A lot of folks will tell you that trades are good for baseball, that they create excitement for the game, spur interest during the dreary winter season or spike it as pennant races heat up faster than the temperature during the dog days of August.
Some of these trades create chatter that lasts for decades — which is why I’m still trying to figure out why the three best players (Bob Turley, Don Larsen and Billy Hunter) all went in the same direction when Paul Richards exercised an 18-man swap between the Orioles and Yankees after the 1954 season.
We had a reigning batting champion (Detroit’s Harvey Kuenn) traded for a reigning home run king (Cleveland’s Rocky Colavito) on Easter Sunday in 1960. And when that didn’t seem to have the desired effect, Frank (Trader) Lane and his counterpart Bill DeWitt (yes, that Bill DeWitt) followed up by trading managers later that same year — with Joe Gordon going to Detroit and Jimmy Dykes to Cleveland. That didn’t work, either, as the team then known as the Indians finished fourth and the Tigers sixth while Lane and DeWitt started looking for greener pastures.
Nothing quite as bizarre as those examples took place during the hours leading up to this year’s Aug. 2 trading deadline, but it might be said that we’ve never quite seen anything like the sum of the parts of the trades consummated this year. I’m not so sure that’s testimony to the creativity of the teams involved — or an indictment of the system itself.
Considering that a 23-year-old hitter who has been compared to Ted Williams was traded by a team three years removed from winning the World Series, I’m inclined to lean toward the latter explanation. That the Washington Nationals were credited with making a good deal by trading Juan Soto seems to be ample evidence the system needs fixing.
Here’s how crazy the trading frenzy was on the last day of the open market:
There were any number of deals that supposedly were already in place, needing only final tweaks to be completed. I read one prediction of nine deals that would/should/could be made before the deadline — which came and went without one being completed. Zilch, 0-for-9, nada, time to move on. Another “source infested” contact with direct knowledge who is not authorized etc., etc., etc. down the drain.
By my admittedly unofficial scorecard there were at least 23 trades, with multiple teams involved multiple times and a few teams confined to the sidelines. As near as I can tell pretty much every team, the buyers and the sellers, were declared winners, with the San Diego Padres getting the “Best in Show” ribbon.
Already considered a legitimate contender, even in a division that includes the freewheeling and free-spending Dodgers, the Padres remade their lineup and fortified their bullpen by adding the best hitter and best reliever on the market. Of course, in the process they had to send along nearly $44 million to the Red Sox to cover the three-plus-year sum remaining on departing first baseman Eric Hosmer’s contract.
This is an issue we’ve raised before, and will again as long as the industry allows teams to buy their way out of unwanted contracts as an enticement for another team to take a player no longer wanted. It’s allowable by the rules, but there’s something inherently wrong about a player performing for one team while in effect being paid by another.
Along this line it’s baffling to me why the Orioles needed to send cash to complete a trade that sent closer Jorge López to the Twins for a quartet of pitching prospects. López is under contract for only $1.5 million this year, and two-thirds of his salary had already been paid. One of the four prospects coming in return is said to be a bona fide prospect, and the amount of money may not be significant, but it still presents a strange look.
Other than the Padres’ haul, one that should make them a legitimate contender for the National League pennant this year, and for the next two or three at least, the Nationals probably got as much attention as any other team — because it has been said that the return for Soto is the mother lode of blue-chip prospects.
But it doesn’t detract from the losses the Nationals have sustained since winning the 2019 World Series championship, the only one in the 51-year history of the organization (the first 36 in Montreal). Unfortunately the Nationals have never been able to fully capitalize on that World Series win, as COVID all but wiped out the next two seasons from an attendance standpoint.
The return the Nationals got for Soto needs to be every bit as good as predicted to make up for the losses absorbed since 2018. Since then, the Nats have lost Bryce Harper (one of their two “generational” draft picks along with Stephen Strasburg), Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon and now Soto. That’s a boatload of talent that dwarfs the Orioles’ fire sale at the 2018 deadline.
The bottom line for teams in the Delmarva area, residing within Beltways less than 30 miles apart, is one three years out from its only World Series championship trying to catch up with one 39 years removed from the Fall Classic. The history of the two teams in the last 51 years, notwithstanding the Orioles’ earlier run in the 1960s, is remarkably similar. The two have been rivals for almost two decades now, so frustration can be as equal as it is natural.
When the Orioles traded off Trey Mancini and López despite being only two games out of the third wild-card position, it set off a predictable chain reaction. General manager Mike Elias’ degree of probability, though generally accepted throughout MLB, triggered a quick display of outrage.
To his credit, Elias made an immediate effort to defuse the situation, not only with the fan base, but also within manager Brandon Hyde’s clubhouse. By flying to Texas the morning after the trade deadline, despite the fact the team would return the same afternoon, Elias stopped any potential negative feedback from his players, but he also made a point to let the fans know the “rebuild” was now in full build mold. After four-plus years of suffering, and with the team showing progress, they were words that needed to be said.
Elias’ quick reaction might not have been full-blown “damage control,” but it was close. For the first time his words were more ones of planned action than they were promises of things to come. He may even have put himself on the spot when he said the window that was opening was one designed for “decade-long” prominence. If those words don’t come back to haunt him, Elias will be able to say “I told you so” for a long time.
In the meantime, MLB needs to come up with a non-compete clause that prevents teams from “tanking” under the guise of a rebuild. A “salary floor” to counter balance the luxury tax threshold, which serves as a de facto cap, would be a good place to start.
Jim Henneman can be contacted at JimH@pressboxonline.com.
Photo Credit: Colin Murphy/PressBox
Issue 276: August/September 2022
Originally published Aug. 17, 2022