The Cleveland Indians for the last eight years have been a model organization but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some missed opportunities.
Dating back to the rebuild era of the Cleveland Indians, the team has generally been pretty good at finding and cultivating talent. Well, from 2013 and on anyway. Prior to that, the team was mostly good at not finding and not cultivating talent. Yet, the guys they found (stumbled across) who were worth keeping usually were kept around for a while.
The Indians would rarely let a player leave before they reach their full potential as a major leaguer. Usually, guys leave when they’ve reached their peak as a pro and are often into their early 30’s. Sure, it sucks to see potential Hall of Famers finish their careers elsewhere, but that’s the story of a small market team.
Yes, the team has also traded away prospects, but that’s not who we’re talking about today. No, we’re talking about players who were let go, shipped off or written off for one reason or another. Guys who would go on to revive their careers, or have career years elsewhere, leaving the Indians looking a little foolish in hindsight.
There are probably more players in the history of the ballclub that one can point to, and maybe one day we’ll touch on them as well, but for today we’re going to look at three guys who made real big impacts after their stops in Cleveland, who were young(ish) and could fill a position of need at some point down the road for the team.
So with that, let’s look at three players the team gave up on too soon.
Second Base – Brandon Phillips
It’s almost kinda aggravating that this was even allowed to happen. I need to be honest though, I wanted him gone. Geeze, he was frustrating to watch. In his lone season of any relevance with the Tribe, Brandon Phillips had 370 at-bats in 2003 and hit a pathetic .208 for a batting average. He was so bad as a rookie, that Ronnie Belliard was brought in. Belliard was at best a serviceable second basemen who thought he was a centerfielder.
At least you’d think he thought that, considering how deep he played into the outfield. As a second baseman.
Phillips would play in 12 games over his next two years with the club. He was so disappointing, I would trade him every time I picked the Indians in whatever baseball videogame I had at the time. Eventually, the Indians followed suit and traded him for real to the Cinncinati Reds for Jeff Stevens. Stevens never even made it to the big leagues with the Indians, instead he was used as a piece for the Mark DeRosa trade with the Chicago Cubs in 2009.
Phillips, on the other hand, was a stud. While officially he was only a three-time All-Star, Phillips arguably should’ve been to the midsummer classic an additional four times. He didn’t drop below 17 home runs a year for eight straight seasons, hit around .275 nearly every ear, and only once failing to hit in at least 70 RBI’s during that stretch.
The Indians during Phillips All-Star years had to rely on Belliard, Josh Barfield, an out of position Asdrubal Cabrera, Luis Valbuena, and Cabrera before finally landing on Jason Kipnis in 2012.
First Base – Jesus Aguilar
This one is harder to be mad at, currently.
Jesus Aguilar signed with the Tribe in 2007 at just 17 years old. He played in the Dominican League before being brought to Lake County, where I got to see him play a few times. The one thing about Aguilar that everyone knew back in 2011 was that he could hit a ball as far as anyone. He was a human rocket launcher with a bat.
His consistency, however, was lacking, and because of that, the Tribe kept him in the minors until he was 24. He’d only get 58 total at-bats in the majors with the Indians across three seasons. During that time he mustered a whopping ten hits and no home runs. His last year with the club was in 2015, where he hit 30 home runs in Triple-A. Despite this, his lack of ability to crack the bigs caused the team to designate him for assignment.
This is where things get interesting, as the Milwaukee Brewers snatched him up. He became their first basemen instantly and played 2.5 really good years for the Brewers, and even helped them reach the postseason in 2018. That happened to be a good year for Aguilar, who hit .274, with 35 home runs and 108 RBI’s.
Sure he dropped off a bit in 2019, but after being traded to the Tampa Bay Rays, he bounced back, hitting four home runs, 16 RBI’s and had an average of .261 in just 92 at-bats for the team.
Aguilar isn’t such an issue currently, as first base has not been a position of need for the Tribe in a while. Same with the designated hitter spot. His departure isn’t too bad, and with Bobby Bradley being almost a one-for-one comparison to Aguilar, it’s understandable why the team moved on from him.
Third Base – Gio Urshela
Gio Urshela was a Cleveland Indian‘s third basemen and came to the club with a lot of potential and hype. An international free agent in 2008, Urshela made plenty of noise in the Indians’ farm system to the point where he became one of the most talked-about prospects alongside some guy named Francisco Lindor. Urshela and Lindor were often spoken about as the future of the ballclub and “…imagine the left side of the field when they both get called up.”
Lindor, obviously, became a stud. Urshela, not so much. In 148 games across two seasons, Urshela had 95 hits, seven home runs, and 36 RBI’s. That was enough for the Indians to see before designating him for assignment in 2018. The Toronto Blue Jays would trade for him and failed to impress. He was assigned outright to the Blue Jay’s Triple-A affiliate the Buffalo Bison.
Ironically, the Bison were once the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate.
Urshela would not be downtrodden for long, as the Blue Jays traded for him for cash considerations to the Yankees. He was in their Triple-A affiliate after this, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders (worst or best name ever). There he worked with a new hitting coach, Phil Plantier, and after hitting .307 the rest of the year in Triple-A got the call-up in 2019.
In 2019, Urshela played in 132 games, hit .314, with 21 home runs and 74 RBI’s. He helped the Yankees stave off the injury-filled season and helped lead them to 103 wins. This despite Giancarlo Stanton, Didi Gregorius, Aaron Judge, and Gary Sanchez all missing some time.
Now with a hole at second (or third depending on where you move Jose Rameriez), it almost seems like the Baseball Gods are punishing the Indians for being impatient with Urshela.