WORST RED SOX TRADES OF ALL TIME

Bad trades?
Oh the Red Sox have made a few... a few that rewrote the history of baseball.

And I could fill up five notebooks dissecting the trades that DIDN'T cause a curse but that involved the Red Sox and Yankees in the early 1920s... but let's keep this to modern day, shall we?

It's too early to tell where Bronson Arroyo for Willy Mo Pena will end up.
And some trades have their ups and downs.

People criticize Brady Anderson and Curt Schilling for Mike Boddicker... but Boddicker helped the Red Sox to two division titles and the Schilling mistake was solved later.

And yeah, trading Reggie Smith looked dumb, but they got Rick Wise, who was solid and Bernie Carbo who had some heroics of his own.

And trading John Tudor was rough, but we got Mike Easler for him... and then dealt Easler for Don Bayor so it worked out eventually.

Here are the ten worst trades of the modern Red Sox era.


10. Trading Jim Lonborg, George Scott, Ken Brett, Billy Conigliaro and prospects to the Brewers for Lew Krausse, Tommy Harper and prospects



Yeah Lonborg was hurt, but we revived his career with the Brewers and had 17 and 18 win seasons with Philadelphia. Scott won a home run title. Brett had some good years. Meanwhile Pattin had one decent season and then was done. Harper could steal bases but couldn't hit and Krausse was cut after one season.

9. Trading Dave Henderson to the Giants for Randy Kutcher



10 months after being the hero of all of Boston, Hendu was dumped to the Giants for a pinch running outfielder. He crossed the bay and became an All Star for Oakland, helping beat the Red Sox in the 1988 and 1990 playoffs.

8. Trading Jamie Moyer to the Mariners for Darren Bragg



I thought it was odd when the Red Sox dealt a pitcher who was 7-1 in a playoff push for a backup outfielder... who could have predicted though that Moyer, who was already a veteran, would pitch 11 plus seasons with Seattle including a pair of 20 win seasons?

7. Trading Bob Ojeda and prospects to the Mets for Calvin Schraldi, Wes Gardner and prospects



Let's see... we lost the World Series in 7 games. Ojeda won one game for the Mets... Schraldi lost games 6 and 7 for the Red Sox. I'd say that didn't work out for us! Gardner was supposed to the big piece of the trade, but he was a bust.

6. Trading Fred Lynn and Steve Renko for Frank Tanana, Jim Dorsey and Joe Rudi



The Red Sox take a risk breaking up the best outfield in baseball (Rice-Lynn-Evans) to get some much needed pitching help and a new centerfielder. Tanana is a bust and bolts for Texas. Dorsey never makes it and Rudi is broken down. Meanwhile Lynn shines in the 1982 playoffs and 1983 All Star games and consistently hits 20 some odd homers back when that meant something.

5. Cecil Cooper to the Brewers for George Scott and Bernie Carbo



A trade that seemed to be made out of nostalgia (Boomer and Bernie are back!) But at the expense of a future 5 time All Star.

During Coopers run in Milwaukee, the Red Sox had Scott, Bob Watson, Tony Perez, Dave Stapelton and Bill Buckner at first. Coop could have provided some stability.










4. The Don Zimmer trades:
Bill Lee to the Expos for Stan Papi
Fergie Jenkins to the Rangers for Jon Poloni
Jim Willoughby to the White Sox for cash
Bernie Carbo to the Indians for cash




These are clumped together because Lee, Jenkins, Willoughby and Carbo all were the bane of that idiot Zimmer's existence. So he demanded they all be sent off, even if it were for nothing. So he depleted the bench (Carbo) and bullpen (Willoughby) and rotation (Jenkins) in 1978 inexchange for a grand total of ONE MINOR LEAGUER. Jenkins won 18 games that year. The Red Sox were sunk by Bucky Dent. One more win that year and there is no Bucky Fucking Dent game. He benched Lee during the seaon and send him to Montreal for Stan Papi. Lee won 17 games in 1979. Papi sat on the bench and was dumped the next year. A certain pennant and possible title in 1978 was lost... but THANK GOD Zimmer saved face.






3. Trading Jeff Bagwell to the Astros for Larry Andersen



We had the choice of keeping Scott Cooper or Jeff Bagwell to get a fresh arm for the 1990 pennant run. As the Grail Knight would say... we chose poooorly. Imagine Bagwell (A Boston native) hitting from the right side and Vaughn (a Connecticut native) hitting from the left side throughout the 1990s!






2. Trading Sparky Lyle to the Yankees for Danny Cater



Trading a future Cy Young winning closer for a weak hitting first baseman would be bad enough. The fact it involved the Yankees, who won a World Series title and a pennant with him as a closer (plus a second title in 1978 with him as a set up man) makes it even worse.













1. Selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees for cash.



Yeah, I know I was keeping this to modern times... but this trade transcends time and space. It was not only a bad trade baseball wise, it was bad metaphysically, it was bad socialogically, it was bad spiritually... it ruined a regions psyche for nearly a century! It perpetuated a midboggling inferiority complex with New York, put ungodly pressure on players over 3 generations and caused grown men to dive for Pianos, hire Shamen and burn hats on Mount Everest. It was the trade that defined the Red Sox AND the Yankees (lest we forget with out Ruth, there was no house that Ruth built.) Ruth hasn't played a game since 1935, yet he is STILL one of the most recognized ball players in the world! If you are the best at something you are the BABE RUTH of that thing. Well, this was the Babe Ruth of bad trades.

On the plus side, without that trade, I don't appear in two, count em, TWO HBO specials. So there is always a sunny side to the street