it has been mentioned here. the team quite evidently never thought much of him; he would get a handful of at bats every September but never an opportunity to prove he belonged. It was quite definitely a dumb move to let him go without first auditioning him for a big league job

pat graham wrote:Don't remember seeing it discussed on here, but the front office seems to have escaped criticism on letting Jesus Aguilar go..for nothing. His right handed power and his .350 OBP is exactly what this lineup needed. Not to mention his $500,000 salary for the next few years.

It's impossible to argue that this was a big whiff. Not sure why he never seemed to hit with the big club but it sure was a small sample size.

in 2014: he was 4 for 33
in 2015: he was 6 for 19
in 2016: he was 0 for 6

Here's a reason he might have been written off:

in 2014 in Columbus, a very solid 304/395/514
in 2015 in Columbus an unimpressive 267/332/439
in 2016 back in Columbus a modest 247/319/472

Could have been reasoned [reasonably] that his career was going nowhere and that he would be soon shipping to Japan or Taiwan. Brewers gave him a shot and it certainly worked for him and for them.

I wonder if it was Terry Francona not trusting rookies. Similar to what Yandy Diaz is going through.

All teams have examples of released, not traded, players blossoming on another team.

Tribe examples are few and far between. The only ones I can recall are Aguilar and Brandon Phillips.

Any more?

Brian Giles comes to mind. Then there is Tommy John......

Giles was traded, not released.

seagull wrote:Giles was traded, not released.

Phillips was traded too.

I think Phillips was put on unconditional waivers and traded as a last resort to the Reds for nothing.

Tommy John was traded. Not a bad deal.

01-20-1965 Traded by Cleveland Indians with Tommie Agee and John Romano to Chicago White Sox as part of 3-team trade in which Kansas City Athletics sent Rocky Colavito to Cleveland Indians; Chicago White Sox sent Jim Landis and Mike Hershberger to Kansas City Athletics; Chicago White Sox sent Cam Carreon to Cleveland Indians (January 20, 1965); and Chicago White Sox sent Fred Talbot to Kansas City Athletics (February 10, 1965).

Wedge never seemed to give Phillips a fair chance. Traded for minor league non-prospect reliever who came to nothing; that was pretty close to a straight out release. FWIW, we had Ryan Ludwick as did several other teams and either let him go for nothing; he blossomed but that had to do with recovery from injuries.

Phillips was young, cocky and undisciplined when he ran into Wedge. He was unresponsive to Indians coaching and wanted to do everything his way. He was full of himself and rejected any structure limiting his lifestyle. He was late for practices more than once.

Wedge couldn't handle him.

He grew up really fast after the Indians dumped him to the Reds and had a nice career.

seagull wrote:Phillips was young, cocky and undisciplined when he ran into Wedge. He was unresponsive to Indians coaching and wanted to do everything his way. He was full of himself and rejected any structure limiting his lifestyle. He was late for practices more than once.

Wedge couldn't handle him.

He grew up really fast after the Indians dumped him to the Reds and had a nice career.

That is a great explanation ! As Clint Eastwood would say, some punks grow up, some punks never do !

Brandon:

In a season’s worth of plate appearances over the the course of four years in Cleveland, Phillips had just a .556 OPS. The minor league numbers which had once helped solidify his place among the game’s best prospects had fallen off; in his third season at Triple-A, Phillips’ average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage all dropped.

But Krivsky decided to give Phillips a chance and the Indians, unable to find room on their roster for the out-of-options infielder, had had enough.

Three and a half seasons after acquiring him in the Bartolo Colon trade, then-GM Mark Shapiro sent Phillips to Ohio’s other team for a player to be named later.

The Indians ultimately acquired reliever Jeff Stevens in the deal and would eventually send the right-hander to the Cubs in a trade for Mark DeRosa.

The Indians later acquired current closer Chris Perez in exchange for DeRosa, so, in a roundabout way, they had something to show for Phillips.

in his third season at Triple-A, Phillips’ average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage all dropped.

Same happened with Aguilar.
I never read about Jesus being a tough guy to handle; I think with him it was entirely doubting his ability.

You never know when something is going to click for a player.

Shoot ask Arizona if they ever thought Trevor Bauer was going to turn out like he did years later.

Even in our own organization who thought Lindor would be knocking down the door to 40 homers?? Who thought Clevinger would be blowing away 200+ strikeouts?

So much of this part of the game is luck and circumstance. Almost anything can happen where a light goes on for a player and they may not be ready until a certain point. You do the best you can but that's about it.

Sure it's frustrating about Aguilar especially since we could use a RH power first baseman.

But the reality is it happens all the time both in your favor and against your favor.