Roundtable: Which MLB trade do you wish you could reverse?
Lost in Monday’s furious MLB trade deadline was one unique transaction. The San Diego Padres agreed to take back pitcher Colin Rea from the Miami Marlins in exchange for pitcher Luis Castillo.
On the surface, it looked like one of the more boring deals. Neither player is all that well-known, so why should casual fans take notice?
That was not the case. Rea and Castillo were both part of the seven-player deal the Marlins and Padres had agreed to days prior to the deadline. Andrew Cashner has the big name in that transaction.
[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Baseball contest now]
Rea came down with an injured elbow just a few innings into his Marlins debut, causing officials with the club to believe they had been dealt damaged goods. As a result, Rea was sent back to San Diego for Castillo. It was essentially a do-over. Both sides agreed to partially reverse the trade.
That got us here at The Stew thinking … if you could reverse one trade in MLB history, which one would you choose?
With this ability, you could prevent your favorite team from trading away a future Hall of Famer. If you pick the right move, you could drastically alter the course of multiple franchises. Maybe the Montreal Expos would still exist!
With great power comes great responsibility. Without further ado, here are the trades our experts would erase from history.
THE A’S KEEP YOENIS CESPEDES AT THE 2014 DEADLINE
I’d reverse the Jon Lester/Yoenis Cespedes trade the A’s and Red Sox made in 2014 — and not necessarily because I think it was an outright bad decision by the A’s. To this day, I still give them props for having the gusto to pull the trigger on that. I’m more intrigued by the alternate reality of a world in which the A’s don’t make that deal.
What happens at the end of that season? Do they still wind up in and lose a one-game wild card playoff? Do they still trade Josh Donaldson later? What position are they in now? Furthermore, does Cespedes still end up in New York and helping the Mets to a World Series the next season? Do the Royals become the Royals of last year if not for that 2014 playoff run that started with the dramatic win over the A’s?
A few of the major storylines from the past few years in baseball are connected to that Lester/Cespedes trade. It would be fascinating to see just how different things would be right now if it didn’t happen. (Mike Oz)
THE “WIL MYERS TRADE” NEVER HAPPENS
Keeping in line with Mike’s idea, let’s look at another somewhat recent deal that completely changed the current state of the game. Back in 2012, the Kansas City Royals dealt uber-prospect Wil Myers to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for James Shields and Wade Davis.
The repercussions for reversing this deal are pretty obvious. Shields played an integral role in helping the Royals to the playoffs, and Davis has emerged as one of the game’s elite relievers. Without one, or both, maybe the Royals never win the World Series.
At the same time, maybe Myers never gets injured with Tampa Bay, and is a standout player immediately for the Royals. Maybe Jake Odorizzi, who also went to Tampa Bay in the deal, stay healthy and plays a Shields-lite role. Maybe the Royals still win the World Series, but with both Myers and Odorizzi playing huge parts.
It’s tough to think about the Royals’ recent run of success without mentioning Shields or Davis or the infamous “Wil Myers trade.” But if we could go back and reverse time, is it possible we would see the same result, but with completely different players? I need to know. (Chris Cwik)
THE PHILLIES SEND CLIFF LEE AWAY
Cliff Lee came to the Phillies from the Cleveland Indians at the deadline in 2009, and the Phillies traded four prospects for him. That’s not the trade I want to undo. No, the trade I’d reverse was the second time they traded him, just five months later. In mid-December, former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. was about to acquire Roy Halladay from the Blue Jays, and send three prospects back to Toronto (Kyle Drabek, Travis d’Arnaud, and Michael Taylor). But Amaro was worried about the hit their minor league system was taking, especially since he’d dealt four guys to get Lee a few months earlier.
So Amaro decided to restock their system. At the same time he traded for Halladay, he traded Cliff Lee to the Mariners for Phillippe Aumont, J.C. Ramírez, and Tyson Gillies. That Lee trade never should have happened, and it immediately felt like a stupid, needless overcompensation. The blow of losing Lee was somewhat softened by the presence of “The Awesome Roy Halladay,” but Lee had taken the Phillies to the World Series in October, and losing him was tough.
The return from the Mariners felt weak, and it would turn out that none of those players would make an impact anywhere. Amaro seemed to realize his mistake almost immediately, and spent an enormous amount of money after the 2010 season signing Cliff Lee to a contract. (Lis Roscher)
THE CUBS TRADE A FUTURE HALL OF FAMER TO THE CARDINALS
If I owned the power of a trade veto, I would go back in time, almost two decades before I was born, to overturn the infamous Lou Brock trade to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Not that I’m a Cubs’ fans or Cardinals hater, mind you. Fandom has nothing to do with it. Rather, I’d be curious to see how differently history played out. I’d be curious to see if the Hall of Fame career Lou Brock enjoyed would have somehow helped Chicago to end its historic World Series drought anywhere from 40 to 50 seasons ago. By the same token, I’d be curious to see if his absence from St. Louis lineup would have cost them championships in 1964 and 1967.
If either question was a yes, just imagine how differently each franchise might be perceived now. In the history of baseball trades, perhaps only one stands out as more of a history-altering deal than this one. That would be Babe Ruth going from the Red Sox to the Yankees. (Mark Townsend)
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
