MLB Power Rankings: The worst trade deadline deal every team has made

5) MLB Power Rankings: Oakland Athletics, Mark McGwire to the Cardinals

Back-to-back 1998 home run breakers. Our inner children love this. It was on July 31, 1997, when the St. Louis Cardinals were the winners in the worst trade deadline deal the Oakland Athletics have ever made. They sent slugger Mark McGwire to the St. Louis Cardinals for Eric Ludwick, T.J. Mathews, and Blake Stein. None were all that good in Oakland or anywhere else after. McGwire had already shown he was capable of setting home run records and in his first full season with the Cardinals he swatted 70 of them. Although his reputation may have become tarnished due to the use of steroids, this was a sweet move by the Cardinals and a sour one by the Athletics. They got little in return for a mammoth.

4) MLB Power Rankings: Detroit Tigers, John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander

This is one of those trades where a team gave up a lot and actually got a decent performance out of it. At the 1987 trade deadline, the Detroit Tigers acquired Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves. He’d go on to finish the year 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA in 11 starts. It was everything they could’ve asked for except Alexander ended up losing both of his postseason starts while getting rocked for 10 earned runs in 9 innings of work. He wasn’t very good his next two seasons with them. The price was high. It cost them a young pitcher named John Smoltz. What’s there to say about Smoltz other than he became one of the greatest pitchers in the game? This trade would have a different story if the Tigers won the 1987 World Series. They didn’t so it remains a stinker.

3) MLB Power Rankings: New York Mets, Tom Seaver to the Reds

Arguably the worst trade the New York Mets have ever made with only the Nolan Ryan deal coming close to it, the 1977 Midnight Massacre deal is what lands them so high in these MLB Power Rankings. Mets management was cheap and unwilling to pay its star pitcher or many other players a reasonable salary. At the 1977 trade deadline, Seaver was sent to the Cincinnati Reds for four players. Some of them were okay but not nearly as impactful as Seaver. For someone who helped define a franchise for a decade, it was a sad and unnecessary ending due to frugality.

2) MLB Power Rankings: St. Louis Cardinals, Keith Hernandez to the Mets

Years after making their worst trade deadline move, the New York Mets got some vengeance by acquiring Keith Hernandez from the St. Louis Cardinals. Hernandez was still in the prime of his career but off-field issues led the Cardinals to send him to the Mets in the summer of 1983. Hernandez was the MVP runner-up the very next season and would go on to win multiple Gold Gloves with the Mets. In 1986, he helped lead them to a championship. The Cardinals would go on to lose the 1985 World Series only to see their former star win a season later. All they got in return for him were Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey.

1) MLB Power Rankings: Boston Red Sox, Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen

The worst of the worst. Number one in this week’s MLB Power Rankings and perhaps forever stuck in evergreen status as the worst trade deadline deal in the history of the sport is an honor belonging to the Boston Red Sox. Most well-known for trading Babe Ruth to the rival New York Yankees, their 1990 trade deadline deal for relief pitcher Larry Andersen is at the bottom of all teams for trade deadline moves. That’s because for just 22 innings of relief work, they gave up future Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell. The Houston Astros snatched up a star while the Red Sox acquired a guy who pitched well in the regular season but lost Game One in the ALCS. They’d go on to get swept away by the Oakland Athletics in their one playoff series. Andersen left for free agency in the offseason. Bagwell won the Rookie of the Year the very next season. Maybe the Red Sox could’ve won sooner than 2004 if they hadn’t made this move.