A Future Indians Stud That You May Not Know
By: Jamie Renner
The Indians have been known to produce a massive amount of talent, traditionally in three positions: pitchers, middle infielders, and third base. Those have become the organization's bread and butter in talent developed over the past 2 decades, but it is not just the way the organization develops talent. The Indians have their way finding talented players either by trade or in the draft. It seems like regardless where the Indians pick in the draft, they somehow find a way to get the most out of those individuals. Whether it was Jim Thome in the 13th round, or Francisco Lindor with the 8th overall pick, the Indians know where and how to find talent. It is actually amazing how backwards-ass their draft luck is. It never seems like their first round talent regardless of their pick seems to work out in the majors. The organization seems to just take continuous amounts of losses on first round picks. In 2021 there are only two players who have come from the first round of the MLB; those two players are Bradley Zimmer and Triston McKenzie. Every other Indians player has come from the later rounds, trades, or undrafted signings which seems perplexing.
These undrafted prospects always have some kind of amazing come-up story, always being the underdog in every situation, and eventually (for the most part) become successful. Those are the players I value the most, because of how character and will power paves their way to the big leagues. These players give you the sense that there is hope and that the grind will be worth it in the long run. When it comes to this type of prospect, there is one individual who I believe is going to become the next star in the Cleveland Indians rotation. His name is Jaime Arias-Bautista and he is currently pitching in Low A for the Lynchburg Hillcats. Jamie (pronounced High-may) came to the Indians organization as an undrafted free agent out of Fresno State University. Fun fact, former Indians outfielder, Jordan Luplow (now with the Tampa Bay Rays), attended Fresno State as well.
Jaime signed with the Indians in 2020 as a college junior and has come into the 2021 season looking phenomenal. In 23 games with Lynchburg he has recorded: 87.1 innings with 111 strikeouts and a 3.81 ERA.
While not many people know about him, Todd and Kevin recently talked about Jaime in the most recent podcast (shameless plug and shoutout to the CLE Futures podcast) and they both seem to be pretty positive on the outlook of this young kid's career. While Jaime is only 22 and stuck all the way down in Low A Lynchburg, I believe it is only a matter of time before Jaime’s career starts to pick up and he continues to move through the pitching pipeline the Indians have set up. I expect to hopefully see him in Lake County and Akron in 2022 and (if all goes well) in the big leagues by 2024.
The future is extremely bright in Cleveland's minor league system and Jaime is going to be a big piece of that future. As always, go Tribe.
