CLEVELAND, Ohio — As premium closers around Major League Baseball continue to command astronomical contracts, the Guardians are left to contemplate what might have been. The ghost of a trade that never happened continues to haunt the organization’s front office – and they’re not shy about admitting it.

The recent winter meetings in Orlando saw closer Edwin Diaz land with the Dodgers on a record-breaking contract, while Robert Suarez secured a reported three-year, $45 million deal with Atlanta. These massive commitments highlight just how valuable elite relievers have become – both in dollars and in the prospect haul they can return via trade.

For the Guardians, these transactions are a painful reminder of what they lost when Emmanuel Clase, their electrifying closer, was implicated in a

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