What are the best and worst trades in Orioles history?

[chipster22]

I've been an O's fan since 1960, when the Yankees were king (and I hated them for it and still do).  I picked the Orioles because they were at least giving the Yankers some good contests.  It all changed when they traded for Frank Robinson.  When he helped them to a WS title in 1966, I was hooked on the team for good.

The worst trade imo was when they acquired Glenn Davis from Houston. What a disappointment.

[Orioles West]

Those are pretty good examples of best and worst. Obtaining Frank Robinson is hard to top.

And the 1991 debacle, Glenn Davis for Curt Schilling, Steve Finley and ‘Pistol’ Pete Harnisch — a trade I hated before the Davis injuries kicked in. I know ‘power’ hitters can be fun, but pitching and defense was a cornerstone - IMHO - the ol’ Oriole Way.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

7 hours ago, Orioles West said:

Those are pretty good examples of best and worst. Obtaining Frank Robinson is hard to top.

And the 1991 debacle, Glenn Davis for Curt Schilling, Steve Finley and ‘Pistol’ Pete Harnisch — a trade I hated before the Davis injuries kicked in. I know ‘power’ hitters can be fun, but pitching and defense was a cornerstone - IMHO - the ol’ Oriole Way.

The Glenn Davis trade was so bad it overshadowed another really bad trade in team history. The Orioles traded Mickey Tettleton that same offseason for Jeff Robinson in part because Tettleton had an off year in 1990 with a .223 batting average and a .381 slugging percentage.

Except Tettleton drew 116 walks making his OBP .376 and his OPS+ was 116. Jeff Robinson was coming off a 5.96 ERA in 145 innings pitched. I have no idea what the team was thinking with this trade. Robinson did manage to lower his ERA in 1991 to 5.18 his only Orioles season. There's no way this trade is made today in the age of analytics.

Tettleton meanwhile put up 171 home runs and an .859 OPS for the remainder of his career. Just a bad trade that doesn't get talked about enough thanks to Glenn Davis.

[Hallas]

36 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

The Glenn Davis trade was so bad it overshadowed another really bad trade in team history. The Orioles traded Mickey Tettleton that same offseason for Jeff Robinson in part because Tettleton had an off year in 1990 with a .223 batting average and a .381 slugging percentage.

Except Tettleton drew 116 walks making his OBP .376 and his OPS+ was 116. Jeff Robinson was coming off a 5.96 ERA in 145 innings pitched. I have no idea what the team was thinking with this trade. Robinson did manage to lower his ERA in 1991 to 5.18 his only Orioles season. There's no way this trade is made today in the age of analytics.

Tettleton meanwhile put up 171 home runs and an .859 OPS for the remainder of his career. Just a bad trade that doesn't get talked about enough thanks to Glenn Davis.

While the return on the Tettleton trade wasn't ideal, 1: I don't think you can really expect a 30 year old catcher to put up a career year and then follow it up with another one, and 2: we had Chris Hoiles who played quite well for us following Tettleton's departure.  If we had forward thinking GMs we probably would split them at C and give them DH/1B/OF games on their non catching days, which is what Detroit did with Tettleton to prolong his career after 1992.  (He was basically the same hitter from 1993-1995 but he stopped catching with regularity so his WAR was much lower.)

 

The Davis trade was so completely undefensible on every level, not the least of which because we already had a player who was at least as good as Davis was on the team, but he didn't fit the stereotypical batting profile of a 1B.  At least today teams wouldn't be so quick to dismiss a 10 HR first baseman if he's got an OBP of .400.

Edited May 21 by Hallas

[Orioles West]

8 hours ago, Hallas said:

While the return on the Tettleton trade wasn't ideal, 1: I don't think you can really expect a 30 year old catcher to put up a career year and then follow it up with another one, and 2: we had Chris Hoiles who played quite well for us following Tettleton's departure.  If we had forward thinking GMs we probably would split them at C and give them DH/1B/OF games on their non catching days, which is what Detroit did with Tettleton to prolong his career after 1992.  (He was basically the same hitter from 1993-1995 but he stopped catching with regularity so his WAR was much lower.)

 

The Davis trade was so completely undefensible on every level, not the least of which because we already had a player who was at least as good as Davis was on the team, but he didn't fit the stereotypical batting profile of a 1B.  At least today teams wouldn't be so quick to dismiss a 10 HR first baseman if he's got an OBP of .400.

A very reasonable take on the Tettleton trade. However, I was a big fan and I was bummed to see him go. Mickey “Froot Loops” Tettleton may also have my favorite nickname of all time!

[SouthRider]

I remember hearing a blurb about the Tettleton trade on my car radio.  It was a teaser sports report where the announcer just said, "O's trade Tettleton to Detroit for starting pitcher.  Details at 6:00"    I was driving around wondering who it could be.   I was hoping for Frank Tanana.  I thought maybe Dan Petry.  Both, at the end of their careers but favorites of mine.   When I got home I immediately logged on to mlb.com to find out who we got in exchange for fan favorite  Tettleton.  Well, actually;  no I didn't.  I waited until 6:00pm for the news report like everyone else in 1991.  I was so disappointed to hear it was Robinson.  

The horrible Davis deal triggered the Tettleton deal.  The Davis trade was just one day earlier.  The O's just resigned Mickey a month earlier.  I remember Frank Robinson proclaiming, "This replaces Harnisch"  Sounds like it was all planned out.  Good job O's!  

I wonder what the modern day equivalent of these two trades would be?  Hard to say because you don't know who is going to immediately start sucking and who will have a HOF career.   Let these trades be a cautionary tale. 

 

[btownoriole]

On 5/21/2024 at 1:51 AM, Hallas said:

While the return on the Tettleton trade wasn't ideal, 1: I don't think you can really expect a 30 year old catcher to put up a career year and then follow it up with another one, and 2: we had Chris Hoiles who played quite well for us following Tettleton's departure.  If we had forward thinking GMs we probably would split them at C and give them DH/1B/OF games on their non catching days, which is what Detroit did with Tettleton to prolong his career after 1992.  (He was basically the same hitter from 1993-1995 but he stopped catching with regularity so his WAR was much lower.)

 

The Davis trade was so completely undefensible on every level, not the least of which because we already had a player who was at least as good as Davis was on the team, but he didn't fit the stereotypical batting profile of a 1B.  At least today teams wouldn't be so quick to dismiss a 10 HR first baseman if he's got an OBP of .400.

At the time I was thrilled with the Davis trade.  I thought he might hit 50 after the power he showed at the Astrodome.

It turned out to be the worst trade in O’s history IMO.  I was at the spring training game in Sarasota when he hurt his neck on a pretty non-descript fly out.  I remember him walking by with the trainer rubbing his neck.

Roland Hemond made some really bad trades that derailed a promising core.  He got little for Murray, under appreciated Tettleton and Milligan (although he did sign both), and gave away too much for Davis.  Also missed some opportunities in the draft by passing on Frank Thomas and Derek Jeter (although he did get Mussina at #20).

[btownoriole]

Building on the original post, a couple of more recent best/worst trades to add to the list:

Best
Adam Jones, Chris Tillman, George Sherrill, et al for Erik Bedard

Kyle Bradish + for Dylan Bundy

JJ Hardy for a minor leaguer I can’t remember

Worst

Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop for Scott Feldman

[ChosenOne21]

On 6/22/2024 at 11:09 AM, btownoriole said:

Building on the original post, a couple of more recent best/worst trades to add to the list:

Best
Adam Jones, Chris Tillman, George Sherrill, et al for Erik Bedard

Kyle Bradish + for Dylan Bundy

JJ Hardy for a minor leaguer I can’t remember

Worst

Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop for Scott Feldman

JJ Hardy was for Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobson. We also got Brendan Harris in the deal.

[SteveA]

Can't ever forget the huge deal with the Yankees in '76 that got us McGregor, Dempsey, and Tippy.

Or getting Ken Singleton for Rich Coggins and an aging Dave McNally.

I think people think of those great '77-'83 teams as being almost totally homegrown.     But the guys we got in those trades, as well as free agents like Steve Stone, Jim Dwyer, and John Lowenstein.   Hank Peters did a great job putting those teams together.

If you take the strike shortened 1981 season (59-46) and extrapolated it out to 162 and call it a 91 win season, those 7 years the Orioles won 97-90-102-100-91-94-98.... that's an average of 96 wins a year for 7 years.   

[Moose Milligan]

I was too young to really remember the Glenn Davis trade.  I remember as a kid being stoked cause Glenn Davis was a power bat but I don't remember the scuttlebut on talk radio, in newspapers, etc.  

I'm sure I'm not alone in this but whenever I'd see Harnisch, Finley or Schilling doing something for the rest of their careers, Glenn f'ing Davis and that trade is the first thing I think of.

I bet the 90s are way, way different if that trade doesn't get made.  That all assumes that those three players would reach their respective heights here like they did elsewhere.  No way to really tell if that would have happened.

[SouthRider]

Machado for essentially just Dean Kremer is pretty bad.  

[SteveA]

15 hours ago, SouthRider said:

Machado for essentially just Dean Kremer is pretty bad.  

3 months of Machado for an entire career of Dean Kremer?   I don't think it's that bad.

[Gurgi]

On 8/8/2024 at 11:48 AM, SteveA said:

3 months of Machado for an entire career of Dean Kremer?   I don't think it's that bad.

If Kremer could have a decent career year next year we like this trade better.  Kremer seems to have all the tools to excel but just cant quite put it all together.  Seemingly just by the eye test being because he gets behind hitters and they can sit on pitches when he has to throw a strike.  I could be wrong but this seems to be how he is getting beat.

Edited August 20 by Gurgi

[Can_of_corn]

On 8/7/2024 at 8:29 PM, SouthRider said:

Machado for essentially just Dean Kremer is pretty bad.  

Wasn't much of a market that deadline.