Baltimore Orioles: Ten Trades We Wish Were April Fools’ Jokes

Happy April Fools’ Day! Do you have plans to get someone good today? To celebrate the day, we’re taking a look at ten trades made by the Baltimore Orioles which we wish were April Fools’ Day jokes.

I could have reached for the low-hanging fruit and written an April Fools’ Day article about the Baltimore Orioles releasing Chris Davis, but that would have been too easy. Instead, let’s spend some time taking a look back at ten trades that now seem almost unbelievable.

Hindsight is 20/20, right? We understand that and acknowledge this fact while looking at these trades. A few of these trades are a natural result of baseball. We can’t assume certain prospects are going to be quality major leaguers or full-time minor league roster depth, but often times, players emerge out of nowhere, injuries happen, the yips take over, or things just click.

At the time, some of these trades made sense or were necessary for financial reasons. Some were just the result of bad luck and came to define the Dan Duquette era of baseball in the Charm City.

The following ten trades are moves made by the Baltimore Orioles that didn’t quite pan out in their favor. There is no particular order with these trades, just a collection of trades to reminisce about, shake our heads, and laugh at what could have been.

We begin by taking a look at a trade involving a beloved team which I wish would return, the Montreal Expos, and a man known as “El Presidente.”

Jayson Werth never played a game for the Baltimore Orioles, while the man he was traded for didn’t appear in very many more.

In the first round of the 1997 MLB draft, the Baltimore Orioles used the 22nd overall pick to select a catcher out of Glenwood High School in Illinois named Jayson Werth. Recently retired from the game of baseball, Werth earned one trip to the All-Star game, won a World Series ring, and hit 229 home runs across 15 major league seasons. None of that with the Orioles.

After spending parts of four seasons working his way through the Baltimore farm system and hitting .228 with the Bowie Baysox (Double-A) in 2000, the Orioles traded Werth to the Toronto Blue Jays for a relief pitcher named John Bale.

Bale made just 14 appearances in Baltimore, posting a 3.04 ERA and walking 17 hitters in 26 total innings. Bale would eventually be traded to the New York Mets for Gary Matthews, who hit .253 with nine home runs in 150 career games with the Orioles.

Meanwhile, Werth was valued at 29 wins-above replacement in his career and finished in the top 20 of MVP voting four times. John Bale spent just about as many seasons playing professionally in Japan as he did in the United States.

Eddie Murray gets sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a four-player deal.

Eddie Murray began his career with 12 seasons as a member of the Baltimore Orioles, winning the 1977 Rookie of the Year Award, three Gold Glove Awards, and was named to seven All-Star teams. He hit at least 25 home runs and 25 doubles with a .300 batting average four times and finished his O’s career with a .294 average and 343 home runs (including his return for one season in 1996).

At the time, Murray was earning more than $2 million per year and the Orioles were hoping to unload Murray’s contract while adding young talent to the roster to spark a bit of youthful energy into the organization.

The move didn’t exactly work in favor of the Orioles. Baltimore sent Murray out west to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for 20-year-old shortstop prospect Juan Bell and veteran pitchers Ken Howell and Brian Holton. Howell was shipped to the Seattle Mariners a few days later for outfielder Phil Bradley who put up a 2.9 bWAR season for the Orioles, his final full season in the big leagues.

Holton would go on to make 72 appearances for the Orioles, recording a 4.18 ERA and 1.54 WHIP while walking nearly as many hitters as he struck out (78 K, 60 BB).

As for the young prospect Bell, he never panned out in Baltimore and eventually bounced around between Phillies, Red Sox, Expos, and Brewers, hitting .212 in 940 career plate appearances. As an Oriole, Bell played one full season, hitting .172 with a .201 OBP in 100 games back in 1991.

Remember that one season Reggie Jackson played for the Baltimore Orioles?

In his one season with the Baltimore Orioles, Reggie Jackson posted a 5.3 bWAR season, lead the league with a .502 slugging percentage, and received Most Valuable Player Award votes. Sounds like a pretty good player to get in a trade, right?

Jackson had a fantastic season, no doubt about that, but it was his only season in a Baltimore Orioles uniform. He would become a free agent after the season and elect to sign with the New York Yankees. Contract disputes with the Oakland A’s lead to his trade, which was followed by Jackson sitting out the first few weeks of the season. He played in 134 games and the Orioles just missed out on the playoffs in 1976.

The full trade involved the A’s sending Jackson, starting pitcher Ken Holtzman, and minor league pitcher Bill VanBommel (never made it to the majors) to Baltimore in exchange for Don Baylor and pitchers Paul Mitchell and Mike Torrez.

Baylor would go on to win the 1979 MVP Award and three Silver Sluggers after leaving Baltimore, hitting double-digit home runs in 12 of his 13 seasons, post-Baltimore. Torrez was added to the trade on the heels of a 20-win season. He would win 63 games in his next four seasons, posting sub-4.00 ERAs in three of those four seasons.

While Jackson had a great season in Baltimore, it wasn’t for a full year, it didn’t bring in a playoff birth, and there was essentially no possibility of having him in Baltimore for more than one season.

We can’t have a list of bad trades the Baltimore Orioles have made without having Jake Arrieta on the list.

At the time of this trade, the Baltimore Orioles had to move Jake Arrieta. He went 3-9 with a 6.20 ERA in 2012 and posted a 7.23 ERA in five starts the following year before being traded to the Chicago Cubs. We are all well aware of what happened after the deal.

Arrieta would pitch for five seasons in Chicago, going 68-31 with a 2.73 ERA and a Cy Young Award in 2015. In his four seasons as an Oriole, Arrieta was worth 0.1 bWAR. Since leaving, he has been worth 23 wins above replacement.

The July 2013 deal involved the Baltimore Orioles sending Arrieta and relief pitcher Pedro Strop to Chicago for starting pitcher Scott Feldman and catcher Steve Clevenger. Strop has been phenomenal since leaving Baltimore, posting an ERA under 3.00 in all six seasons.

The same can’t be said about the return the Orioles received. Feldman went 5-6 with a 4.27 ERA in his half a season before electing free agency after the 2013 season. Clevenger played in just 69 games for Baltimore.

Feldman was a groundball pitcher who appeared to be a good fit in Baltimore, while Arrieta and Strop were both wild pitchers with no results to show on the mound. I don’t think anyone could have imagined both pitchers turning out the careers they have, up to this point, however, the trade symbolized one of the biggest deficiencies of the Baltimore Orioles, their inability to develop young pitchers.

Is this the worst trade in the history of the Baltimore Orioles?

Ahead of the 1992 season, the Baltimore Orioles attempted to bring a power hitter into their lineup named Glenn Davis. The first baseman had logged 166 home runs in his previous seven seasons with the Houston Astros, adding a .337 OBP and .819 OPS. The Glenn Davis that came to Baltimore was none of that.

Davis played in just 185 games in three seasons, hitting .247 and making more than $10 million in the process. He never became the missing piece for the Orioles and cost the franchise three major league players, including a Hall of Fame worthy pitcher.

In exchange for Davis, the Orioles shipped out starting pitchers Curt Schilling and Pete Harnisch and outfielder Steve Finley.

Schilling logged over 3,200 innings in his career, winning 216 games and striking out 3,116 hitters across 20 seasons. The six-time All-Star and World Series MVP has become a controversial figure off the field, but his on-field performance cannot be overlooked.

Finley played in 17 seasons after his trade from Baltimore, winning five Gold Gloves and recording a 44.3 bWAR. He eclipsed the 30 home run mark four times, lead the league in triples twice, and routinely played in 140+ games for 13-straight years. Even Pete Harnisch went on to pitch for 13 seasons, earning an All-Star nod in his first season after the trade with the Houston Astros.

This trade is always a tough pill to swallow when revisited and I wish this was some April Fools’ Day joke, but it really happened. The only joke in this was Glenn Davis’ performance as an Oriole.

The Baltimore Orioles elected not to keep their local product, shipping him off to the Houston Astros.

In the 19th round of the 2012 MLB draft, the Baltimore Orioles selected a left-handed pitcher by the name of Josh Hader out of Old Mill High School in Millersville, Maryland. Just over a year later, Hader realized he would not have the opportunity to pitch for his hometown team, as he was traded to the Houston Astros for major league pitching help.

Unfortunately for the Orioles, the major league pitching help never came. Packaged with outfielder L.J. Hoes and a draft pick, Hader was sent to the Astros for starting pitcher Bud Norris.

Norris went 21-20 with a 4.65 ERA and 1.40 WHIP in 57 appearances (48 starts) before being released by Baltimore and bouncing around the league ever since. He’s currently with the Toronto Blue Jays on a minor league deal, attempting to gain a major league spot again after performing in a semi-decent role as a closer the last two seasons with the Angels and Cardinals.

Hader has just two seasons under his belt at the major league level but has been lights out during his brief tenure. Sure, he could flame out at any point, he is a relief pitcher, after all. However, Hader has been the real deal, thus far. In his first 129 innings, he has fanned 211 hitters.

On Saturday, March 30th, Hader completed an immaculate inning against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Mike Timlin’s time as a closer for the Baltimore Orioles was short-lived before a trade to the St. Louis Cardinals.

With more than 1,000 games played and four World Series rings in his collection, Mike Timlin’s reliability and production as a relief pitcher can be overlooked without a high number of saves next to his name. However, the 18-year MLB veteran excelled in the American League East, pitching into his early-40’s with the Boston Red Sox to close out his career.

Signed as a free agent before the 1999 season, Timlin’s time in Baltimore was short and uneventful, going 5-12 with 38 saves and a 4.04 ERA in 99 games. Mid-way through the 2000 season, Timlin found himself traded (along with cash considerations) to the St. Louis Cardinals for 1B/OF Chris Richard and pitcher Mark Nussbeck (never reached the major leagues).

Richard found some success with the Orioles, hitting 13 home runs in 56 games immediately after the trade. In his one full season in Baltimore, Richard hit 15 home runs with 31 doubles and a .265 average. He posted an on-base percentage of .335 both in 2000 and 2001.

At the end of the day, Timlin produced a bWAR of 12.0 after the trade, while the Orioles received just 2.6 wins-above replacement from Richard before he was traded to the Colorado Rockies for outfielder Jack Cust.

One day, the Baltimore Orioles will come out on top of a trade with the Chicago Cubs.

The Baltimore Orioles and Chicago Cubs have been frequent trade partners over the years, with the Cubs typically coming out on top in the long run (see Jake Arrieta trade). Trading for veteran outfielder Sammy Sosa could have been a disaster, but it ended up being fairly harmless for both sides. It’s more about why this trade was even made in the first place.

Say what you will now about Sammy Sosa, however, as a kid growing up in the 1990s, Sosa was one of the more entertaining baseball players of my childhood, thanks to his 609 career home runs, juice and all.

In each of his final four seasons with the Cubs, Sosa saw a drop in his batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS. It was becoming clear that the 35-year-old outfielder was losing everything in the tank wasn’t going to be much help to any new franchise he played for.

In February of 2005, the Cubs sent Sosa to the Baltimore Orioles for infielders Jerry Hairston and Mike Fontenot and pitcher Dave Crouthers.

Hairston played for nine more seasons with various teams as a utility infielder, but outproduced Sammy Sosa in 2005. Sosa was worth -1.0 bWAR (.221 average, 14 home runs, .295 OBP), while Hairston was worth 0.7 bWAR. We’re talking very small numbers here, but still relevant.

Fontenot also saw early success with the Cubs, hitting .305 with a .395 OBP in his first full season before the production dipped and he bounced between the Giants and Phillies to end his career.

The trade for Frank Robinson turned out to be one of the top trades in Baltimore Orioles history, however, trading him away later in his career brought little return.

It’s too early to evaluate the Manny Machado, Kevin Gausman, or Zack Britton trades of recent memory, although the Machado trade was seriously considered for this piece. Machado is a rare player in Major League Baseball and failing to wrap him up for the long term earlier in his career was one of the bigger non-moves this franchise has ever made.

Instead, we wrap up this list with a legend. The initial trade with the Cincinnati Reds that brought Frank Robinson to the Baltimore Orioles is one of the best in franchise history, but the trade that sent Robinson to the Los Angeles Dodgers left a lot to be desired.

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The Orioles sent Robinson, along with relief pitcher Pete Richert, to the Dodgers for starting pitcher Doyle Alexander, pitcher Bob O’Brien, catcher Sergio Robles, and outfielder Royle Stillman.

Robinson put up three more highly productive seasons after the trade, including 71 home runs and an All-Star nod.

O’Brien never played in a big league game after being traded to the Orioles, Robles saw just 21 plate appearances in two seasons, while Stillman recorded 40 PA’s in two years as an Oriole. Only Doyle Alexander went on to have a major league career. Alexander had just one winning season in four years and was never much of a strikeout pitcher with Baltimore, but he did end his 19-year career with 194 wins, a 3.76 ERA, and over 3,300 innings under his belt. Much of his production came after his tenure with the Orioles. In four seasons, Alexander was worth just 2.4 bWAR, finishing with a 34.7 mark at the end of his career.

Did we miss a big trade failure that escaped our memory? Which of these trades was the worst, in your opinion? Let us know!