With the MLB Draft set to arrive in Philadelphia later this week, every organization is about to start dreaming on fresh talent - and, inevitably, revisiting the picks that never paid off. For the Guardians, that means looking back at a handful of draft swings that missed badly enough to leave a mark.
A few of Cleveland’s old selections did at least bring something back in trade, so they don’t make this list. That’s why names like Clint Frazier, Alex White and Justus Sheffield are left out, even though their big league production never matched the hype. The focus here is on the draft choices that simply didn’t deliver value for the Guardians.
No. 1 on that list is Brady Aiken, the No. 18 pick in 2015 and the clearest miss of the bunch. Aiken was already a rare case before Cleveland ever got involved: the Astros took him No. 1 overall in 2014, but he didn’t sign after Houston lowered its bonus following an MRI that showed inflammation in his arm.
He later had Tommy John surgery, then the Guardians still rolled the dice on him in the next draft. It never came together.
Aiken posted a 6.23 ERA in 179 innings in Cleveland’s minor league system, was released after the 2021 season and now works as an MLBPA certified agent for Excel Sports Management.
Another first-round swing that went sideways was Carson Tucker, taken No. 23 overall in 2020. The Guardians liked the Mountain Pointe High School shortstop out of Phoenix after he hit .390/.455/.574 with 68 RBIs, 20 doubles, nine triples and five home runs in 92 high school games.
But the pandemic delayed his organizational debut until 2021, and his time in the system never got off the ground. Tucker finished his Guardians career with a .164 average in 73 minor league games before Cleveland released him.
He later signed a minor league deal with the Padres over the winter and has put up a .707 OPS in 50 games at Double-A, but that doesn’t change how rough the pick looked in Cleveland.
Jeremy Sowers lands third, a pick that once looked promising before it unraveled. Cleveland grabbed him with the No. 4 pick in 2004 out of Vanderbilt, hoping he’d anchor the rotation for years.
He reached the majors two years later and finished 2006 with a 3.57 ERA in 88 1/3 innings, though he struck out only 35 batters. The progress didn’t hold.
Over the next two seasons, he put up a 5.63 ERA across 311 2/3 innings, and the Guardians designated him for assignment before the 2010 season.
Will Benson comes in at No. 4.
Cleveland took him with the No. 14 pick in 2016, a draft that has gone down as a fairly “meh” class overall, but Benson was still viewed as one of the top prep players in the country. He struggled for five seasons in the minors before finally putting things together at Triple-A Columbus in 2022 and becoming one of the 14 players to debut for the Guardians that year.
Even then, the run was brief. He played in 28 games for Cleveland in 2022, was traded to the Reds before the 2023 season and appeared in 377 games over four seasons in Cincinnati without ever locking down a full-time job.
The Reds designated him for assignment last week.
Bradley Zimmer rounds out the list at No. 5.
Cleveland drafted him 21st overall in 2014 out of San Francisco after a standout junior season in which he was the only collegiate player in the top 50 in stolen bases, with 21, and slugging percentage, at .573. The tools showed up in flashes, but injuries kept him from ever reaching the ceiling that made him such an appealing pick.
He debuted for the Guardians in 2017, then missed the end of that season with a broken hand. That injury was a sign of what was coming, as he played just 162 games for Cleveland over the next four seasons.
The Guardians traded him to the Blue Jays at the start of the 2022 season, he finished that year with the Phillies, bounced around the minors for the next two seasons and officially retired last fall after not playing in 2025.
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