Matt Garza, Matt Garza, Matt Garza – that is all I see and hear when baseball critics, analysts and fans chat and tweet. But, why exactly? Well, it is quite simply getting to that time of year again – well, almost.
With the trade deadline approaching, the Rangers and Cubs have been in talks for a few days (feels like weeks) trying to move starting pitcher Matt Garza to Texas for a bunch of prospects to help rebuild the Cubs. Although many people are talking about this inevitable trade and waiting for it to become official, others are already talking about whether or not it would be a good trade to begin with. Frankly, we won’t know whether the deal turns out favorable for either team. While we wait for this as well as other trades to happen, I thought we should take a look back at some of the worst trades involving pitchers in the MLB.
Let’s start with the Baltimore Orioles, who traded away future star pitcher Curt Schilling, Pete Harnisch and outfielder Steve Finley for the Houston Astros slugger, Glen Davis. This trade turned out horribly, as Davis never hit more than 13 homers in his three seasons with the O’s. It’s too bad, seeing as how he hit 30 dingers on 3 occasions in Houston. Curt Schilling went on to win 2 World Series, one with the D-Backs and the other with the Red Sox. Finley also had a great career winning in Arizona. Harnisch had two seasons with 16 wins after he left the O’s. What a terrible trade by the Baltimore.
Johnson, part 1: This was one of the worst trades in Montreal Expos history, trading away Randy Johnson with Gene Harris and Brian Holman to the Seattle Mariners for pitchers Mark Langston and Mike Campbell in 1989. The whole point of the Langston trade was to make a playoff push at the time, and although he had reasonable stats that year, he only played 24 games for Montreal before leaving for Anaheim the next season. Randy Johnson (The Big Unit), who won 303 games in his career and a World Series with the D-Backs, could have been a perfect fit for Montreal if the team had either sent someone else for Langston or not made the trade. Now Montreal fans have to sit and wonder what the Expos would have been like with Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson in the same rotation. Unfortunately for all Expos fans, this was truly a terrible trade.
The New York Mets had some stinkers in their history, but this has to be one of the worst trades they have made. The team traded Nolan Ryan to the California Angels for Jim Fregosi. Reading up on this trade it looked like a good idea at the time, seeing as Nolan had a 29-38 record for the Mets. But in his first season with the Angels he won 19 games, 329 batters. The next season recorded 21 wins and a record 383 strikeouts. Fregosi did not work out in New York and Ryan of course became a hall-of-famer. Terrible trade by the New York Mets, and this proves why sometimes it is worth the wait when it comes to prospects.
Johnson, Part 2: Depending on how you look at this trade, you might think it was a good idea for that season – though it was only bad for part of the season. The Houston Astros would trade away Carlos Guillen, John Halama and Freddie Garcia for the Seattle Mariners Randy Johnson. As mentioned, for the rest of that season it was a good move, as Johnson went 10-1 with Houston, and the Astros would made the playoffs. Unfortunately, the San Diego Padres soon eliminated them from the post-season. After that season Randy Johnson left Houston for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Houston ended up with nothing after that trade. Garcia had a decent career in Seattle, Halama’s best years were as a Mariner, and Guillen broke out later in his career with the Detroit Tigers – he was still a good enough that the Astros still could have used him.
The Atlanta Braves made a steal of a trade when they acquired John Smoltz from the Detroit Tigers for Doyle Alexander, which was another situation where at the time it looked like a good deal. Alexander did go 9-0 after the trade, which helped lead the tigers to the division title, but he was 0-2 in the ALCS making his postseason total 0-5 with an 8.38 ERA. His final season was in 1989 where he had a dismal 6-18 record. Smoltz would become one of the best Braves pitchers in history, winning 210 games with the Braves, a World Series title and was a pretty good closer from 2001-2004. In that time he saved 154 games, with 55 coming in his best sesaon. He posted a 15-4 post-season record. The Detroit Tigers could have used a Smoltz in the 90’s, and I am pretty sure that the Braves would never think twice about making that trade again.
Three pitchers who never amounted to anything for Mark McGwire – did it really happen? Well to most A’s fans, I am sure that they are wishing it never happened. McGwire was dealt to St Louis and hit 70 home runs in a season, highlighted by his friendly home run race with friend and rival Sammy Sosa (I saw him smash a homer at the Big O – it was amazing). Everyone wanted to see McGwire hit dingers and people loved it. Yes it was part of the steroid era, but tell me you did not enjoy seeing a homer hit by him as a kid (or “older kid”). Anyway, the Cardinals sent 3 pitching prospects; T.J. Matthews, Blake Stein and Eric Ludwick. These pitchers unfortunately never amounted to anything in Oakland, and of course the A’s would lose a lot of attention and money that McGwire had made for the Cardinals.
This one is an obvious one; Babe Ruth traded to the New York Yankees from the Boston Red Sox. Ruth of course is one of the greatest sluggers in baseball history hitting 714 home runs, 2220 RBI’s with a lifetime average of 342. This of course was with the Yankees for the great majority of his career, but before he became one of the greatest sluggers he was a very good pitcher in Boston. In Boston, Ruth went 89-46 with two seasons where he won over 20 wins, and in 1916 he had an ERA of 1.75. This trade would be one of the worst and was claimed to be the curse (of the bambino) that caused the Red Sox to go without a World Series for 80-plus years. Although the curse is lifted, this trade likely is the worst in history.
These are just some of the worst trades out there that involve pitchers – trust me there are a lot more. Teams that acquired these stars, or future stars, won the trades hands down, but the teams that made them would likely soon forget the fact. So now we wait and see if the 2013 trade deadline will have any future flops involving pitching. Something tells me there will be a few, but will they match up with some of the worst trades that I have mentioned? Only time will tell. So, let’s sit back and watch as the trades unfold. Enjoy the deadline everyone!
Note: Now I know I didn’t get every trade, so by all means please feel free to leave a comment and talk about a trade I missed.
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