Baltimore Orioles: An Up and Down History Involving Trades With The NL Central

It’s the greatest trade in Baltimore Orioles team history.

Let’s forget about those trades with the Chicago Cubs and remember when the Cincinnati Reds gave the Baltimore Orioles one of the greatest gifts ever in Frank Robinson.

To Baltimore: OF Frank Robinson

To Cincinnati: RHP Jack Baldschun, RHP Milt Pappas, OF Dick Simpson

December 9, 1965, the day Frank Robinson joined the Baltimore Orioles. After 10 seasons, a Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player Award, and eight All-Star nods, the Reds shipped off Robinson in exchange for a stud pitcher Milt Pappas, a league-average reliever, and a reserve outfielder.

Pappas won 110 games during his nine seasons in Baltimore and finds himself near the top of many Orioles career-leaderboards, so let’s not just dismiss him as some pitcher, but the legend of Frank Robinson will continue to live on for years to come in Baltimore. While Pappas would go on to win another 99 games as a major league pitcher, Robinson would become an All-Star in five of his six seasons as an Oriole, hit 179 home runs, win an MVP award, and help bring home a World Series title to the Charm City.

Robinson is one of six players forever enshrined with a statue in Orioles Legends Park at Camden Yards and the only one to have not started his career with the Orioles.

Other notable trades include sending RHP Juan Guzman in exchange for reliever B.J. Ryan. Guzman had seen the best of his career in Toronto already, while Ryan would go on to pitch for seven seasons in Baltimore, including his 36 save, All-Star season in 2005.

The most recent deal between the two teams (2008) involved the Orioles sending catcher Ramon Hernandez to Cincinnati for utility man Ryan Freel and two minor leaguers, one of whom was current LA Dodger Justin Turner. Two years later, Turner was designated for assignment and floundered for four seasons with the New York Mets before hitting 30 and finding success with the Dodgers.