In my 2nd installment of revisiting old trades we look back on two more deals that happened years in the past that helped shape the BSA as we know it today. Who got the better end? Today we visit trades where two aces both moved from the CL to the NL in mid-season deals. The first being between Kansas City and Boston and the 2nd being between between the LA Bruins and the Reno Cards.
Trade 1:
7/31/2013 (4 years, 2 months ago) Boston receives SP Jean-Thomas Francoeur from Kansas City in exchange for SP Julio Leon, MR Estefan Jimenez, RF Nick Phillips, CL Brian O'Tormey and 1B Judson Backstrom.
One of the brightest and best starting pitchers in the league coming off his first no hitter earlier in the month and in the last year of his contract gets traded on trade deadline day to the defending champions the Boston Rebels. In exchange Kansas City received a handful of young talent to help cushion the loss. Who would get the better in the long run?
To Boston:
SP Jean-Thomas Francoeur - 29 years old. 5/5* - $21M for 1 year, pending FA.
To Kansas Citty:
SP Julio Leon - 26 years old. 3/3* - $7.35M for 2 years.
MR Estefan Jimenez - 26 years old. 3/3* - $1.2M for 1 year.
RF Nick Phillips - 27 years old. 2.5/3* - MLC
CL Brian O'Tormey - 24 years old. 1/2* - MLC
1B Judson Backstrom - 18 years old. .5/4* - MLC
On the surface it looks as though Kansas City was just trying to get something in return for JTF before he left for free agency. The got back 3 younger players in Leon, Jimenez and Phillips who would contribute right away, a project flame thrower in O'Tormey and the big piece was Backstrom a very raw 18 year old. As for Boston, they would sign JTF to 7 year extension worth an astonishing $150 million before the season and pair up aces with Lara and JTF
2013 Stats:
SP Francoeur:
w/KC - 13-3, 2.72 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 2.46 FIP, 142 K, 24 BB, 155.1 IP
w/Bos - 7-1, 1.80 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 2.01 FIP, 90 K, 20 BB, 85.0 IP
SP Leon:
w/Bos - 5-8, 4.92 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 4.40 FIP, 102 K, 42 BB, 126.1 IP
w/KC - 1-4, 6.25 ERA, 1.69 WHIP, 4.69 FIP, 48 K, 18 BB, 63.1 IP
MR Jimenez:
w/ BOS - In Minors
w/KC - 0-1, 7 saves, 5.79 ERA, 1.79 WHIP, 9 K, 5 BB, 14 IP (season ending injury)
RF Phillips:
w/ BOS - .214/.240/.429 70 AB, 3 HR, 15 RBI
w/ KC - In Minors
O'Tormey and Backstrom both were in the minors for both teams in 2013.
JTF was everything and more Boston could have imagined and they still missed out on the playoffs in 2013 severely underperforming winning 14 less games than the year before. They did sign the big extension to keep JTF around, which if they hadn't a rental wouldn't have been worth the price of the trade. KC actually improved by 10 games from 2012 winning 80 games and finishing a solid 3rd place by far out of the division that Regina ran away with. Neither Leon nor Jimenez would help the team much in the few months after the trade while the others were in AAA.
Let's see what ended up happening since the trade:
Francouer: 2 years, 2 months. 40-20, 2.23 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 2.75 FIP, 555 K, 136 BB (Traded to ORL)
Leon: 2 years, 2 months. 15-29, 4.72 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 5.02 FIP, 315 K, 151 BB (Lost to FA - 2016)
Jimenez: 3 years, 2 months. 10-7, 7 saves, 4.02 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 116 K, 67 BB (Lost to FA - 2017)
Phillips: 4 years, 2 months. .262/.314/.412 142 2B, 48 HR, 298 RBI (Still on KCY)
O'Tormey: 4 years, 2 months. 9-14, 5 saves, 4.41 ERA, 1.73 WHIP, 239 K, 162 BB. (Still on KCY)
Backstrom: Yet to play for KCY, 22 years old, 91st ranked prospect in BSA.
Even 4 years later we have yet to see the ramifications for this trade. Having the dual aces for Boston, they went to the playoffs 2 of the 3 years they pitched together but could never repeat as champions. JTF was traded for ORL before the 2016 season for a package at the time looked a lot better than what they paid to get him. Getting good return helps Boston even if they couldn't win the big one.
As for KCY, Leon remained a back of the rotation starter before leaving via free agency and Jimenez proved to be a decent an option out of the pen, even after having major arm surgery. Phillips and O'Tormey are both cogs for Kansas City right now. I would say Phillips is nothing more than average OF while O'Tormey has been an above average reliever for the past 2 seasons. The real wild card is Backstrom, and was at the time of the deal as well. He has broke out in AAA this year and if he plays up to his potential he could be a star for years to come.
So did Kansas City get a good deal trading one of the top starting pitchers in the game? From my point of view, it depends how you look at it. If they couldn't sign him, getting some return was better than nothing. At least they still have 2 players on their active roster and a good hitting prospect still as a result. After seeing the past few years what aces have gone for, especially in their prime, looking back the Cougars probably should have gotten more than they settled for. In the end with the return Boston got for JTF, they probably have more now than they started with before they traded for Francouer which is saying something.
Trade 2:
5/1/2013 (4 years, 4 months ago) LA receives SP Jesus Moran, SP Drake Davis, $5M in cash from Reno in exchange for SP Aurelio Ramos, LF Alexander Head, SP Luis Noriega, SP Carlos Garcia, MR Hector Reyes, MR Yu-shu Kong, 1B Lorenzo Morin, SS Susumu Sugiyama, and 3B Miguel Gonzalez.
Whew, the 9-2 plus cash trade. Moran was the prize being a fully developed 22 year old ace coming off a very good season where he put up an ERA+ of 141 at the age of 22. Davis a 14 game winner, 125 ERA+ at the age of 27 and $5 million cash leave Reno. Coming in are 7 players under the age of 21. Would there be enough talent to off set losing an ace and 2/5 of a pitching staff AND cash? Let's check it out.
To LA:
SP Jesus Moran - 22 years old - 4.5/4.5* - $10.5M for 1 year.
SP Drake Davis - 27 years old - 3/3* - $2.34M for 1 year.
$5M in Cash
To Reno:
SP Aureilo Ramos - 31 years old - 2.5/2.5* - $1.1M for 2 years.
LF Alexander Head - 28 years old - 2/2* - $10.1M for 1 year.
SP Luis Noriega - 17 years old - .5/4* - MLC
SP Carlos Garcia - 18 years old - .5/2.5* - MLC
SP Hector Reyes - 17 years old - .5/1* - MLC
MR Yu-Shu Kong - 17 years old - .5/4* - MLC
1B Lorenzo Morin - 18 years old - 1/2.5* - MLC
SS Susumu Sugiyama - 16 years old - 1/2* - MLC
3B Miguel Gonzalez - 19 years old - 1/3.5* - MLC
The salary swap was almost completely even before Reno decided to throw in an extra $5 million cash in. Moran was a free agent to be and it's possible Reno would have had trouble signing him long term and traded because of that. It's a tough thing to do trading a 22 year old ace. Trading 40% and your 1-2 starters usually has ramifications and this was no different. 2012 the year before the trade was the last time Reno won above 60 games and had more than 60 wins in a season, and we are in year 5 after that. The group of youngsters are finally seeing the higher levels and the major leagues, let's take a closer look:
2013 stats:
SP Moran:
w/REN: 1-4, 5.48 ERA, 1.76 WHIP, 4.16 FIP, 26 K, 16 BB, 42.2 IP
w/LA: 17-5, 2.27 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 3.28 FIP, 135 K, 54 BB, 182.2 IP
SP Davis:
w/REN: 0-5, 11.88 ERA, 2.28 WHIP, 6.38 FIP, 11 K, 10 BB, 16.2 IP
w/LA: 0-2, 7.11 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 3.91 FIP, 8 K, 3 BB, 12.2 IP (traded 20 days later)
SP Ramos:
w/LA: 3-1, 2.28 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 3.12 FIP, 18 K, 7 BB, 23.2 IP
w/REN: 2-8, 7.45 ERA, 1.77 WHIP, 5.13 FIP, 75 K, 39 BB, 96.2 IP
LF Head:
w/LA: .400/.426/.533, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 45 AB
w/REN: .304/.350/.374, 2 HR, 22 RBI, 171 AB
None of the 7 youngsters had any time even close to the ML level at the time of the trade.
As you can see both pitchers were struggling for Reno after very good 2012 campaigns and both players for LA had hot starts and cooled down considerably after reaching Reno. Moran would have the best season of his career until his 2016 season in Jacksonville. Interesting enough, the year of the trade was only year LA didn't make the playoffs, missing the Wild Card by 1 game, even though it wasn't Moran's fault.
How did they fare after the trade? Let's see:
Moran: (2 years, 5 months): 39-19, 3.21 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 3.69 FIP, 326 K, 160 BB (Traded to JAK)
Davis: (20 days) 0-2, 7.11 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 3.91 FIP, 8 K, 3 BB, 12.2 IP (Traded to SF)
Ramos: (5 months): 2-8, 7.45 ERA, 1.77 WHIP, 5.13 FIP, 75 K, 39 BB, 96.2 IP (Become FA 2014)
Head: (1 year, 5 months): .271/.322/.373, 11 HR, 96 RBI, 712 AB (Still in REN, AA club)
Noriega: (3 years): 5-16, 1 save, 8.39 ERA, 1.82 WHIP, 172.2 IP. 20 years old, 1.5/4*
Garcia: (2 years): 1-5, 7.71 ERA, 2.16 WHIP, 63.0 IP. 22 years old, .5/3.5*
Reyes: (1 year): 2-4, 5.30 ERA, 1.67 WHIP, 73.0 IP. 22 years old, 3.5/4* (Traded to VIS)
Kong: Hasn't played yet for Reno. 22 years old, 1/4*
Morin: Hasn't played yet for Reno. 22 years old, 1/2.5*
Sugiyama: (1 year): .329/.363/.429, 17 2B, 2 HR, 30 RBI, 252 AB. 21 years old, 1/3.5*
Gonzalez: Never played for Reno. (Traded back to LA in 2015) 23 years old, 4.5/5*
This is one of those trades which even though it's 4 years later, it's still a little premature. Ramos was space filler and left Reno after the season, Head played part of 2 years before being buried in the minor league system. The trade was really about the other 7 players. Unfortunately for Reno the only 2 that have matured have both been trade away in Reyes and Gonzalez. Still a lot of talent in the system from the trade and it will probably be another 3-4 seasons before we start seeing most of them make a true impact.
As for LA, Moran pitched well for them for 2+ seasons and was traded the off season before LA won it's first championship. They did get 3 valuable players who all played key roles in their championship run though. As for Davis, he lasted 3 starts in LA before Mikey shipped him off to division rival San Fransisco. That trade looked like this:
LA gets:
SP Tyler Law (3/4* at the time, 2/2* now) $3.869M for 1 year.
382K
SF gets:
SP Drake Davis
MR Jose Castro (.5/2* at the time, 2.5/4* now)
RF Miguel Montes (1/2* at the time, 2/2* now)
You should by now Mikey wasn't done trading, as he sent Law away less than 2 months later and that trade looked like this:
LA gets:
MR Zi-jun Chou (4/4* at the time, 4.5/4.5* now) 3.35M for 2 years.
$5M Cash
New Orleans gets:
SP Tyler Law
After the season was over the trade looked like this for LA:
LA gets:
SP Jesus Moran
MR Zi-jun Chou
$10.382M CASH
LA gives:
SP Aureilo Ramos - 31 years old - 2.5/2.5* - $1.1M for 2 years.
LF Alexander Head - 28 years old - 2/2* - $10.1M for 1 year.
SP Luis Noriega - 17 years old - .5/4* - MLC
SP Carlos Garcia - 18 years old - .5/2.5* - MLC
SP Hector Reyes - 17 years old - .5/1* - MLC
MR Yu-Shu Kong - 17 years old - .5/4* - MLC
1B Lorenzo Morin - 18 years old - 1/2.5* - MLC
SS Susumu Sugiyama - 16 years old - 1/2* - MLC
3B Miguel Gonzalez - 19 years old - 1/3.5* - MLC
MR Jose Castro -18 years old - (.5/2* at the time, 2.5/4* now)
RF Miguel Montes - 16 years old - (1/2* at the time, 2/2* now)
While the trade will be hard to judge for Reno for a couple of seasons, LA did give a lot that season in terms of their farm system. 9 players under the age of 20, all between 2-4* potential. They got back an ace, a very good middle reliever and over $10 million in cash, not to mention giving away equal salary. They turned Moran and Chou into valuable parts that help win a championship. I would say this trade was surely a win for the Bruins and depending on what a couple of the youngsters still in Reno's system, could very well end up being a win for them as well.
GO D-BAGS
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