Worst Baseball Trade Deadline Deals in History

Baseball's trade deadline always seems to bring with it a sense of urgency; urgency to make a move to better your club for the stretch run or an urgency to shed players in order to build for the future. For all intensive purposes, it is equally a buyer's and seller's market, with teams having needs on both sides of the coin. But teams quickly forget the old adage of "haste makes waste," as trade deadline history is filled with one-sided deals on both sides that have left many people scratching their heads afterwards. Very rarely do you find one trade where both teams came out of the deal happy from beginning to end. Most of the time, you find an example like the following:

Cubs Send Lou Brock To Cardinals

Most trades involving rivals like the Cubs and Cardinals generally don't shake out well for both teams. When you talk about a team that hasn't won a World Series 1908, you get an idea of who go the raw end of the stick. Chicago sent Brock to St. Louis in 1964 for Ernie Broglio when they felt he had hit a plateau. Meanwhile, the Cardinals needed a player to step into the shoes vacated by Stan Musial. Well, the Cardinals not only got a Hall of Fame player that flawlessly helped the team transition from Stan The Man, but Brock also helped propel them to a World Series win that same season. You don't get much more bang for your buck than that.

Tigers Trade John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander

This is the trade that Tiger fans will never forget. Sure, Alexander went 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA after being acquired by Detroit and helped Detroit win the AL East before losing to Minnesota in the ALCS, but Alexander's ineffectiveness the following two seasons lead to his retirement. Meanwhile Smoltz would spend 20 seasons pitching for the Atlanta Braves, amassing 210 wins and 154 saves with 8 All-Star appearances and a Cy Young award while pitching in 5 World Series with the Braves, winning one. The Tigers meanwhile went through one of their toughest stretches ever while the Braves were the toast of baseball.

Red Sox Trade Jeff Bagwell for Larry Anderson

The Red Sox were a team looking for that elusive World Series title and thought they were one piece away from the title. They also had a depth chart that projected prospect Tim Naehring ahead of Jeff Bagwell, so the surmised that he was expendable and sent him packing for Larry Anderson to short up the bullpen. Anderson would pitch just those final months in Boston, appearing in 15 games with a 1.23 ERA before moving on to San Diego the next season. Bagwell on the other hand, would play his entire 15-year career in Houston forming the "Killer B's" with Craig Biggio and Lance Berkman. His career totals amounted to a lifetime .297 batting average, 449 home runs, and 1529 RBI's, not to mention a Rookie Of The Year and Most Valuable Player award. This was a trade that the Red Sox have never lived down.

Mariners Trade Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek for Heathcliff Slocumb

Sometimes karma comes back around and shines a good light on a team in return for the bad. Slocumb had saved 31 games for the Red Sox in 1996, but had struggled in 1997 before being sent to Seattle who was looking to boost their bullpen and bring in a proven closer. So the Sox, being out of the race, sent Slocumb packing in exchange for a package of players including Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek. Slocumb would last only 2 seasons in Seattle with middling results, while Varitek and Lowe would become integral components for the Red Sox who finally helped end the championship drought in Boston with a World Series win for both in 2004 and another one for Varitek in 2007.

Pirates Trade Aramis Ramirez for Bobby Hill, Jose Hernandez, and Matt Bruback

It could perhaps go down in history that the Pirates are one of the biggest losers in the history of the trade deadline. Regardless of their good intentions to try and rebuild their team, their poor scouting has cost the team time and time again. The perfect example of this is the 2003 trade of Ramirez and Kenny Lofton to Chicago for Hill, Hernandez and Bruback. Bruback and Hill barely made any noise at all at the Major League level and Hernandez played all of 58 games for the Pirates before heading on to the next of his nine teams he would play for during his career. Lofton and Ramirez were almost enough to put the Cubs into the World Series in 2003 before the Steve Bartman situation, but the real gem of the deal was Ramirez, who has become one of the best third baseman in baseball, while tallying 203 home runs and 677 RBI during his eight seasons with the Cubs. Sure neither has made it to the big dance, but the Cubs have at least sniffed the postseason while the Pirates haven't had a winning record since 1992.

Sources:

Lou Brock, Wikipedia.com

Doyle Alexander, Wikipedia.com

John Smoltz Stats, Baseball-Reference.com

Larry Anderson Stats, Baseball-Reference.com

Jeff Bagwell Stats, Baseball-Reference.com

Heathcliff Slocumb Stats, Baseball-Reference.com

Jose Hernandez Stats, Baseball-Refernce.com

Steve Bartman Incident, Wikipedia.com

Aramis Ramirez, Baseball-Reference.com