old is above average when it comes to fastball velocity and arm-extension metrics, which are difficult skills to improve compared to, say, adding a cutter or breaking ball.

The Guardians have a long history of developing and getting the most out of pitchers and believe they can do that with Ortiz, especially in improving his changeup. That could spike his weak strikeout rate.

He is poised for a large workload for a team that relied heavily on its bullpen in the playoffs last season. He tossed 135 innings in 2024, ranking 15th among all pitchers 25 or younger.

The two prospect arms in the trade, Josh Hartle and Michael Kennedy, rank in the lower end of the Pirates' top 20 prospects.

As for Pittsburgh, Jays fans know how impressive Horwitz's plate approach was last year. The Pirates needed offensive help badly.

While he is an older prospect with a limited ceiling because of a lack of elite power, Steamer projects him to be the Pirates' best hitter by wRC+ (119) this coming season.

The Pirates were 24th in runs scored last year and 27th in wRC+ from left-handed batters. Horwitz upgrades the lineup at a pre-arbitration salary.

The Pirates also still have Skenes, Jared Jones, and Mitch Keller in their rotation - though the risk here is that pitching depth is dangerous to trade away.

Still, risks need to be taken to elevate a club.

Only a handful of teams compete at the high end of free agency. But every front office can make a trade and deal from strength to try and improve.

Those transactions make the hot-stove season a little more interesting, too.

Travis Sawchik is theScore's senior baseball writer.