The Twins have a five-game lead over the Guardians in the AL Central, but Cleveland isn't conceding anything with a month left.
The Guardians claimed three Los Angeles Angels pitchers off waivers, starter Lucas Giolito and relievers Reynaldo López and Matt Moore, giving a big boost to their pitching staff for September.
Thursday's waiver frenzy comes a little less than a month after the Guardians were sellers at the trade deadline, and immediately after the Guardians took two of three games against the Twins at Target Field. Their trade deadline moves upset their players enough that Chris Antonetti, Cleveland's president of baseball operations, boarded a flight to Houston the next morning to meet with the team.
The waiver order is based on the reverse standings, giving the Guardians an edge over other playoff contenders.
The Twins didn't make any waiver additions, but the only player who claimed behind the Twins' position on the waiver priority list was Angels reliever Dominic Leone, who went to Seattle. Cincinnati claimed two outfielders, Hunter Renfroe from the Angels and Harrison Bader from the New York Yankees.
"Our primary motivation was trying to improve our team and find ways to get better," Antonetti told Cleveland reporters, "but obviously there's a secondary benefit of teams that we're chasing, Minnesota, don't have the opportunity to get these guys."
The Angels placed a half-dozen impending free agents on irrevocable waivers Tuesday in a quest to receive salary relief after they fell out of the playoff race following the trade deadline, and five were plucked off waivers, saving the team some $5.7 million in salary. Instead of trading prospects to acquire players a month ago — the Angels sent two of their top prospects to the Chicago White Sox for Giolito and López — the only cost for these waiver claims was a prorated salary.
"Whether or not that will be good enough, whether or not we can close the gap in front of us, we don't know," Antonetti said. "But we want to try."
