Brandon Guyer

Amateur career

Guyer is a 2004 graduate of Herndon High School where he was a three-year letter winner in baseball as well as football. In football, he rushed for over 1,000 yards as a tailback for the Hornets in both his junior and senior seasons. As a senior, he set the school single-game touchdown record, scoring seven touchdowns during a 285-yard rushing performance on homecoming night (October 4, 2003, Herndon 44, West Potomac 26). Guyer helped Herndon break a six-year Northern Region playoff drought, leading the Hornets to a 7-4 season. He was a third team all-state pick as a junior and a second team all-state pick as a senior. In baseball, Guyer is the Hornets' all-time career home run hitter (13) and holds the single-season home run record with eight. He was a part of the Hornets 19-4 Concorde District championship squad in 2002—the last time Herndon won a district title. As a senior, he had 23 RBI, a .483 batting average and was walked 19 times.

Guyer attended the University of Virginia, and played college baseball for the Virginia Cavaliers baseball team. He was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 2007 amateur draft.

Professional career

After the 2010 season, Guyer was included in a trade to the Tampa Bay Rays with Hak-Ju Lee, Chris Archer, Robinson Chirinos and Cubs outfielder Sam Fuld for Matt Garza, Fernando Perez and Zac Rosscup.

On May 5, 2011 Guyer was called up to the majors after a successful stint with the Durham Bulls. The next day, in his first major league at bat, he hit a 2-run home run off of Baltimore Orioles rookie pitcher Zach Britton. In doing so, Guyer became the second player in Rays history to hit a home run in his first career at-bat, as well as the first player to ever hit a home run in his first career at-bat in Camden Yards. On May 8, he was optioned back to Durham.

Guyer began the 2012 season with Triple-A Durham, hitting .294 with 3 HR and 13 RBI in 22 games before being recalled to Tampa Bay on May 9 after Jeff Keppinger was placed on the restricted list. Guyer played in 3 games with Tampa Bay, going 1-7 with a home run, before he hit the disabled list with a shoulder strain. On May 25, the Rays announced that Guyer was placed on the injured reserve list after undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder.

On April 2012 it was reported that Guyer was included as a defendant in a $5 million lawsuit with fellow Rays prospect, Matt Bush. The lawsuit was based on Bush being involved in an accident while driving Guyer's Dodge Durango; the lawsuit was settled in 2013.

Guyer returned to the majors in 2014, and was on the Rays roster on opening day, during which he pinch ran and scored a run in a Rays' victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. In 2015, he led the American League in being hit by the most pitches. The MLB single game record for being hit by pitches is three, and Guyer has been the recipient in the two most recent occurrences as of April 21, 2016: on October 2, 2015 vs. the Mets, and on April 21, 2016, vs. the Red Sox. His knack for getting pegged has earned the nickname, "La Piñata."

On August 1, 2016, Guyer was traded to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for prospects Nathan Lukes and Jhonleider Salinas. On January 18, 2017, Guyer signed a two-year, $5 million contract with the Indians. The contract also includes a $3 million club option for the 2019 season.