Goodbye Goon Squad (and a few others)

the non-roster invites and new player signings seem to be done, and almost everyone who's supposed to be in Goodyear with the Cleveland Indians has reported to Arizona for spring training. sadly though, unlike in years past, there are a few faces missing. normally, i write goodbye blogs for players who've been with the team for a significant amount of time and then are traded. in this case, we lost some Indians to free agency this offseason and i would like to say some formal goodbyes to them.

Tribe flashback: remember the Goon Squad? yeah, that's officially defunct now because they've all moved on/moved up. ain't nobody left. Jason Giambi ended his 2-year tour with the Tribe after 2014 (however, he will make a brief appearance in camp this week as a guest instructor); Yan Gomes got promoted from a bench guy to a starter in 2014; and Mike Aviles and Ryan Raburn were not re-signed after 2015. so the Goonies are over. c'est la vie.

okay Mike Aviles, i'm starting with you. let me get this outta the way, how could you sign with the enemy? our division rivals, the Detroit Tigers? seriously? ugh. Aviles first came to the Indians in November 2012 (with fellow Goon Squader Gomes) from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Esmil Rogers. "Handsome Mike" was