Mike Aviles is Casey Blake

Mike Aviles and former Indians third baseman/right fielder Casey Blake may not seem to have much in common on the surface, but they are in fact, the same individual. Aviles was born in New York City in 1981 while Blake is from Iowa and was born almost a decade earlier. Blake began his career as a third baseman with the Blue Jays, but came to the Tribe as a free agent from Minnesota. Aviles was a short stop with Kansas City and came to Cleveland through a trade with Toronto. Despite this, both players, at the age of 34, were looking into their final season in Cleveland as an over-used utility infielder and outfielder. Both are right handed in the field and at the plate and wear beards. Making things even more similar, both players were not really good enough to break into the lineup offensively, but that didn’t stop the manager, Eric Wedge in 2007 and Terry Francona in 2014 from using them over and over again.

While Blake’s numbers in 2007 were considerably better than Aviles’ in 2014, the league as a whole was more offense oriented. The chart above show the pair’s numbers from their age 31 through 33 seasons and while not identical, they are as close to the same as two players separated by near a decade will be. Like today, the Indians had a solid core back in 2007, including Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore and Jhonny Peralta steadying the lineup, like the Indians of today have with Carlos Santana, Yan Gomes and Michael Brantley. Both teams had holes, third base and right field in 2007 and short stop and right field right now. Rather than filling these holes from the outside, each version of the Tribe used their utility quality infielder as a starter

Another similarity is that while both players were used all over the field, they had one position in which they excelled and were terrible defensively in all the others. Blake excelled in right field, where his powerful arm turned into an asset and for Aviles, it was his primary position of short stop. For further evidence, Blake had a 0.8 career UZR/150 at first base and 4.6 at third, but posted a 37.1 UZR/150 in 2007 in right field. To the right are Aviles numbers at each of his variety of positions. By using UZR/150, it is essentially showing how many runs he would have allowed compared to the average fielder had he played an entire season at each position. While some of the numbers may be a little inaccurate due to limited playing time, they certainly show a strong trend and with over 100 innings played at each position except right field, are likely near the true result. Much like how Blake was largely overrated at first and third base, Aviles has used his flashy style to seem more versatile than he actually is.

Luckily for the Indians, an overstock of outfielders should keep Aviles in the infield next season. In addition to David Murphy still under contract, the Indians have added Brandon Moss and will keep Zach Walters, Tyler Holt and Ryan Raburn as depth options. In addition, it appears that between Jason Kipnis and Walters at second and Brantley in left, Aviles will be almost exclusively a short stop and third baseman in 2015. This should vastly increase Aviles value as, compared to Jose Ramirez at short, Aviles is a slugger and compared to Lonnie Chisenhall at third, he is a Gold Glover. One possible combination of the three for a random game in 2015 would be to start Aviles at short, move him to third late in the game and bring in Ramirez as the defensive replacement.

With more established starters going into 2015 than there were in 2014, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Aviles’ playing time drop off next year. This has to be seen as a good thing as well, for multiple reasons. To start, his .247/.273/.343 line in 2014 was one of the worst on the team (among starters, he was only superior to the $14M man, Nick Swisher at .208/.278/.331) and while a decrease in at bats could lower Aviles’ numbers even more, replacing him the line-up more regularly by Ramirez and Chisenhall could increase the Tribe’s offense. Secondly, The Indians are incredibly deep up the middle. They already traded one middle infielder, Joe Wendle, to the Athletics for Moss and have multiple middle infielders ready for the Major Leagues including Francisco Lindor and Giovanny Urshela, both of whom are defensive specialists.

This brings up the final similarity between Aviles and Casey Blake. While both Lindor and Urshela are expected to begin 2015 in AAA, it would be an incredible disappointment if they didn’t both make their Major League debuts during the season at some point. Without serious injury, the best way to introduce them as regulars would be to move Aviles. Heading into his final season of team control, Aviles could be of use to another team with a weak middle infield and just as Blake was at the age of 34, he is a prime candidate to be traded. After playing 94 games in 2008, Blake was sent to the Dodgers for the great Carlos Santana and if Aviles could return a player a quarter of that value, it would be worth making the deal today. During the season, even less value would be necessary as the team improvement would come from within, from Lindor or Urshela and simply removing Aviles from the roster would be a benefit.

Just like Blake, Aviles has some value, but is overused. Similarly, he can play multiple positions, but not well and can’t hit much above a replacement level batter. In the best of all worlds, Aviles will continue on with Casey and move on to California within the next six months.