{"id":7643,"date":"2017-11-04T13:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-04T18:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.baseballroundtable.com\/?p=7643"},"modified":"2017-11-04T13:00:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-04T18:00:51","slug":"its-mlb-speculation-season-to-warm-up-a-look-at-six-of-mlbs-worst-trades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballroundtable.com\/its-mlb-speculation-season-to-warm-up-a-look-at-six-of-mlbs-worst-trades\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s MLB Speculation Season – To Warm Up, a Look at Six of MLB’s Worst Trades"},"content":{"rendered":"
Well, sadly, the baseball seasons is over \u2013 congratulations Astros!\u00a0 We will soon be in the trading season (we are already in the speculation season).\u00a0 With that in mind, Baseball Roundtable would like to dedicate this post to what BBRT sees as the half dozen worst MLB trades of all time (or, if you look at it from the other side, the six best).\u00a0 Surprisingly (or maybe not), five of the six involved future Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Okay, so technically this was a sale and not a trade.\u00a0 It\u2019s still has to be here as the worst front-office move ever.<\/p>\n The Red Sox were moving a player who had gone 89-46 with a 2.19 ERA over six seasons in Boston. As a pitcher, Ruth was a two-time twenty-plus game winner and had led the AL in ERA, games started, complete games and shutouts once each. Not only that, he had led the American League in home runs in his last two seasons (1918-19) with the Red Sox; while going 22-12 on the mound.\u00a0 His last year with Boston, Ruth hit .322 and led the AL in runs (103), RBI (113) and set a new single-season home run record (29). The final straw? Ruth was just 25-years-old.<\/p>\n The Red Sox sale ranks at the top because it involved the \u201cbiggest name\u201d in the game \u2013 and the Red Sox were fully aware of what they had (and what they were giving up) and received no on-the field return.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In Ruth\u2019s first season as a Yankee (1920), he hit .376 and obliterated his own single-season HR record with 54 long balls \u2013 out-homering every other team in the AL (the Red Sox logged 22 round trippers without Ruth) and all but one team in the NL. That season, Ruth also led the AL in runs (158); RBI (135); and walks (150).<\/p>\n For their $125,000, the Yankees ended up getting 15 seasons of \u201cRuthian\u201d production \u2013 a .349 average, 659 (of his 714) home runs, 1,978 RBI. During his NY tenure, the Babe won ten home run titles, four times led the league in RBI, seven times topped the AL in runs scored and picked up the 1923 MVP Award. \u00a0Ruth was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the 1936 inaugural class. As the number-one bad front-office move, this one\u2019s a no-doubter.<\/p>\n _________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n <\/a>Christy Mathewson got off to an unusual start – and was almost the Giants\u2019 Hall of Famer that got away.<\/em> In 1900, as a 19-year-old, Mathewson was tearing up the Class D Virginia-Carolina League running up a 20-2 record by mid-July.\u00a0 The New York Giants noticed, signing him and bringing the teenager up to the big club. For the Giants, Mathewson went 0-3, with a 5.08 ERA \u2013 leading the New York club to send him back to Norfolk (asking for their money back).\u00a0\u00a0 The Reds picked up Mathewson in the off season for $100 and –\u00a0 here comes the trade<\/em> \u2013 sent him back to the Giants for veteran hurler Amos Rusie.\u00a0 The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n Mathewson pitched 16 more seasons for the Giants and ended up winning 372 games (188 losses) with a 2.13 ERA for New York. (He added one win, ironically, for the Reds in his last season (1916). Mathewson won 20 or more games in a season 13 times (30+ four times), led the league in ERA five times, in strikeouts five times and in shutouts four times. The Big six was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.<\/p>\n The Christy Mathewson for Amos Rusie trade ranks right up there with the Babe Ruth sale. After all, Mathewson won 372 games for his new team, while Rusie went 0-1, 8.59 for his career after the trade (he had 246 MLB wins before the transaction). The Ruth trade gets an edge because, the move came at a time when The Babe was \u201cpeaking,\u201d while the Mathewson\/Rusie deal involved a player with potential for one the down side of a Hall of Fame career.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n What did the Reds get in return?\u00a0 Rusie \u2013 known as The Hoosier Thunderbolt – was a nine-season MLB veteran with 246 MLB wins (174 losses) under his belt at the time of the trade. He had won 20 or more games in all seven of his seasons with the Giants (30+ four times), had led the NL in strikeouts five times and would eventually be elected to the Hall of Fame. However, Rusie (who had suffered an arm injury in 1898) had been out of baseball for two years.\u00a0 Attempting a comeback, he pitched just three games for Cincinnati – going 0-1, 8.59 \u2013 before retiring. Overall, the Giants came out 372 wins to the good on this transaction \u2013 number-two on BBRT\u2019s worse trade list.<\/p>\n __________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n <\/a>Okay, so maybe the Mets didn\u2019t know what they had in Ryan. After all, he was 10-14, 3.97 the year before the trade \u2013 and Fregosi was a six-time All Star shortstop. Still, Fregosi was coming off a season when he had hit just .233-5-33 in 107 games. \u00a0What adds insult to injury on this move is that \u2013 in order to get Fregosi \u2013 the Mets also sent the Angels pitching prospect Don Rose, catcher Frank Estrada, as well as outfielder Leroy Stanton.\u00a0 (Rose went 1-4, 4.22 for the Angels in 1972 and 1-4, 4.14 in three MLB seasons; Estrada had two major league at bats with the Mets in 1971 and never played in the majors again, and Stanton played five seasons for the Angels \u2013 hitting .247, with 47 home runs, 242 RBI and 35 stolen bases, numbers which exceeded Fregosi\u2019s production for the Mets.)<\/em><\/p>\n Nolan Ryan had zero All Star selections before the trade and eight after the trade. Jim Fregosi was a six-time All Star before the trade and did not make another All Star squad.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ryan, who had gone 29-38, 3.58 in five Mets\u2019 seasons, blossomed with the Angels.\u00a0 In his first year in California (1972), he was an AL All Star \u2013 going 19-16, 2.28 and leading the league in strikeouts with 329 and shutouts with nine. He spent eight seasons with the Angels, and was a five-time All Star and two-time 20-game winner during that period.\u00a0 He logged 138 of his ultimate 324 MLB wins in an Angels’ uniform. (His line with the Angels was 138-121, 3.07.) He also led the AL in strikeouts seven times in his eight Angels\u2019 seasons, topping 300 whiffs five times. Ryan notched 2,416 of his MLB-record 5,714 strikeouts and four of his record seven no-hitters as an Angel. He achieved free agency after the 1979 season and left the Angels for the Astros. But clearly, the Halos got plenty of mileage out of this ultimately Hall of Famer (inducted 1999) after the Fregosi trade.<\/p>\n How did the Mets\u2019 fare? Fregosi faced some injury issues and, in his first year as a Met (primarily playing 3B), hit .232-5-32 in 101 games \u2013 remarkably similar to his previous season with the Angels. He was on the same track in 1973, hitting .234-0-11 in 45 Mets\u2019 contests before being sold to the Rangers on July 11 of that season.\u00a0 Fregosi finished an 18-season MLB career in 1978 with a career .265 average, 151 home runs and 706 RBI.<\/p>\n ________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n <\/a>First a look at the two principal in the trade \u2013 Lou Brock and Ernie Broglio.<\/p>\n The 25-year-old Brock was in his fourth season with the Cubs at the time of the trade \u2013 and was hitting .251, with two home runs, 14 RBI and ten stolen bases (52 games). The previous year, he appeared to have broken out, going .315-14-58 (with 43 steals for the Cubs). Still his .251 average seemed more in line with his .263 and .258 averages in his first two Cubs\u2019 campaigns.<\/p>\n Broglio was a veteran pitcher \u2013 at age 28, in his sixth major league season. He had been a 21-game winner in 1960 and an 18-game winner the season before the trade (18-8, 2.99 for the Cardinals in 1963). At the time of the trade, he was 3-5, 3.50 in 11 starts.<\/p>\n Brock went on to play 16 seasons (including 1964) with the Cardinals, hitting a healthy .297, with 149 home runs and 900 RBI. He also swiped 938 bases \u2013 leading the league in steals eight times, with a high of 118 in 1974. He was a six-time All Star for Saint Louis and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985. Broglio was with the Cubs until 1966, winning just seven games (losing 19) with a 5.40 ERA.\u00a0 Clearly, advantage Cardinals.<\/p>\n In 1968, 29-year-old Lou Brock in the fifth of 16 seasons with the Cardinals, led the NL with 46 doubles, 14 triples and 62 stolen bases. In 1968, 32-year-old Ernie Broglio was out of the major league. Following the trade for Brock, he won just seven more MLB games (19 losses).<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n But what about the others in the trade?<\/p>\n Going with Brock to the Cardinals were southpaw Jack Spring (a journeyman who had started the season with the Angels and was 0-0, 6.00 with the Cubs) and RHP Paul Toth (in his third, and final MLB season), who was 0-2, 8.44 at the time of the trade.\u00a0 Spring pitched in just two games for the Cardinals in 1963 (three innings). His final MLB season was 1965 (1-2, 3.74 for the Indians) \u2013 and he was 12-5, 3.74 for seven teams in eight MLB seasons. Toth did not pitch in the majors again after the trade and finished his MLB career at 9-12, 3.80 in three seasons.<\/p>\n Along with Broglio, the Cardinals sent veteran (38-year-old) southpaw Bobby Shantz \u2013 a former MVP, for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1952. Shantz was winding down his career as a reliever and was 1-3, 3.12 at the time of the transaction. Also included in the deal was outfielder Doug Clemens hitting .205-1-9 at the time of the deal. Shantz went 0-1, 5.56 for the Cubs (20 games) before being sold to the Phillies in mid-August. He went 1-1, 2.25 for the Phillies and retired after the 1964 season. Clemens did pay some dividends. After the trade, he hit .279, with two home runs and 12 RBI in 54 games for the Cubs.\u00a0 He then hit .221-4-26 in 128 games in 1965. He was traded to the Phillies for Wes Covington before the 1966 season. Covington got in just nine games for the Cubs before he was released. Clearly, this was a \u201cTwo-B\u201d trade – Brock for Broglio \u2013 and if the Cubs had seen what was to be<\/em>, they would probably have hung on to Brock.<\/p>\n ____________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n
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