Cleveland Indians: A final farewell to the golden-calved one, Mike Aviles

Heading into this offseason, the Indians had a fairly stable roster as they only had three impending free agents: Gavin Floyd, Ryan Webb, and Terry Francona's safety blanket, Mike Aviles.

It felt like most LGT'ers would have preferred that the front office not re-sign Aviles for 2016. So in case you missed the announcement, shortly after the Winter Meetings and just before the holidays, Aviles signed a one-year deal with the Detroit Tigers for $2M. He also has performance bonuses of $50k for 150 at bats and an additional $25k earned for every additional 25 at-bats through 275.

Aviles was actually the known name in the November 2012 deal when the Indians sent Esmil Rogers to the Toronto Blue Jays. That deal is now better known as the one where the Indians swindled the Blue Jays for Yan Gomes.

Whether Francona pushed for the deal originally is not known as he was just named to the Indians staff that winter, but he had managed Aviles at the end of 2011 after his arrival from Kansas City. But Aviles was also the compensation for the Blue Jays just a month prior in 2012 when manager John Farrell moved from Toronto to take over for Bobby Valentine.

In his final season in Boston, Valentine overused Aviles to the tune of 546 plate appearances and the results were a .250/.282./381 slash (77 OPS+). But I think Francona remembered the two-month stint in 2011 in Boston where Aviles hit .317/.340/.436 (107 OPS+) in 107 PA.

In 2013 with the Tribe, Francona had a stable infield with Jason Kipnis at second, Lonnie Chisenhall at third, and Asdrubal Cabrera at short. Now granted Droobs missed all of June, so Aviles' usage went up, but he still ended up with 394 PA in 124 games. That led to a .252/.282/.368 slash, very similar to 2012.

Aviles was granted a one-year extension on his deal prior to 2014, removing the clubs team option. Based on Aviles' 2013 statistics, Francona should have decreased his usage, but again, Francona leaned heavily on him, this time to the tune of 374 PA in 113 games, for a .247/.273/.343 (72 OPS+) line. But the most disturbing trend in 2014 was Francona was now using him in the outfield.

This past year was rough one personally for Aviles as his daughter went through a medical treatment, but he still was a key member of the team. Even after three straight years of statistics that would warrant less usage, Francona again probably played him a bit too much. He only made it into 98 games this time, but still cleared 300 PA with a .231/.282/.317 (61 OPS+). The final totals are below:

Mike Aviles is a very good guy, and a heck of a teammate but Francona played him way too much. There was too much evidence and yet he still played. The most disturbing aspect about his usage though isn't necessarily the poor offensive numbers, but rather that Francona insisted on making him an outfielder to get him into games. Look at his usage over the three years:

For him to have more games in left than at second and almost as many games in the outfield as he played at short is somewhat inexcusable.

I wish Mike well in Detroit (just not in those 19 games against the Tribe of course), but I am for one happy that Francona does not have the option to use him in 2016.