We’re 12 years removed from one of the highest-impact trade deadline deals in recent history. On July 7, 2008, the Indians parted with homegrown star and pending free agent CC Sabathia, sending the left-hander to the Brewers for first baseman/outfielder Matt LaPorta, southpaw Zach Jackson, righty Rob Bryson and a player to be named later who became outfielder Michael Brantley. In hindsight, it may have been a win-win transaction.
When the Brewers made the bold move to acquire Sabathia, they were mired in a seemingly interminable playoff drought that went back to the early 1980s. But the team and then-general manager Doug Melvin saw a way out when they picked up Sabathia, who joined a roster that was 49-40 at the time. There were some terrific players on that club – Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Mike Cameron, J.J. Hardy and Ben Sheets were among them – but Sabathia became the face of the franchise down the stretch and all but willed the Brewers to the postseason.
Already a three-time All-Star and the reigning AL Cy Young winner when he became a Brewer, the 28-year-old won 11 of his 13 decisions and posted a 1.65 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9 after heading to Milwaukee. His workload was enormous, too, as Sabathia amassed 130 2/3 innings across 17 starts in Milwaukee and piled up seven complete games in the process. Sabathia’s final complete game of the year came when he pitched the Brewers to the playoffs in their regular-season finale with nine innings of one-(unearned) run ball in a victory over the Cubs (here are Bob Uecker and Brian Anderson’s calls of that triumph for Milwaukee).
The Cubs did take the National League Central with ease, finishing with 97 wins to the Brewers’ 90, which set the Brew Crew up to face the Phillies in the NLDS. That proved to be the end of the line for the Brewers, who were no match for the eventual World Series winners and fell in four games. As excellent as he was during the season, Sabathia had nothing left against the Phillies, who battered the workhorse for five earned runs in 3 2/3 innings in Game 2 – his lone appearance of the series. That proved to be the final Brewers outing for Sabathia, as he left for a far bigger payday than they were able to offer in the next offseason. Sabathia signed with the Yankees for seven years and $161MM, and the now-retired 39-year-old further continued to make a resounding Hall of Fame case while wearing pinstripes.
While Sabathia wasn’t a Brewer for long, they don’t regret his magical run in their uniform or the long-awaited return to respectability he helped provide as a member of the team. That’s not say they came away from the trade unscathed, though. None of LaPorta (a once-promising prospect), Jackson or Bryson were impactful in the majors, but Brantley has been outstanding for the most part. A seventh-round draft pick of the Brewers and now a soon-to-be 33-year-old member of the Astros, Brantley has put together a lifetime line of .297/.354/.439 in 5,120 plate appearances. The majority of the damage has come in an Indians uniform, but they weren’t contenders in 2008 and weren’t going to re-sign Sabathia, so selling him for the best possible return made sense.
Losing Sabathia certainly hurt for Cleveland, but getting several productive seasons out of Brantley made for a nice consolation prize. Conversely, it must have stung the Brewers to see what Brantley turned into, but neither they nor their fans will ever forget what Sabathia gave them over a couple incredible months.
The Phillies playoff game vs CC was a lot of fun during their WS run. Brett Myers at bat vs CC was a thing of beauty followed shortly by tHe Shane Victorino grand slam.
I remember Milwaukee riding CC into the playoffs with him coming into that game pitching on short rest. Watching Brett Myers take an 0-2 count to forcing a walk really got the crowd on their feet. He forced CC to throw roughly 10 pitches that at bat. It was a lot of fun of see live.
It’s too bad the ump was the reason why Myers waked as he missed a blatant looking strike. Whoever the ump was easily could be the real reason the Phillies eventually won the World Series that year.
Was Myers snoring before he waked?
And the rest of the division in his stomach.
… weak.
Except they didn’t win the division. And fat jokes are super dumb and lame, dude.
Garbage comment from a garbage human.
Sounds like somebody is a fattie!!!
Sounds like somebody is a worthless loser
You used my screen name in your insult dum dum!!! Be more creative!!!
It’s disgusting the way they splash this stuff all over the newspapers! What is journalism coming to? You’re laying on top of the queen with her legs wrapped around you. And they call that news. They can’t kick you off the force, Frank! It’s just not fair!
I don’t know if I would call it a win-win, so much as a win-got very lucky situation. Brantley was clearly not the main target of the trade, that was LaPorta. Cleveland just got very lucky that their long shot PTBNL paid off.
PTBNL’s aren’t always just throw-in guys that teams are taking a flyer on. You’re right that Brantley wasn’t the primary focus but that doesn’t mean the Indians didn’t evaluate him and wisely select him to complete the trade. At the time, Brantley was one of Milwaukee’s too prospects.
If I recall correctly, the PTBNL that the Indians were able to chose from was dependent on how the Brewers finished in the WC standings. Since they won the WC, the Indians had more options and ultimately selected Brantley. If the Indians were “lucky”, it was simply because the Brewers won the WC – which allowed them select Brantley.
They also lucked out in that trade with the Expos where they send them Bartolo Colon and got Sizemore and Cliff Lee in return. Those guys were not supposed to turn out to be stars and the Tribe lucked out, however the main piece of the trade was Brandon Phillips. And they absolutely blew it with Phillips, somehow a guy out of options could not crack their lineup and then gets traded for a bag of batting practice balls and goes on to blossom in Cincinnati.
Also somehow lucked out in that trade when they sent Cliff Lee to the Phillies yours later. None of the players panned out at first, however Carrasco did later on after hitting bottom and reinventing himself much like Cliff Lee did earlier.
Even though Carrasco eventually panned out, I’d still call that deal a loss for the Tribe. Carrasco is good, but not Cliff Lee-good. With a 3 or 4 for 1 deal, you just about know that the “1” is going to end up as the best player in the deal, with a couple exceptions, but the hope is that the sum of the prospects can equal out the deal. Since no one else in that deal did anything, it turned out to basically be Carrasco for Lee straight up. That a Philly win. It’s the same thing with the Sabathia deal. Even though, Brantley turned out to be a solid major leaguer, he was never on CC’s level. And since you can really only add one player from that deal, a CC for Brantley deal straight up, I gotta give the win to the Brewers.
I always thought Sizemore was the main piece of that deal. I didn’t follow prospects much back then, but I did collect baseball cards and I had a few of Sizemore as an Expo and none of Lee or Phillips. 99% of the time when a minor leaguer got a card back then, he was a better prospect.
But it’s only conjecture, like I said, I didn’t follow the minors at all back then.
No, it was Brandon Phillips all the way. They thought Sizemore was a great athlete, one that almost went the NCAA route to play football, but Phillips was the centerpiece. Funny they even wrote a book about that deal as if somehow they pulled off a heist. But to me they lucked out, and it was all negated IMO when they mishandled Phillips and then flipped Lee to the Phillies and lost on that deal as well.
Ironic that the only noteworthy player the Indians got back was a PTBNL
Between CC and Manny 2008 was the year of insane production for trade acquisitions
Throw in Mark Teixeira’s Angel numbers as well.
Too bad Manny was a cheater and that run he had ended up meaning nothing. He’s a disgrace and Mannywood was burned down a long time ago.
cc was a bum whiner and jerk but whatever.
The Dodger fans that share your opinion on Manny are beyond ridiculous. He singlehandedly carried them to the NLCS in a time period where they won 1 playoff game in 20 years. That was the best time to be a Dodger fan in a very long time until this current run started. Yes the PED suspension was bad but the idea it made it all for nothing is dumb.
MIL CC reminded me of rental HOU Randy Johnson.
I miss that ’08 Phillies team
I would definitely join a religion that was based around Chase Utley
The Dodgers could have gotten CC at the deadline that year along with Casey Blake but McCourt vetoed the deal. He didn’t want to give up a lot of prospects but we still gave up the main piece in Carlos Santana lol. We might have gone all the way that year if the trade happens.
… sounds similar to how the Dodgers passed on Verlander at the deadline a few years back.
The issue with that logic is the Sabathia deal wasn’t a deadline deal, that’s what made it noteworthy. It was made on July 7th. The Brewers knew they needed a kickstart so they acquired him 3 1/2 weeks before the deadline.
It was a blessing watching CC Sabathia pitch. He might be one of the last pitchers we ever see who had an outside chance at winning 300 games, sad he didn’t make it.
One of the greats for sure. With specialized bullpens and pitch counts these days, we’re not going to see 300 career wins anymore. I really don’t care for the W stat.
Possibly one of the top 100 lefties in baseball although towards the bottom of that list. Many better.
Anybody else watching KBO?
I am going to adopt Samsung as my team. Solid baseball, but basically equal to AA baseball in terms of watchability.
Kia = really bad baseball. It’s almost like watching a kid’s little league rec team. Bad routes on fly balls, balls dropping everywhere, errors all over the place. It’s kind of funny that Matt Williams is their manager.
Man I miss MLB.
They make a quality tv too
Kia = really bad car as well. It’s like driving a Matchbox car except not as solid.
Cc was great for 5 years as a Yankee. I was at opening day of new stadium when he got shelled by Cleveland and cliff lee. We rarely saw the Brewers CC but we did get a ws in 2009. He deserves the hall. He was a horse!
He’s a horse? Come on man leave the fat jokes out of it…
Par for the course as a brewers fan and good pitching. Never can seem to get anyone to stay to build around. The ones we do long term sign end up being mistakes or worse. (Loshe, garza, marcum, etc….)
Hitting usually is never our problem. (Especially in that park). Getting a good staff built around that is.
As a middle aged Brewer fan, I can tell you CC and ’08 marked a turning point. The winning Brewer teams of my youth (’78-’82) were but a distant memory and we hadn’t been to the playoffs since 1982. CC was a bad, bad, man. It was the most dominating half season I’ve ever seen a pitcher have. He should have no-hit the Astros if not for a weak bunt.
The Crew won the Wild Card that year, ending the playoff drought and putting Milwaukee baseball back on the map.
CC is still a God in Milwaukee.
I think CC’s second half stretch was more impressive than Hershiser’s scoreless inning record. So many must-win games, long starts, short rest, hitter-friendly setting, dominant results. Awesome to behold.
Not even remotely close.
That might be an interesting article prompt for MLBTR – “Most Ridiculous Half Seasons in History.” You’d be hard pressed to top CC on that premise.
Pmollan, agree with all you wrote except I believe the near no- hitter was against the Buccos in Pittsburgh.
How about Rick Sutcliffe and his 16-1 record for the Cubs in 1984 after having been traded in mid-season?
The 2011 Phillies had 6 pitchers (Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Oswalt, Worley, Kendrick) combine for 1100 innings of 2.72 ERA and got bounced in the first round, then they had the 5 of them (No Oswalt) in 2012 and went .500
The only carrying CC did was a take home bag from the all you can eat buffet.
As a lifelong Brewers fan, what CC brought that season was nothing short of spectacular. He single handedly put life into our franchise that it had been lacking for years. Scoffing in the playoffs is forgiven 10 times over for what he did to get us there. I haven’t seen many pitchers carry a team like that in a long time.
When will MLBTR writers learn that you don’t need a damn comma before the word “too?”
Insane how he led that Brewers team in WAR with only 17 starts. CC was missed in CLE! Seeing him and Cliff Lee face off in the 2009 World Series stung, but getting Brantley and Carrasco for them was nice in the long run (sadly they were both injured during the 2016 world series
Luckily for cc the use and abuse that the Brewers put him through did not damage him down the road. I mean they actually rode him to death in his short time there as pitch counts went out the window.
A big part of that was CC lobbying to a) not come out of games and b) go in short rest. I believe at one point near the end of the season when they asked him to go on short rest, his reply was “give me the d*mn ball”.
So I think he had as much to do with that as anyone.
Well, I don’t blame him, because he wanted to continue to try to help them beat out the Mets, who were doing a good job at that alone as they were self destructing almost as bad, if not worse than towards the end of the 2007 season, when they let the Phillies come back and win the division as they lost 15 of their last 20 games, including an embarrassing loss in Game 162 to the Marlins, who actually also ended their season in Game 162 the year after.
Being competitive and wanting the ball is what you want out of a player. But coaches have to have enough sense to not totally blow by normal expectations. Some extra work is ok, but riding the guy the way they did, especially considering he was a short term rental, was pure negligence. Had he rode into the market with a dead arm would have been terrible. Alls well that ends well, but it doesn’t change the idea they misused him.