The absolute worst trade in the history of every MLB team
By Tim Boyle
What makes a deal a bad trade for one club has the potential to make it an all-time great deal for the other.
It’s those lopsided deals that make a deal spectacular or not, but there is more to it. To find the worst trade each MLB team has made, you need a few other qualifiers.
Did the players involved go on to have a Hall of Fame career? Did they help their new club win a championship? For the ones traded for him, how long did they last in their new city? In many cases, they didn’t even reach the major leagues. They were burnt-out prospects before even getting to the show.
Unfortunately for many teams, their worst trade is a detrimental move of embarrassment with the potential to get topped every time the general manager does execute a deal. Until that blockbuster dud is done, these are the worst trades in the history of every MLB team.
MLB worst trades: Where do we start?
Worst trade in Arizona Diamondbacks history: Curt Schilling to the Boston Red Sox
Spoiler alert! Curt Schilling is going to be on this list a couple of times. Frankly, every time he has been traded—five times total—the team moving him in the deal could be considered the loser.
On November 28, 2003, it was the turn of the Arizona Diamondbacks. They shipped him up to the Boston Red Sox for a haul of Mike Goss, Casey Fossum, Brandon Lyon, and Jorge De La Rosa. Schilling would finish second in the Cy Young race in 2004 while leading the league with 21 victories. He’d also help the Red Sox finally win a World Series.
Meanwhile, Goss never made the majors, Fossum had a 6.65 ERA in his one year with Arizona, Lyon was only an okay reliever, and De La Rosa was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers only a few days later. The Diamondbacks should have gotten much more for a guy like Schilling.
Worst trade in Atlanta Braves history: Dusty Baker to the Los Angeles Dodgers
The Atlanta Braves couldn’t have imagined how much success Dusty Baker would have even years after they traded him. Dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers in November of 1975, Baker was a good young hitter for the Braves of the early 1970s. With the Dodgers from 1976-1983, he was even better.
The full trade Baker and Ed Goodson going to the Dodgers in exchange for Lee Lacy, Tom Paciorek, Jerry Royster, and Jim Wynn. None were particularly good in Atlanta.
In his second year with the Dodgers, Baker hit a career-high 30 home runs while slashing .291/.364/.512. He would also win the NLCS MVP that same year and eventually get a World Series ring with the club in 1981.
Worst trade in Baltimore Orioles history: Everything given up to acquire Glenn Davis from the Houston Astros
The January 1991 trade between the Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros involving Glenn Davis is the worst ever made by the former of these two teams. A star during his seven seasons with Houston, Davis would suffer through injuries during his time with the Orioles. In parts of three seasons, he only appeared in 185 games for the team and hit just .247/.312/.400.
It’s what the Orioles gave up in this trade that makes it even worse. Steve Finley, Pete Harnisch, and our good friend of bad trades, Curt Schilling, were all involved.
Although Schilling’s best days were a little further into the future, Finley played exceptionally well for Houston and Harnisch was an All-Star in his first season with the club. He also continued to pitch well for the Astros for several more seasons, making this a deal fans in Baltimore would like to forget.