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Trades Involving Young Players-Is Volquez for Hamilton As Good As It Gets?

June 11th, 2008 · 5 Comments

Brian Joura

The Rangers and Reds have both received nice returns from the Josh Hamilton-Edinson Volquez trade. Here is a look at other deals in MLB history in which both clubs received strong value from young players.

A reader recently asked if there has ever been a trade of two youngsters that worked out as well as the one this off-season between the Reds and Rangers that featured Josh Hamilton and Edinson Volquez. We aim to please here at FBG so the following is an answer to that question.

Has there been? Well, the answer is yes and no. There have been some trades that have worked out well for the clubs in question, but none I could find in the last 40 years that featured a potential MVP (Hamilton) traded for a potential Cy Young (Volquez) in the first year after the deal.

Here are 10 trades that worked really well for both clubs. I used a cutoff date of 27-years old in the season prior to the trade to determine “youngsters” for this piece.

1. Dodgers trade Frank Howard (27) to the Senators for Claude Osteen (24) in a seven-player deal in December of 1964 - Osteen won 147 games in nine years for the Dodgers. He won 15 games his first year in LA and finished seventh in IP (287) and ninth in ERA (2.79). Howard hit 248 home runs in seven-plus seasons for the Senators. He finished sixth in the league in batting (.289), ninth in on-base percentage (.358) and seventh in slugging (.477) in 1965.

2. A’s trade Rick Monday (25) to the Cubs for Ken Holtzman (25) in a straight swap in November of 1971 - Holtzman won 77 games in four years with the Swingin’ A’s. He went 19-11 with a 2.51 ERA in 1972 and started and won Game One of the World Series that year. Monday was not quite as good, but posted five above-average seasons for the Cubs, including 1976 when he finished third in the NL with 32 home runs and received MVP votes.

3. Phillies trade Rick Wise (25) to the Cardinals for Steve Carlton (26) in a straight swap in February 1972 - Carlton turned in one of the greatest seasons ever for a pitcher in ‘72, going 27-10 for a last-place team. Carlton went on to become the greatest LHP since Warren Spahn so everyone forgets about the other player in the deal. Wise won 32 games in his two seasons with the Cardinals. In 1972, he finished ninth in the National League in wins (16) and sixth in innings (269).

4. Phillies trade Willie Montanez (27) to the Giants for Garry Maddox (25) in a straight swap in May of 1975 - Maddox was batting .135 at the time of the trade and went on to hit .291 with a .359 OBP in 99 games with the Phillies. The next season he finished fifth in the MVP race thanks to .330/.377/.456 line while playing Gold Glove defense in center field. In 135 games with the Giants, Montanez hit .305 with a .359 OBP and drew MVP votes.

5. Indians trade Rick Sutcliffe (27) to the Cubs for Joe Carter (23) as part of a seven-player deal in June of 1984 - Carter hit 13 home runs in 244 at-bats after being called up to Cleveland after the trade. Two years later he was an MVP candidate and cemented his reputation as an RBI man when he drove in 121 runs. Sutcliffe went an incredible 16-1 in 20 starts after the trade and won the NL Cy Young Award and propelled the Cubs to the post-season for the first time since 1945.

6. Mets trade Walt Terrell (26) to the Tigers for Howard Johnson (23) in a straight swap in December of 1984 - It took two years for HoJo to become a full-time player but in 1987 he became a member of the 30-30 club when he 36 homers and stole 32 bases and finished 10th in the MVP voting. Terrell won 47 games in his first three seasons with the Tigers, including a 15-win season in 1985.

7. Cubs traded Rafael Palmeiro (23) to the Rangers for Mitch Williams (23) in a nine-player swap in December of 1988 - Williams made the All-Star team, finished second in the National League with 36 saves and helped the Cubs back to the playoffs in 1989. Palmeiro did not do much in 1989, but the following season he began an extended run of great hitting when he posted a .319/.361/.468 line and finished 14th in the MVP race.

8. Blue Jays traded Fred McGriff (26) to the Padres for Roberto Alomar (22) in a four-player deal (the other stiffs in the trade were Joe Carter and Tony Fernandez) in December of 1990 - Alomar batted .295/.354/.436 and won the first of his 10 Gold Glove Awards in 1991. Plus, he hit .474 in the ALCS. McGriff hit 31 homers, drove in 106 runs and drew 105 walks for the Padres that season.

9. Padres traded Gary Sheffied (24) to the Marlins for Trevor Hoffman (25) in June of 1993 in a five-player deal - Hoffman saved three games for the Padres after the deal then proceeded to notch 20, 31 and 42 saves the next three seasons. He earned 53 saves for the 1998 team that advanced to the World Series. Sheffield was his normal terrific self for the Marlins, but because of injuries and the strike-shortened seasons, he did not play a full-season for the Fish until 1996, when he batted .314 with 42 home runs and 120 RBIs and finished sixth in the MVP race.

10. Marlins traded Josh Beckett (25) to the Red Sox for Hanley Ramirez (21) in a seven-player swap in November of 2005 - Ramirez batted .292/.353/.480 and swiped 51 bases en route to the National League Rookie of the Year Award for Florida in 2006. Beckett, the hero of the 2003 World Series, set a career-high with 16 wins in ‘06 and was even better the following season as he posted 20 wins, finished second in the Cy Young Award balloting and again capped his season with a World Series win.

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The Volquez-Hamilton deal is getting all of the attention right now but in future years we may be talking about other trades from this past off-season as well. Among those that could qualify on a list of this type in the future are the Delmon Young-Matt Garza deal, the Nick Swisher-Gio Gonzalez swap and even the Johan Santana-Carlos Gomez trade.

As always, if I left out a trade from the last 40 or so years that fits the parameters, please let me know.

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5 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Loren // Jun 11, 2008 at 8:39 am

    Does Mulder for Haren, Barton, and Calero count?

  • 2 Brian Joura // Jun 11, 2008 at 11:40 am

    Hi Loren - thanks for reading and commenting. Mulder did have one good year for the Cardinals and fits the age requirement. I wouldn’t bump any on the list above for this one but it’s a good one. Thanks for pointing it out.

  • 3 Tom Power // Jun 16, 2008 at 1:20 pm

    I know this is kind of beside the point but you have to wonder if the Rangers would have been better off hanging on to Volquez considering they have the worst ERA in the majors to date. They do have the hottest hitting team in baseball, and Hamilton is a good reason for this, but their pitching staff is killing them. It’s a very complex trade to analyze though, and it goes way further than just this.

  • 4 Mike Podhorzer // Jun 16, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    Good Rangers pitching has become an oxymoron. When was the last time they had an above average staff?! If they kept John Danks and didn’t give him away for Brandon McCarthy, at least they’d have the start of something even if we assume they still made the Volquez trade.

    And Eric Hurley is going to have to give Danks a call to find out how to suddenly become a groundball pitcher, otherwise he’s going to be quite the disappointment.

  • 5 Brian Joura // Jun 16, 2008 at 7:58 pm

    It actually wasn’t that long ago. The year after they traded A-Rod, the Rangers finished fifth in the AL with a 4.53 ERA.

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