Happy Guards Fest week to those who celebrate. Cleveland Guardians newsGimnez to host cleat design contest at Guards Fest MLBIf you're able to make it out to Guards Fest this weekend, keep an eye out for a design contest hosted by Andrs Gimnez and artist Jonathan Hrusovsky. Those who are interested in participating in the cleat design competition will be able to sit down, draw their design on a printed-out cleat template and submit it for review. Gimnez will find time during both the morning and afternoon sessions to pop by, weigh in on the designs and help those who are drawing. At the end of the night, Hrusovsky and Gimnez will review the submissions and will determine a winner. That person will be contacted shortly after Guards Fest and will receive a pair of cleats with their winning design, on top of watching the Guardians second baseman sport the look during Spring Training. Guardians captain Jos Ramrez? Probably not, but Cleveland has quite a history of captains The AthleticThere probably won't be a Guardians "captain" any time soon. Guardians Get New Lease, $203M in Stadium Renovations Front Office SportsSome of the financial details of the Guardians' recently revealed renovation plans, most of which will be publicly funded Jose Cardenal T-Shirt. Payrolls ranked by percentage of change TwitterJon Becker, who works on the payroll aspects of FanGraphs' Roster Resource pages, tweeted out this chart showing team payrolls ranked by percentage change year-over-year. Now that official 2022 payrolls are in, let's look at how 2023 payrolls compare. Note:his is "real" payroll, not luxury taxAll pre-arb players are counted as the league min. right nowArbitration cases are counted as the midpoint between the two filing numbers Jon Becker January 19, 2023It should come as no surprise that the Guardians came out near the top, considering they entered 2022 with virtually no free-agent signings, and signed Josh Bell this offseason. They'll sit at around $90 million on Opening Day, still near the bottom of the league, but with a promising young team. Around the leagueThe Braves signed Kevin Pillar. The Mets and Tommy Pham agreed on a one-year deal. This could be Hunter Greene's breakout season. Daulton Varsho is a bunting wizard Brayan Rocchio Hoodie. The A's aren't trading Ramon Laureano just yet.