10 all-time worst trades in Baltimore Orioles history

The Orioles trade Doug DeCinces for Dan Ford was a blunder

This is an older move, but woof was it bad. For the young Orioles fans out there, Doug DeCinces had put a decent, if unremarkable run with Baltimore from 1973-1981 with a .751 OPS during that span. Again, not a player one would think Baltimore would miss too much, so they ended up trading him to the Angels along with John Schneider to acquire outfielder Dan Ford in the hopes of beefing up their lineup.

Schneider didn't amount to anything, but Ford would only end up with a .683 OPS in almost 1,100 plate appearances for Baltimore with just 21 home runs across those four seasons. Meanwhile, DeCinces would immediately have a breakout season with the Angels in 1982 where he posted a .300/.369/.548 line and finish in the top 3 of the MVP vote. He would also make the All-Star team the following season. That...is not great.

The Orioles traded Curt Schilling and Steve Finley to the Astros

Finally, we come to pretty much universally agreed upon worst trade in franchise history which, oddly enough, also is another move that the Astros managed to screw up very similarly to how they messed up the Hader trade. Baltimore was looking to add some pop to their lineup and when Glenn Davis, who had a track record of success in Houston, became available before the 1991 season, the Orioles pounced. To acquire Davis, Baltimore had to send Curt Schilling, Steve Finley, and Pete Harnisch to the Astros.

Schilling wasn't anywhere near the height of his powers back then and was actually coming off a pretty nice season out of the bullpen. Finley hadn't been particularly good in his two seasons with the Orioles and was deemed expendable. Well, Schilling would go on to assemble a borderline Hall of Fame worthy career (but not before the Astros, too, traded him away too early) and Finley would play another 17 years in the big leagues and accumulate 44.2 rWAR in his career. As for Davis, he would play parts of three seasons with Baltimore, posted a .713 OPS with just 24 homers, and was out of the league by 1993.

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