Cleveland Indians: 10 players that left and never looked back

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.