The Spiders were tanking.
In 1899, owners Frank and Stanley Robison purchased a second team – the bankrupt St. Louis NL franchise – and sent all of the Spiders’ top talent to that club, including future Hall-of-Famers Young, Burkett, and Bobby Wallace. The resulting Spiders roster finished the 1899 season 20–134, a record which remains the worst for a single season in major league history. The Spiders were subsequently one of four teams contracted by the National League that year. Partly in response to the Robison brothers’ actions – which effectively ended the Spiders franchise – the practice of “syndicate ownership” was later banned.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Spiders
That’s a much better name than “Guardians.”