The Guardians announced Friday afternoon that outfielder Estevan Florial cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. Florial accepted an outright assignment and will report to Triple-A Columbus. He remains in the organization without holding a spot on the 40-man roster.
Acquired from the Yankees over the offseason, Florial broke camp with Cleveland despite a rough Spring Training. His offensive struggles carried into the regular season. Florial tallied 111 trips to the plate but limped to a .173/.264/.367 line while striking out 36.9% of the time. After hitting three home runs in the season’s first month, he turned in a .120/.200/.240 slash in 55 trips to the plate during May.
Florial was once a highly-regarded prospect in the New York farm system. Evaluators were intrigued by his power, speed and patient plate approach. Florial has well below-average pure contact skills, though, resulting in big strikeout tallies both in the upper minors and against MLB pitching. He played in 48 games over parts of four seasons in the Bronx, hitting .209/.313/.296 while fanning 41 times in 134 plate appearances (a 30.6% rate).
This is the second time in Florial’s career that he has cleared waivers. New York outrighted him last April and kept him in Triple-A for most of the 2023 season. The 26-year-old hit 28 homers and stole 25 bags with a .284/.380/.565 line in 482 plate appearances. Florial has never had any problem turning in strong results in the minors, though even last year’s huge slash came with an alarming 29.9% strikeout rate.