It's the hard luck fate of any player who has gotten that "previous big-time prospect/current 'AAAA' type" where they're considered a good minor league player, but not a viable major leaguer. They become minor league journeymen who drift from team to team in hopes of getting any sort of shot. But, since they're not one of a team's prospects, they get put below anyone that team has invested anything in (current big league money or minor league development/signing bonus) on the totem pole.
Once a guy gets a reputation like that, it's nearly impossible for them to do well enough to reverse that stigma and be considered a "made man". Off my head, Garrett Jones and (maybe) Casey McGahee come to mind. I can't think of McGahee's details off the top of my head, but I know Jones was considered a former prospect who'd be a lifer in AAA, occasionally getting injury replacement call-ups, but when he came to Pittsburgh, they were sucking and he hit the shit out of the ball from day one in the bigs after getting the "Whatever, fuck it..." call-up.
And he's been in the majors ever since, despite really only being considered decently above replacement that half year he debuted with Pittsburgh and, I think, one year since then. But most guys like that come up, give a few appearance that range from decent to sub-par and then disappear back to AAA with their cup of coffee until they find a situation where they can come up again.
Still weird, since he was hitting really well in those couple weeks with Cleveland, to be jettisoned that quickly, but like I said, he was a cheap off-season injury filler acquisition and it's rare those guys stick. He probably knew the entire time that he was basically auditioning for a more permanent job on another team, if one comes up.
