Cleveland Indians: 10 players that left and never looked back

Why everyone you’ve ever loved has left the Cleveland Indians

With the World Series underway, and Eddie Rosario recently named NLCS MVP, it seems fitting to take a walk through the past. The latest trend in the world of Cleveland sports appears to be grieving over the loss of players who have gone on to be successful elsewhere. Being a lifelong Cleveland sports fan, I understand the pain involved when you see a former player go on and find success or win a championship but as always, I am here to provide context and perspective to those who can’t see past their bias. Let’s talk about why these moves had to be made.

The most obvious place to start, as mentioned above, is with Eddie Rosario. Before his unbelievable run in this year’s NLCS, Rosario cemented himself as one of the all-time great Cleveland Indians as he led them to a championship… Wait… No that’s wrong… Let’s just back up a minute.

Eddie Rosario played subpar baseball in Cleveland and was essentially a waste of an $8 million contract. In 78 games for the Tribe, Rosario hit .254 and had a .685 OPS. Rosario finished his stint with the Indians hitting seven total home runs and was on pace for 97 strikeouts had he played 162 games in Cleveland. Oh yeah, and the team was able to trade him for salary relief WHILE HE WAS HURT.

To go even further, Rosario was not going to re-sign with Cleveland after this season. If he would have played well he would have become too pricey, and if he would have continued to play poorly the Indians wouldn’t have wanted him back.

Now, as we continue down this road it must be mentioned that I, as a Cleveland fan, am naturally pessimistic just like the rest of you. That being said, I am also a realist. I do have hot takes from time to time but I generally like to keep things in perspective. Going through the rest of these names I will be sure to provide the context necessary to help everyone understand.

The next few names are each connected by one key component. They showed flashes of potential but the timing just wasn’t right.