As we approach spring training let's take a little time to look at the trading history of our club. Trades can really be put in 4 catgories, when looked at in the longest term possible.
- Good Trades
- Bad Trades
- Trades that looked good/even/bad at the time they were made but have changed long-term.
The 4th category, even trades, is one we won't be exploring in this series as they are, well, boring.
Realize that my knowledge of older trades is not that great so I might miss some before the 1980s. Also, if I had been able to spend more time I am sure I would have remembered/dug up more trades that fell into one of these 3 categories.
In this post we will examine 5 trades that looked bad or even initially but have changed for the better long-term.
1. CC Sabathia for Rob Bryson, Zach Jackson, Matt LaPorta and a PTBNL who turned out to be Michael Brantley.
Looked bad at the time as the Brewers REALLY wanted Sabathia for his current ability and draft pick compensation that winter and all they gave back with a power bat-only guy (LaPorta), a middle reliever (Jackson), a middling prospect (Bryson) and the PTBNL. As we all know Brantley's career in Cleveland more than offset the loss of 1/2 season of Sabathia (we all knew he was signing with the Yankees that winter). But, at the time, it looked like we had the Brewers over the barrel and accepted magic beans for an ace.
2. Cliff Lee (1.5 years left on his contract) and Ben Francisco to Phillies for Jason Knapp, Jason Donald, Lou Marson and Carlos Carrasco
At the time this looked like robbery for the Phillies. Lee wasn't just a summer rental and Francisco had a little helium. Meanwhile, Cleveland got back a utility infielder (Donald), a backup catcher (Marson), a good prospect (Knapp) and an enigmatic prospect (Carrasco). In fact, the Phillies were so frustrated with Carrasco's development that one of their people was quoted as saying "He's Cleveland's problem now."
Carrasco, of course, saved this trade but it wasn't without pain. He just didn't pitch well early in his career and was even tried as closer which was a disaster. Eventuall he settled down with a breakout year in 2014. So, while this trade, like the Sabathia trade, looked really bad for a team that needed to win every veteran for prospect trade, it was saved from disaster by Carrasco's development that parts of 4 seasons in the majors to accomplish.
Talk about a long-term play? Geez!!!
3.Sam McDowell for Gaylord Perry and Frank Duffy
This was more of an even trade that turned out better than expected. The thing that made this look bad on the surface was that he was a favorite in Cleveland AND a fireballer. We traded McDowell after his age 28 season for Perry after his age 32 season. Perry (and his 'substance abuse (on the baseball) problem, that is) got a rebirth in Cleveland while McDowell never panned out in SF, probably at least in part due to a substance abuse problem of a different kind. Plus we got serviceable shortstop Frank Duffy who, in a relatively deadball era, was a very functional SS for us for 5+ years. So what we thought might have been a trade of starters where San Francisco got the edge (see addition of Duffy as evidence) it turned out to be totally the opposite.
4. Larry Doby for Tito Francona
I almost forgot about this one. Francona was a bench player in Chicago and Detroit the previous year and Doby was, well, a legend in the making in Cleveland even though he was 33 at the time. Francona came over and did nothing but hit .363, missing the batting title due to falling 34 ABs short, starting a run of a few years where he was one of the best players on the Cleveland team. Doby had only 113 more ABs in his ML career and even though he was traded twice by Cleveland and, as funny as it is, twice for Tito Francona.
5. Corey Kluber for Emmanuel Clase and Delino DeShields
Billed, and properly so, as a salary dump by Cleveland, this trade also was probably influenced by how hard Kluber had been ridden by Terry Francona, especially during the 2016 season. It was very likely that Kluber wasn't going to be worth the salary he was going to make in 2020 but to only get a reliever of questionable future and a questionable talent in DeShields for him was infuriating at the time. When you are in Cleveland and you trade a 2-time Cy Young award winner who doesn't APPEAR to be injured, you expect more in return. Well, the rest is history, Kluber pitched one inning before he got hurt in 2020 and even though he has had some limited success since then, no one in Cleveland would take back this trade now, even though I don't think any Cleveland fan liked this at all at the time. For me, I knew that trades like this stocked future rosters and I just didn't see it helping future Cleveland teams. Obviously, I was wrong.
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