For me, it gets a slightly net positive. Mostly meh.
The new name is bland. Safe, generic.
Keeping the -dians, keeping the colors, I can get down with that. It's going to help the masses accept the change a little bit easier. Minimize the bitching and moaning. I like that. That's a win.
The font is too cartoony for me. It's like the old font, just worse. Honestly looking at it you might as well keep the same font too, if you're keeping -dians & the colors... I hope they make some changes with the font. It can be better. Took an L there.
The Baseball G is horrendous. Throw it out, try again. I wonder if they're avoiding another "human-like" logo in case humans decide in 80 years that that's racist too. (This is not commentary, just an observation, I'm all in on changing the name... it's a big positive).
Things I like?
I like the story behind Guardians. It's Hyper Local - that's fucking cool.
In that same vein, the two questions I've gotten from two different people:
1) Why Guardians? It requires explaining the bridge. Again, hyper local explanation for hyper local name. Increases my connection to Cleveland. Only a Clevelander would know 'why Guardians'.
2) Lol, what are they guarding? This one honestly I love to answer. They're guarding Cleveland. Fucking duh. I'm guarding Cleveland. I'm a Guardian. We're all Cleveland Guardians. I've lived in NYC, Boston, Florida. Always i'm met with... why Cleveland... lolCleveland.. Cleveland is shit hole this, Cleveland is a shit hole that... I've spent 30+ years defending, guarding Cleveland. It speaks to me as a fan of Cleveland sports. Big win there.
So for me, this is a net positive that can be tweaked into a cool thing. It needs time and more effort, more love, but.. it will grow on everybody.
We're all Cleveland Guardians, whether you like the name or not. We've spent our sports lives defending the land.