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.

The hot-corner options who never panned out for the Cleveland Indians

Yandy Diaz, Gio Urshela

Grouping these guys together seems fitting since their time in Cleveland overlapped and they were both in the running for the third base job at one point.

The case has been made that Yandy Diaz is a very solid hitter and that may be true. Unfortunately, during his time with the Cleveland Indians, Diaz was blocked by Jose Ramirez, Carlos Santana, Edwin Encarnacion, Yonder Alonzo, and Josh Donaldson.

During his tenure, Diaz played 88 games in which he hit .283 with a .727 OPS. Overall, not bad stats for a plug-and-play type of guy. He was a very capable fill-in option but ultimately there were better options both defensively and offensively. The deciding factor behind moving on from Yandy Diaz was the ability to trim payroll by sending away Edwin Encarnacion while bringing back a familiar reliable friend in Carlos Santana.

The upside to Urshela was always his glove. There really isn’t much more to say about him other than that. He was a guy who never impressed at the plate throughout the Minor Leagues and as incredible as he was defensively he was equally as unimpressive offensively.

He and Yandy Diaz split time at third base which was the majority of their playing time while in Cleveland and neither one of them was able to show enough to take the job. In his 148 games with the Indians, Urshela pieced together a .225 average with a .587 OPS. Far less than Stellar and never showed anything to the contrary.

Even after Urshela was traded to Toronto he wasn’t able to get anything going at the plate. In fact, they were so unimpressed they DFA’d him after 19 games and then sent him to the Yankees for cash considerations.

There was no way to know that Gio Urshela would go on to have any sort of success and if you look at his numbers from this past season, he may be starting his descent back to Earth. That is something to keep an eye on going forward.

The Cleveland Indians Rookie of the Year candidate

Tyler Naquin

In 2016 we saw the emergence of an exciting new outfielder. Naquin debuted like a bat out of hell, hitting .296 with a .886 OPS in 116 games played. He played so well that he took third place in Rookie of the Year voting for his torrid regular season. Though Naquin was an integral piece of the 94-win team, sadly, inexperience caught up with him and he all but disappeared in the playoffs (as you would expect from a rookie).

After 2016, Naquin’s career took a downward trajectory. From 2017 through the shortened 2020 season, Tyler Naquin only played 209 out of a possible 648 regular-season games. He compiled an OPS+ of 85 over those 4 seasons (keep in mind league average is 100) and was even brought back on a one-year deal for 2020 in hopes he could somehow reprise his rookie numbers.

The team was obviously reluctant to let him go given that he was homegrown talent. He had shown promise at the age of 25, but it was clear that his one-year deal for 2020 was out of convenience and comfort for both him and the organization. It was a final chance for him to claim his stake during the abbreviated season and he fumbled the bag.

It only made sense for both sides to part. Clearly, Naquin needed a change of scenery and the Indians had to add new faces to an outfield that had become stagnant and injury-riddled.

Moving ahead to some of the more controversial moves made by the Indians front office, five names immediately come to mind.

The multi-time Cy Young winner for the Cleveland Indians

Corey Kluber

This one seems to be a fan favorite. I have seen far too many people complain that the Indians should have held onto Kluber and it really is laughable. I have the utmost respect for everything Kluber did for the organization and he definitely cracks my top 10 all-time Indians list. He is one of the great pitchers to ever come through Cleveland, but in reality, he only had five seasons where he logged over 200 innings.

The fact that our front office was able to bring over supreme talent in the form of 22-year-old closer Emannuel Clase, for a 33-year-old Corey Kluber is a huge testament to how undervalued the Cleveland front office has been by fans of the team.

Did Kluber come back to haunt us in the form of six scoreless innings in an 8-0 loss? Short answer, yes. The longer answer, still yes BUT it was less about Corey Kluber’s dominance and more about how terrible Cleveland’s offense was, but I digress.

I never wanted to believe that Kluber would wear another uniform but it would have been naïve to assume that he would finish his career in Cleveland. It is a given to assume any great pitcher that comes through Cleveland will move on to “greener pastures” at some point.

The face of the Cleveland Indians franchise

Francisco Lindor

Being one of the top three shortstops in baseball it was only a matter of time before the Indians were forced to put their money where their mouth was. Unfortunately, their mouth must have been located in Citi Field because that’s where Lindor wound up calling home. The obvious thing to say would be, “This is the one that got away.” Well, I’ll never say that.

The saving grace to this decision was the fact that the Indians didn’t have to shell out a contract worth $341 million. In addition to that, his replacement Amed Rosario gave almost identical production for $29 million less this year. How Rosario will fare going forward is anyone’s guess but let’s take a win where we can get it and see how it goes.

To that end, I will say that the organization may have been a bit hasty when they agreed to this deal. I would venture to guess the Indians had better offers the previous year but held out hope for an extension or an offer that would knock them off their feet. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 but the whole situation screams, “We waited too long.”

After an entire season to digest and see how everything played out, I stick to the fact that the Indians are winning the trade. At least they’re winning for the time being, as I have stated in a previous article. As tough as it was to see him go it was the right decision for both Lindor and the team.

The smooth operator of the Cleveland Indians

Michael Brantley

This is where things get a little tougher for me as I have a strong attachment to Michael Brantley. He was my favorite player during his years in Cleveland and I always saw the value that he brought to the team even considering his injury history.

Too often, fans use this example as a way to throw shade at the Dolans for their spending habits and while I can understand the frustration, I can see the business side of this decision as well. Larry and Paul Dolan have taken some serious heat in the past about their seeming inability to spend money. Most of this is deserved because, as fans (myself included), our only wish is to see our favorite team win a championship. In this instance as much as it pains me, I have to say that not bringing back Michael Brantley was probably the correct move.

The Dolans own a professional baseball team because they are businessmen and they see it as a way to expand their wealth. That being said, just as every other company does, the Dolans have a projected profit and loss report put together each offseason. They are able to set their ideal profit margin and find a sweet spot for things such as ticket and concession prices, advertising and merchandising budgets, and of course team payroll.

Regrettably, Michael Brantley was worth even more than the $16 Million per year he was given by the Astros and those numbers just wouldn’t have fit. From Brantley’s final season with the club in 2018 to 2021 the Indians front office cut payroll from $135 million to $59 million, respectively. Most of this was done because of the loss expected from the Covid-19 pandemic but the trend had begun even before then.

It was never in the cards for Michael Brantley to make his money in Cleveland and the sooner we all realize that the better off we will all be. If you want to see more money spent, the pitiful truth is, you have to put more money in the Dolans’ pockets. It’s a disgusting thought to make the rich richer but when you have a business-minded owner in a small market as opposed to one driven by winning you have to make the sacrifice to help things along.

In 2021, the final season for the Cleveland Indians, they averaged 13,000 seats filled per game. This is by far the lowest attendance of any season since 1991. Coming back from a year where revenue reportedly decreased by $173 Million, that attendance number doesn’t help to narrow the gap.

And finally, there is one name that I wanted to be able to dismiss without a second thought but somehow this particular guy just slipped through the cracks and has actually gone on to become an extremely undervalued player.

The overlooked and undervalued

Jesus Aguilar

Jesus Aguilar is a head-scratcher for me. I tried to find an explanation as to why they had to waive him but I just couldn’t. He wasn’t overly productive during his tenure with the Indians but at the same time, he only had 58 at-bats over the course of three different seasons. He signed as an 18-year-old and through seven minor league seasons showed very promising power and an innate ability to hit with RISP.

This must have just been a wrong place, wrong time instance. As an organization, in the Terry Francona era, the Indians have been more inclined to go with big-league experience as opposed to potential ability. You have to assume this, more than likely, led to the decision to move on from Aguilar.

Before spring training in 2017, Aguilar was taken off waivers by the Milwaukee Brewers and became an All-Star with the club in 2018. Since then he has done a stint with Tampa Bay and he now resides in Miami where he seems to be getting comfortable. He has recorded an OPS+ of 117 and 112 in his first two seasons with Miami and by all accounts, I can chalk this one up as a loss for the Indians.

I think it’s fair to say he could have stepped into the first base role and who knows how well he would have performed. Had he been given stability as opposed to bouncing around from Cleveland, to Milwaukee, to Miami we could have had another All-Star bat to go along with Jose.