Left-hander Brady Aiken was among a set of minor leaguers released by the Indians, the team announced. Aiken hasn’t played in two years, as he announced after the 2019 season that he was stepping away from baseball for an indeterminate period of time.
Cleveland selected Aiken 17th overall in 2015, a year after the Astros took the southpaw with the 2014 draft’s first overall pick. In the wake of the Houston pick, however, the Astros had some last-minute concerns about Aiken’s left UCL and wanted to renegotiate a lower bonus, and the two sides didn’t reach agreement on a deal. Aiken indeed ended up undergoing Tommy John surgery, though that didn’t stop the Tribe from still taking Aiken in the first round in 2015.
Over part of three pro seasons, Aiken has a 5.18 ERA over 179 innings, reaching as high as the Indians’ A-ball affiliate in Lake County. Just about all of that experience took place in 2016-17, as after Aiken didn’t pitch in 2018, he returned to toss only two-thirds of an inning over two appearances for Lake County, walking six of his nine total batters faced.
Aiken just turned 25 in August, but given the circumstances, it is reasonable to speculate that his baseball career could be over. If so, Aiken would join Steve Chilcott (1965) and Brien Taylor (1991) as the only first overall picks to retire without ever playing in a Major League game.
Mark Appel also looks like he’ll join the list of number ones who never appear in the bigs
He’s in AAA. He still might make it as a middle reliever.
He’s never pitch above A ball
Appel has
thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?ID=148057
Oh my bad I thought they were referring to Aiken
There is this thing called Google. If you type in something, say Mark Appel, you can find all the places that person/thing is listed, such as Baseball Reference…you should check it you! Might find he pitched in AAA this year
Someone’s mom didn’t make them breakfast today!!
Super cranky haha
A little salty.
Your momma don’t wear no drawers Sheep. Google the Cambodian creamsicle, cause that’s what she done to me.
I know he wasn’t 1:1 but Tyler Kolek was awful too. Every Sox fan disappointed with the early part of Carlos Rodon’s career should really be thankful he atleast is a professional pitcher.
I was so rooting for him to make it to the bigs and no hit the Astros
Biggggg L
Brien Taylor. What a waste.
I remember Taylor everyone thought he was going to be the next Gooden. Dude had some good stuff
Taylor had his picture on the shopping carts at my grocery store when I was a kid in California. It was the only thing I had to look forward following my mom around grocery shopping. I read the narrative over and over on how he was a future star. Even as a kid I was disappointed to see he never played out
Baseball America and all the other baseball sites that went hard at the Astros keep getting proven wrong on them not signing him. It would be nice if they could admit the mistake.
And it would be nice if the Astros didn’t cheat with trash cans, but I guess we can’t have nice things.
Idk if you are trying to imply I’m an Astros fan, but I am not and I have called out the Astros cheating repeatedly. I might be blowing your mind by telling that it is possible for the Astros to break the rules and cheat in 2017 and 2018 and STILL say that people were wrong criticizing a draft decision in 2014.
Ace, didn’t you hear? In 2021 you’re only on either team “Good Guys” or team “Bad Guys” and one mistake will get you permanently placed with the latter.
Rightfully so, integrity is not a part time thing and once you compromise it credibility goes out the window.
If you think the astros and Sox were the only teams that did something of that nature I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.
I believe when they offered him well below slot value, it was them admitting a mistake. Elbow issues plus a horrible work ethic does not a MLB pitcher make.
MLB teams are not allowed to view medicals prior to the draft. He was Uber talented at the time and when they were allowed to look at him under a microscope after the draft, they saw there was structural damage they couldn’t have known about before.
If they hadn’t offered him at least some money, they wouldn’t have been awarded a comp pick the following year.
Yeah, they saw his UCL did not look normal and knew it was a ticking time bomb before tearing. They were proven right when it tore his first season in the minors. For making the right decision, they got Alex Bregman and Daz Cameron (a piece of the Verlander trade) in the next draft.
Yeah i remember that. I am an Astros hater but they got the Brady Aiken move right, after they drafted him. The problem with giving them credit is that they drafted Mark Appel the year before and so used the #1 overall pick on pitchers back to back years and as the article mentions only 2 other players in mlb history have not played in majors when drafted #1 overall. The astros could possibly end up drafting 2 of them back to back years. So some criticism is still warranted
Never forget that the Mets chose Steve Chilcott over Reggie Jackson.
Even back then, the Mets are going to do Mets things.
If Chilcott doesn’t get hurt, who knows, man was super talented and could’ve been the talk of all catchers if he didn’t get hurt tbh.
Every MLB team had Jackson and Chilcott rated 1,2 or 2,1. Chilcott was a consensus premium talent. When Casey Stengel went to scout Chilcott he hit something like 6 HR in 4 games and Stengel was sold on him.
HS talent is a crapshoot
Astros got Alex Bregman with the replacement pick the following year so everything turned out fine.
aiken will not be joining chilcott and Taylor, he was redrafted 17th overall