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Jack Of All Trades: Fred McGriff

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What do you think of when you hear Fred McGriff's name? For me, the answer is Terry McGriff, whose baseball card I often pulled from a pack of Topps, Donruss or when desperate for my baseball card fix, Score. The excitement over getting the Crime Dog quickly gave way, as I wondered who, exactly, Terry McGriff was.

For others, McGriff's name brings to mind the blissfully consistent first baseman who hit 30 home runs ten times (and hit 28, 27 and 27 in three others).

But for a surprising number of teams, McGriff conjured up the phrase: trade him.

This is not to say that McGriff was considered a clubhouse cancer, or even an unskilled player. But He was traded four times and sold once en route to the same number of career home runs as Lou Gehrig. Let's take a look at who got the best of those deals – in nearly every case, the answer is "whichever team got Fred McGriff."

  • The Yankees selected McGriff in the ninth round of the 1981 draft. But in an inexplicable deal, they traded him, along with Dave Collins, Mike Morgan and cash, to the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Dale Murray and Tom Dodd on December 9, 1982. If one trade could represent the excesses of the Yankees at their worst, it is this one. The Yanks brought in Collins as a high-priced free agent the season before to replace Reggie Jackson. After Collins hit .253/.315/.330, the Yankees shipped him out. McGriff, of course, had just hit .272/.413/.456 in rookie ball. Mike Morgan, who will be the subject of a future Jack of All Trades piece himself, had another 20 years and 2,532.1 innings left in the tank. And what did the Yankees get? In Dodd, a slugger with a career .295 on-base percentage in the minor leagues, and Murray, a veteran swingman whose ERA never saw the good side of 4.00 again.
  • Fast forward to December 5, 1990. McGriff has by now developed into an elite player, posting an OPS+ of 166 in 1989 and 154 overall as a Blue Jay. But in a four-player trade, Toronto traded McGriff and Tony Fernandez to the Padres for Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar. It's easy to say Toronto got the best of this deal, since Carter and Alomar were essential parts of two world championships. John Olerud replaced McGriff at first base, so the Blue Jays kept getting production. But McGriff complicates the assumption that the Blue Jays won this trade. He continued his essential McGriff-ness, posting a 149 OPS+ in three seasons with San Diego. Carter's best single-season OPS+ was 124, and his overall OPS+ with the Blue Jays was 104. Even Alomar posted just an OPS+ of 123 with Toronto, though that stat tells just part of the story, since Alomar was a terrific defender and baserunner. Ultimately, Carter plus Alomar probably beats McGriff plus Fernandez (who wasn't very good with San Diego). But McGriff might have been the most productive player of the four after the trade.
  • And yet, the Padres dealt the 29-year-old McGriff on July 18, 1993 to their division rival, the Atlanta Braves, for a trio of young players: Vince Moore, Donnie Elliott and Melvin Nieves. It is fair to say Atlanta won this trade, though Nieves eventually put up a pair of 20-plus home run seasons with the Tigers. McGriff hit .310/.392/.612 for Atlanta after the trade, then showed it was no fluke by hitting .318/.389/.623 in 1994 over what approximated a full season. Three decent seasons of 115 OPS+ hitting followed, before the Braves unceremoniously sold McGriff to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
  • McGriff alternated between decent seasons and excellent ones with Tampa Bay. And in his fourth year in Tampa, hitting .318/.387/.536, the Chicago Cubs decided they could use him for the stretch run. McGriff decided he wasn't so sure about the Cubs and invoked his no-trade clause. He eventually relented and the Cubs acquired him on July 27, 2001 for Manny Aybar and Jason Smith. The Cubs finished third in 2001 and fifth in 2002, but it was no fault of McGriff's. He posted a .282/.383/.559 line after the deal in 2001, and had his last McGriff-like year in 2002, with a line of .273/.353/.505 and 30 home runs.

Put simply, no one who ever traded for Fred McGriff had reason to regret it.

Jack Of All Trades: Rusty Staub

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In Gary Sheffield and Bobby Bonilla, we've seen that a very good player can be traded multiple times if he wears out his welcome. But baseball teams managed to trade Rusty Staub five different times – even though anyone who has ever met the man describes him as a terrific teammate and better human being.

And lest you think Staub wasn't a terrific player, his career OPS+ of 124 was better than that of current major leaguers Victor Martinez, Brad Hawpe, Carlos Beltran and Derrek Lee. Staub topped 130 OPS+ in eight seasons, with a season-high of 166 in 1969.

Let's run down Les Transactions of the man they called Le Grande Orange: 

  • Before ever donning a Mets uniform, Staub was indirectly involved in a huge part of their history. After six years in Houston, the Astros sent Staub to the Montreal Expos on January 22, 1969 for Jesus Alou and Donn Clendenon, but Clendenon refused to report to the Astros. Eventually, Montreal sent Jack Billingham, Skip Guinn and $100K in Clendenon's place. Then, in June of 1969, the Mets acquired Clendenon and he went on to become World Series MVP. However, Staub was by far the best player in that deal, as he hit .302/.426/.526 in 1969 and .274/.394/.497 in 1970.
  • After a similarly strong 1971, the Expos turned around and traded Staub to the New York Mets on April 5, 1972 for Tim Foli, Mike Jorgensen and Ken Singleton. It is hard to say the Mets got the better of this one, though Staub helped them to a National League pennant in 1973 and became the first Met to drive in more than 100 runs in 1975. But the Expos got their share of value, too. By 1973, Singleton was hitting .302/.425/.479, Jorgensen had a strong career as a multi-position hitter with pop and Foli was a strong glove man at short.
  • To be sure, that haul makes what the Mets got for Staub after the 1975 season look quite unimpressive. New York traded him with Bill Laxton for Billy Baldwin and Mickey Lolich on December 12, 1975. The big catch here was supposed to be Lolich, who had thrown a ridiculous number of innings, 1560.2, over his previous five seasons (including 376 in 1971! No, that isn't a typo). Surprise, surprise, the former Tiger great broke down in his first season with the Mets. Meanwhile, Staub posted an OPS+ of 117 in his four Detroit seasons, driving in 121 runs in 1978.
  • But with Staub 35 years old and hitting just .236/.331/.402, the Tigers decided to send him back to Montreal for career minor leaguer Randy Schafer and cash on July 20, 1979. His second stint in Montreal was much briefer, but also a success: he posted an OPS+ of 112 in 101 plate appearances.
  • Nevertheless, Montreal traded their beloved Rusty (whose number they eventually retired) to Texas on March 31, 1980 for a pair of brief major leaguers, Chris Smith and LaRue Washington. What Texas got was the last great Rusty Staub season: .300/.370/.459, good for an OPS+ of 129.

A season later, he was back with the Mets as a free agent, where he finished his career strong: a .276/.350/.391 line over 702 plate appearances in five seasons, primarily pinch-hitting. If only we all had such productive decline years.

Remembering The 1996 Trade Deadline

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We remember 1996. Keep in mind, as you hear all the names of yesteryear exchanged- this was the last year the National League won the All-Star Game before last night. That's right, the previous time the NL won, the following players were active: Andre Dawson, Rick Honeycutt, Tony Pena, Rob Deer, Alan Trammell, Otis Nixon and Frank Viola.

Meanwhile, these were the hot deals during the summer of 1996…

  • It's not well-remembered, but the San Diego Padres and Detroit Tigers made a five-player deal on June 18 that helped propel the Padres to the NL West title. John Flaherty and Chris Gomez went to San Diego, while Brad Ausmus, Andujar Cedeno and Russ Spear headed to Detroit. All Flaherty did was hit .303/.327/.451 after taking over as the regular catcher. Gomez was solid at shortstop, while Ausmus and Cedeno did little with Detroit. This was a key trade.
  • An unorthodox signing took place on July 4, George Steinbrenner's birthday, incidentally. The Yankees inked a power hitter who was hitting .435 with 18 home runs for the Northern League's St. Paul Saints: Darryl Strawberry. Straw hit .262/.359/.490 to help the Yankees win their first World Series since 1978.
  • In a trade that would haunt the Mets for years, New York shipped Jeff Kent and Jose Vizcaino to Cleveland for Carlos Baerga and Alvaro Espinosa on July 29. Baerga was just 27, but his best days were behind him. Meanwhile, Kent, dealt to San Francisco after the 1996 season in a deal for Matt Williams, had his best years still to come. How bad was this deal? Consider that the sum of the home runs Baerga hit before joining the Mets and the home runs Kent hit after leaving the Mets is 406. The two had a total of 85 home runs for the Mets.
  • In a deadline deal that had delayed benefits, the San Diego Padres acquired Greg Vaughn (along with Gerald Parent) from Milwaukee for Bryce Florie, Marc Newfield and Ron Villone. None of the three players San Diego gave up became stars (though Villone is still around), and Vaughn hit just .206 with 10 home runs after the trade in 1996. But after slumping through 1997, Vaughn went on to hit .272/.363/.597 with 50 home runs the following season. Vaughn credits Tony Gwynn with helping him, according to his son Cory, who played for San Diego State and is now in the New York Mets system and making me feel old. 
  • In a massive overpay, the Texas Rangers acquired John Burkett on August 8 for then-prospect Ryan Dempster and Rick Helling. The deal isn't massively upsetting to Rangers fans, since Helling was re-acquired for Ed Vosberg before Helling's 20-win season. Burkett was fine for Texas, posting a 4.06 ERA in 68.2 innings, but the Rangers lost in the playoffs anyway, as was their destiny at the time.
  • The Pirates horribly mis-timed a pair of pitchers in an August 28 deal. Pittsburgh traded Denny Neagle to the Braves for Ron Wright, Corey Pointer and Jason Schmidt. One year after the Pirates traded him, Neagle went 20-5 with a 2.97 ERA for Atlanta. Schmidt pitched to a 4.39 ERA over six seasons with the Pirates, but he posted a 3.36 ERA with the Giants after Pittsburgh traded him during the 2001 season.
  • Finally, on August 31, the Seattle Mariners acquired veteran infielder Dave Hollins from Minnesota for a player to be named later who turned out to be David Ortiz. Big Papi managed a .266/.348/.461 line over five seasons in Minnesota, playing sparingly. His line after Boston picked him up via free agency? .287/.388/.577.
  • BONUS! by popular demand, we must include the acquisition of Cecil Fielder on July 31 by the Yankees. New York sent Matt Drews and Ruben Sierra to Detroit. Fielder was a classic Yankee stretch-run addition, hitting .260/.342/.495 in 228 plate appearances. And, as befits the Yankees, Sierra eventually returned, providing a power bat off the bench in 2003-2005.

Jack Of All Trades: Gary Sheffield

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How does a player rack up 509 home runs, post a career OPS+ of 140 (better than Reggie Jackson, Chuck Klein and Al Kaline), make nine All-Star teams…and get traded five times?

Ask Gary Sheffield. His career has been a fantastic one, and if he is denied the Hall of Fame, it will likely be due to the perceived taint around his numbers. But Sheffield has also been part of the hot stove for as long as he's been a household name. Let's take a look at the blockbusters involving Sheff – a combined five trades totaling 25 players.

  • On March 29, 1992, a disgruntled Sheffield was traded by the Milwaukee Brewers with minor leaguer Geoff Kellogg (not MLB umpire Jeff Kellogg) to San Diego in exchange for Ricky Bones, Matt Mieske and Jose Valentin. While none of the three managed a career close to that of Sheffield, all three went on to be valuable. Bones became a mainstay in the Milwaukee rotation over the next four years, pitching to a 4.40 ERA. Mieske delivered 44 home runs over the next five seasons in Milwaukee as a power bat off the bench. And Valentin spent eight seasons in Milwaukee as an extremely underrated player due to his batting average. Valentin was a tremendous glove at shortstop, and delivered a respectable OPS+ of 89 over those eight seasons, posting double figures in home runs six times.
  • Sheffield, however, wore out his welcome in San Diego, despite winning the batting title in 1992 and posting a season line of .330/.385/.580. No, really. So on June 26, 1993, the Padres sent him to Florida along with Rich Rodriguez for Andres Berumen, Trevor Hoffman and Jose Martinez. Berumen and Martinez made no impact, while Hoffman, of course, became the all-time saves leader. Still, it is hard to say that San Diego got the equal of Sheffield's remaining career – not that Florida did, either.
  • The Marlins did get a 156 OPS+ over six seasons. But when the post-1997 firesale commenced, the Marlins traded Sheffield on May 14, 1998 with Manuel Barrios, Bobby Bonilla, Jim Eisenreich and Charles Johnson to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile. Florida then sent Piazza onto the Mets for prospects. And while it cost Los Angeles the best-hitting catcher in baseball history, Sheffield performed extremely well for them: a 160 OPS+ over four seasons, actually better than his performance for Florida.
  • Still, the Dodgers tired of Sheffield as well, and dealt the 33-year-old to Atlanta on January 15, 2002 in exchange for Andrew Brown, Brian Jordan and Odalis Perez. Brown, a top pitching prospect, never amounted to much, though Jordan gave the Dodgers a 116 OPS+ over two seasons, and Perez pitched to an ERA+ of 127 and made the All Star game in the first of five largely successful seasons with Los Angeles. Sheffield? All he did was post a 151 OPS+ in his two years with Atlanta, then signed with the New York Yankees before the 2004 season.
  • The haul New York got from the Tigers for Sheffield on November 10, 2006 shows that Sheffield was still a valuable bat late in his career. Though Sheffield was entering his age-38 season, Detroit traded Kevin Whelan, Anthony Claggett and Humberto Sanchez for Sheffield. Sanchez in particular was a highly-touted prospect, though injuries wrecked his career. But for the first time, a team dealing for Sheffield got less-than-superstar production. In two seasons with Detroit, Sheffield had an OPS+ of just 105. The Tigers released him, and even after an OPS+ of 118 with the Mets in 2009, no one wanted Sheffield in 2010.

Though he was a far better player, Sheffield's tale reminds one of Dave Kingman – a prodigious home run hitter who couldn't find a job after hitting 35 home runs in his final season. Kingman was also traded three times and sold once in his career. Overall, Sheffield's career, on some level, has to be considered a disappointment- an astounding thing to say about a player with so much production.

Remembering the 1994 Trade Deadline

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When picturing the 1994 Trade Deadline, it is appropriate to see increasing cloudiness, feel the air become thick with storm, and hear thunder in the distance.

Deadline deals were fewer in 1994, with a strike looming that many felt- correctly, it turned out- would make acquiring players with the postseason in mind an utterly futile exercise. That uncertainty is reflected in the choices teams made.

But with a season on, and no precedent whatsoever for the cancellation of the World Series, there were some low-risk moves that were obviously made with a playoff run in mind. Let's take a look at what might have been:

  • The Dodgers released Darryl Strawberry, who failed to live up to the free agent contract he signed after the 1990 season. The Giants signed the 32-year-old on June 19, hoping he had something left. Strawberry hit .239/.363/.424 for the Giants, and in fact, his stats from the moment he signed with San Francisco to the end of his career included four more seasons of part-time work with an OPS above .800.
  • Two days later, the Cincinnati Reds signed Ron Gant, who had celebrated the signing of a multi-year deal by breaking his leg in an ATV accident. Gant didn't play in 1994, but in 1995, hit .276/.386/.554 for the Reds with 29 home runs.
  • And in the third of the trio of once-great signings, the Phillies picked up Fernando Valenzuela on June 24. He pitched 45 innings of 3.00 ERA baseball, walking just seven and striking out 19 despite the handicap of not looking at the catcher when he pitched.
  • The first significant 1994-based trade occurred on July 1, when Boston sent struggling reliever Jeff Russell to Cleveland for pitchers Chris Nabholz and Steve Farr. None of the three pitchers contributed much in 1994. Russell failed to rediscover the form that allowed him to pitch to a 2.70 ERA in 1993- his mark was 5.14 in Boston in 1994, 4.97 in Cleveland. Meanwhile, Nabholz was finished as a useful pitcher and Farr had just 13 innings of 6.23 ERA pitching left.
  • Why, you might ask, did the 1994 Seattle Mariners, who finished 49-63, make a July 21 trade to shore up their bullpen? Easy: they acquired Shawn Boskie from the Philadelphia Phillies for minor leaguer Fred McNair because 49-63 meant they were just two games off the lead in the American League West.
  • If Matt Williams and Tony Gwynn think the 1994 strike came at an inopportune time, their gripe pales next to Brian R. Hunter, who was traded from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati on July 27 for minor league slugger Micah Franklin. Hunter promptly became one of the best deadline acquisitions ever, hitting .304/.346/.870 with four home runs in 26 at-bats… only to see the strike interrupt his season. Williams and Gwynn had more moments of glory, but Hunter never again approached a 1.216 OPS.
  • Finally, on July 31, just one trade occurred. The Phillies traded outfielder Milt Thompson to the Astros for reliever Tom Edens. Both were briefly helpful for their new teams in 1994, but never again. Truly, the strike also deprived both Edens and Thompson of their last hurrahs.

Baseball fans still remember 1994 as the year America was deprived of pennant races, and the Expos were kept from their destiny: finally winning a World Series. (There's a reason Youppi still cries when the strike is brought up.) And for secondary characters throughout baseball, 1994 was a year of 'what could have been.'

Jack Of All Trades: Bobby Bonilla

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As any MLBTR reader knows, there are many different types of trades. It takes a certain kind of player to be traded in numerous different kinds of trades, but one such player is Bobby Bonilla. He was part of nearly every type of trade there is: as a prospect, for prospects, in a megadeal, even in an exchange of bad contracts. This doesn't even include the times he switched teams via the Rule 5 Draft, or when he became the highest-paid free agent in baseball history.

Let's review the transaction madness, shall we?

Bonilla was originally signed as an amateur free agent by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1981. However, after just three home runs in 39 games for the Single-A Prince William Pirates of the Carolina League, Pittsburgh left him unprotected and the Chicago White Sox picked him up in the Rule 5 Draft. Bonilla handled the jump pretty well, hitting .269/.361/.355 with the 1986 White Sox. The Pirates managed to re-acquire him in July 1986, dealing established starter Jose DeLeon, who had been struggling terribly with Pittsburgh.

DeLeon went on to pitch reasonably well for Chicago in 1986-87, but Bonilla quickly established himself as a star for the Pirates. In his five full seasons with Pittsburgh, Bonilla posted OPS+ marks of 118, 143, 145, 132 and 149. He went to four All-Star games and helped the Pirates to two division titles. Clearly, Pittsburgh got the better end of that deal.

After Bonilla signed with the Mets, he performed reasonably well, but many of the other Mets didn't. As a result, smack in the middle of his best major league season, Bonilla was traded in July 1995, this time as the star player, for prospects Damon Buford and Alex Ochoa. While Buford and Ochoa never established themselves as starters, Bonilla picked up right where he left off in New York. After posting a 160 OPS+ with the Mets, he had a 139 OPS+ over the remainder of 1995 and helped Baltimore to the postseason in 1996 with an OPS+ of 114.

Bonilla then signed with the 1997 Marlins as a free agent, and helped them to a World Series title with his 125 OPS+. But by 1998, Florida was in firesale mode, and so Bonilla was one of the firesold, traded along with Gary Sheffield, Jim Eisenreich, Charles Johnson and Manuel Barrios for Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile. (Piazza and Zeile, in turn were dealt for prospects.)

But Bonilla was finished as a useful major league hitter, posting just an OPS+ of 81 after heading to Los Angeles. The Dodgers had him under contract in 1999 for $5.9MM. The Mets, meanwhile, had a relief pitcher named Mel Rojas under contract for approximately $4.6MM in 1999, and Rojas had posted a 6.05 ERA in 1998. Therefore, an auspicious marriage of convenience occurred, with the two players getting exchanged for one another.

The deal helped neither team, with Rojas pitching to a 18.00 ERA for three teams in 1999. Bonilla, now 36 and largely unable to run, became New York's Opening Day right fielder and number five hitter, two roles he quickly lost in a season with an OPS+ of 48. In the spring of 2000, the Mets agreed to an annual payment of approximately $1.2MM a year from 2011 to 2035 to buy out Bonilla's 2000 contract worth $5.9MM.

So as Bonilla sits back and cashes Met checks well into his 70s, he can reflect on a truly fantastic legacy of trades.

Remembering the 1993 Trade Deadline

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Baseball's 1993 season, with a potential strike looming, was an interesting year. And the trade deadline produced deals involving some of baseball's biggest names.

  • On June 24, the Marlins traded Andres Berumen, Jose Martinez and a young reliever named Trevor Hoffman to the Padres for Rich Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield. Sheffield was just 24, and the Marlins quickly realized that he was more at home in the outfield than at third base. Sheffield managed an OPS+ of 162 over his next four seasons, before being purged by the Marlins, who traded him in the 1998 Mike Piazza deal, then turned around and traded Piazza to the Mets for prospects. And Hoffman? 16 seasons in San Diego, 552 saves and an ERA+ of 146.
  • Less than a month later, the Atlanta Braves added a signature piece to their roster, trading Vince Moore, Donnie Elliott and Melvin Nieves to the Padres for Fred McGriff. The Braves got immediate payoff from the deal. McGriff, who had posted a .275/.361/.497 line in San Diego, went on a .310/.392/.612 tear with Atlanta. He hit 130 home runs over five seasons with the Braves. This is a classic trade deadline pickup.
  • Still more activity came from the Padres, who, it must be noted, finished just 61-101 in 1993. On July 26, San Diego traded Greg Harris and Bruce Hurst to the Colorado Rockies for Brad Ausmus, Doug Bochtler and a player to be named later. Harris reached his sell-by date the day he was traded, going from a 3.67 ERA with San Diego to a 1-8, 6.50 ERA finish in Colorado. Hurst pitched 8.2 innings of 5.19 ERA ball before going down due to injury. And worst of all? The player to be named later sent to San Diego turned out to be… Andy Ashby, who pitched eight seasons of 113 ERA+ baseball for the Padres. Not a good day one mile above sea level.
  • Under the radar a bit was a three-team deal that must be mentioned. The Royals got John Habyan. The Yankees got Paul Assenmacher, saving the clubhouse manager a ton of time by not having uniform names on their players' backs. And the Cubs got outfielder Tuffy Rhodes. While Habyan and Assenmacher continued to do what they tended to do for everyone else- put up decent ERAs out of the bullpen- Rhodes was a revelation, hitting .288/.413/.538 in 63 plate appearances. Then, on Opening Day 1994, he hit three home runs against the Mets! Surely, stardom would follow. Instead, he hit .234/.318/.387, and was playing in Japan by 1996. He starred there, of course, with seven seasons of 40 or more home runs, including a high of 55.
  • The final bit of trade deadline drama came with the best leadoff hitter of all time. The Oakland Athletics sent Rickey Henderson to the Toronto Blue Jays for elite pitching prospect Steve Karsay and outfield prospect Jose Herrera. Amazingly, Henderson was a total bust for Toronto. He hit .215/.356/.319 after the trade, .327/.469/.553 before the trade. But Karsay could never stay healthy for long, and Herrera didn't do much in two big league seasons.

The 12-Player Trade

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Look, here at MLBTradeRumors, we treasure every transaction, from that second lefty who gets picked up on waivers to the free agent signing of that minor league slugger. But it is undeniable that some trades get us more excited than others, and it is a shame that MLBTR wasn't around back on December 28, 1994, when the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres exchanged 12, yes 12 players.

The Astros received the following players: Derek Bell, Doug Brocail, Ricky Gutierrez, Pedro Martinez (but not THE Pedro Martinez), Phil Plantier and Craig Shipley.

The Padres received, in return: Andujar Cedeno, Ken Caminiti, Steve Finley, Roberto Petagine, Brian Williams and Sean Fesh.

But while a simple 12-player swap is about the most exciting thing possible to people like us, there's so much more that may have made this the most complicated player swap in baseball history.

Consider that not only were 12 players involved, but 11 of them- all but Fesh- played in the big leagues.

Consider that of the six players San Diego traded, they re-acquired five of them, three of them within a calendar year.

Consider that of the six players Houston traded, they eventually re-acquired four of them.

And consider that Brad Ausmus, who was not in this deal, was eventually traded with two of the players above, one of them twice, in three separate deals.

Confused yet? Good. Now let's look at value. We'll start with what Houston got from their acquired players.

Derek Bell was an immediate star for the Astros, hitting .334/.385/.442 in his first season with Houston at age 26. Over six seasons, his OPS+ was 104 with Houston, and he drove in more than 100 runs twice.

Doug Brocail provided a couple of mediocre relief seasons before getting traded with Brad Ausmus to Detroit, then, four years later, getting traded with Brad Ausmus from Detroit. Brocail went on to pitch until 2009, making additional stops in both San Diego and Houston.

Ricky Gutierrez provided value, most of it defensively, in five seasons at second base, shortstop and third base before leaving via free agency. His final stop in the majors lasted 17 days for the 2006 Padres.

Phil Plaintier was only in Houston for a short time, but it was productive. He posted an OPS of .805 in 22 games before San Diego decided to re-acquire him in July 1995 for Rich Loiselle and Jeff Tabaka.

Pedro Martinez posted a 7.40 ERA in 20.2 innings with Houston, before the Padres re-acquired him, too, following the 1995 season. The price? Ray Holbert.

Craig Shipley played all four infield positions for the Astros in one season. After that year, he was signed, via free agency… by the Padres.

So there you have it: three players of value, especially Bell.

And yet, it appears that San Diego won. The simple reason is Ken Caminiti.

Caminiti was a dominant player in San Diego. In four seasons, he hit 121 home runs, won the MVP in 1996, three Gold Gloves and played on three All Star teams. His OPS+ for those four years? 146. After those four years, Caminiti signed as a free agent with… the Houston Astros.

Other players the Padres got included:

Andujar Cedeno, a shortstop whose offense fell dramatically after the trade. His OPS+ in his last Houston season: 100. In his first year with San Diego, it dropped to 55. Cedeno eventually got traded by the Padres to the Tigers with Brad Ausmus in a deal that did not involve Doug Brocail. Cedeno finished his career with a handful of plate appearances for… the Houston Astros.

Steve Finley, a Gold Glove center fielder on two occasions for San Diego, who hit 30 home runs in one season, 28 in another. After a .249/.301/.401 age-33 season, the Padres elected not to re-sign him- much to Arizona's delight, in retrospect.

Roberto Petagine, a minor league slugger who managed a .937 OPS in his minors, but just a .722 mark in the major leagues. However, this came on 438 plate apparances spread over seven seasons, so it is quite possible Petagine simply never got his chance.

Brian Williams, a middling middle reliever and occasional starter, who wasn't any better in San Diego (6.00 ERA) than he'd been in Houston (5.74 ERA). After stops in San Diego, Detroit and Baltimore, he signed again with… the Houston Astros.

And attention must be paid to Sean Fesh, the minor leaguer in the deal, who went on to pitch 17 seasons in the minor leagues, compiling an ERA of 3.33 in 849.2 innings. Naturally, he went on to spend another season later in his career back with the Astros.

All in all, December 28, 1994 was a glorious day in transaction history. We may never see the likes of it again.

Remembering the 1992 Trade Deadline

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Ah, who can forget 1992? The Boutros Boutros-Ghali Era begins at the United Nations. Lisa Simpson captivates a nation with her uncanny knack for picking football games. Johnny Carson retires, giving Jay Leno the chance to host The Tonight Show for some unspecified period of time. And Brett Favre makes his first start for the Green Bay Packers, leading to a career that will end around the same time that Jay Leno stops hosting The Tonight Show.

Meanwhile, baseball teams still found the time to trade with one another! Here are some of the highlights from those deals…

  • The fun started on July 21, when the Braves traded Juan Berenguer to the Royals for a real-live Cy Young Award winner, Mark Davis. Just three years removed from the award-winning performance (1.85 ERA, 44 saves, 92 strikeouts in 92.2 innings), Davis was floundering with Kansas City, posting a 7.18 ERA with 28 walks and 19 strikeouts in 36.2 innings. He didn't do much better in Atlanta, with a 7.02 ERA after the deal. The Braves won the NL West anyway.
  • On July 30, the Toronto Blue Jays solidified their bullpen by acquiring Mark Eichhorn, who'd begun his career in Toronto, from the California Angels for Rob Ducey and Greg Myers. Both Ducey and Myers went on to long careers with many teams, while Eichhorn was merely adequate for the Jays- a 4.35 ERA after the deal, compared to a 2.38 mark prior to it. His two scoreless postseason innings, however, helped Toronto capture its first World Series.
  • On August 27, a day after Fernando Tatis and Chris Truby signed their first professional contracts, the New York Mets traded David Cone to the Blue Jays for Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson. Why the Mets thought it a good idea to deal a 29-year-old Cone is hard to fathom- Cone would go on to rack up 114 of his 194 wins after this trade. Thompson, alas, never figured out the strike zone. And while Kent became one of the best to ever play his position, he did most of his damage after the Mets traded him to land Carlos Baerga (who did most of his damage prior to arriving in New York).
  • On the penultimate day one can acquire a player to be added to the postseason roster (a fancy way of saying "August 30"), the Braves traded Sean Ross and Nate Minchey to the Red Sox for Jeff Reardon. Though he was 36 years old, Reardon still had something left in the tank. He pitched to a 1.15 ERA in Atlanta, then added three scoreless innings and a save during the NLCS. He faltered in the World Series, however, blowing the save in Game 2 on a home run by Ed Sprague.
  • The biggest trade of the 1992 season came on August 31, when Oakland shipped Jose Canseco to the Texas Rangers for a huge package: Jeff Russell, Ruben Sierra, Bobby Witt and cash. Canseco was finished being one of the best players in the game- he'd posted a career OPS+ of 139 before the trade, but 124 after it, even though he was just 28 at the time of the deal. Meanwhile, the bounty proved to provide little in the way of production. Russell was quickly shipped to Boston, Sierra's post-trade career OPS+ dropoff was even steeper, from 118 to 92, and Witt's control got better, but his strikeout rate collapsed, leaving him with a career 4.57 ERA before the trade, 5.07 ERA after the trade. Even the inflation rate rendered the cash from 1992 progressively worth less over the remainder of the decade.

2004 Draft Throwdown

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Now that six years have passed since the 2004 draft, let's take a look at a few of the choices teams made between prospects at the same position to get a sense of who came out ahead in the great pick-by-pick spin of fate.

  • Justin Verlander (Tigers) vs. Phil Humber (Mets) vs. Jeff Niemann (Rays): Here we have a textbook study in the perils of pitching prospects. In Verlander, the second overall pick, the Tigers got a true ace. He has posted three top-seven finishes in the Cy Young voting already, and struck out an incredible 269 batters in 240 innings last year. Picking third, the Mets got an ace as well, sort of: Humber was eventually traded in the deal that landed them Johan Santana. Needless to say, Humber has not been an ace himself, pitching to an ERA over 5.00 at Triple-A for a second straight year in 2010. Niemann, meanwhile, has profiled somewhere in-between, though his 2010 so far suggests he may be fulfilling the promise of his status as fourth overall pick. He's pitching to a 2.83 ERA in 2010, though the strikeout rate (just 5.8 per nine innings) suggests that ERA will likely rise. Overall winner here? Everyone except the Twins.
  • Billy Butler (Royals) vs. Josh Fields (White Sox): Well, it certainly appears the Royals got the better of this battle of third basemen. Butler, picked 14th, didn't stick at third, but he is finally getting some attention as a legitimately excellent bat, putting up a .341/.396/.494 line in 2010 so far. Meanwhile, Fields, picked 18th, has struggled to remain on the field, and is actually now property of the Royals as well, coming over this winter in the deal for Mark Teahen. But he will miss most, if not all, of the 2010 season after having hip surgery in April. Fields, 28 in December, has had some impressive Triple-A seasons, so he may eventually fulfill his promise. Butler, however, is clearly here to stay. Overall winner? The Royals. Almost makes up for Alex Gordon!
  • Glen Perkins (Twins) vs. Phil Hughes (Yankees): Lost in the many months of Johan Santana trade talks back in 2007-2008, which centered around whether the Yankees would deal Phil Hughes, was the realization that the Twins could have drafted Hughes themselves. Instead, at pick 22, Minnesota took Glen Perkins, a college product out of University of Minnesota. The outlook isn't brilliant for Perkins at this point, with a 7.76 ERA in Triple-A, though his strikeout rate is at least relatively strong. Meanwhile, Phil Hughes has become one of the best pitchers in the American League, with a fantastic 74 strikeouts and 22 walks in 75.1 innings in support of his 3.11 ERA. Hughes won't be 24 until later this month. And among those who won't be celebrating his birthday? The Twins.

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