Recently Bob Nightengale of USA Today revisited the off-season deal that sent Edinson Volquez from the Rangers to the Reds for Josh Hamilton. Nightengale noted that both teams have no regrets and that the deal "continues to reverberate around baseball".
Rarely does a deal work out so well for both teams, especially so soon. Volquez is one of the early candidates for the NL Cy Young and Hamilton is an early leader for the AL MVP. Both are expected to be All-Stars next month.
It is rare for two teams to swap young players of this caliber, although this was just one of two such deals this past winter. The Twins and Rays swapped Matt Garza and Delmon Young. Unlike the Volquez-Hamilton deal, the Garza-Young deal has been more beneficial for the Rays, at least early on.
This got me thinking…Has there ever been another deal in which two young major leaguers with this level of potential were swapped for each other and made such an immediate impact for their new clubs?
Let’s here your thoughts in the comments…
Cork Gaines writes for RaysIndex and can be reached here.
