Cleveland Indians: The 6 “worst” deadline deals in Tribe history

Bad Trade No. 4: Say it ain’t so – there goes Shoeless Joe

I’m not sure there was a trade deadline in 1910. But the rules of this search are any trade in July or August. This trade was made in August. And it was terrible.

On July 30, 1910 the Philadelphia Athletics sent Shoeless Joe Jackson to Cleveland to complete an earlier trade (Bris Lord to Philadelphia for Morrie Rath and a player to be named). Bris Lord played parts of three seasons for Philadelphia. Rath played the rest of the year with Cleveland. But oh that Shoeless Joe.

Jackson hit .408 in 1911. Then .395. Then .373. His worst year in Cleveland was .308.  Had he stayed in Cleveland this would have made the top five deadline deals article.

But he didn’t.

He was hitting .327 in 1915, when the dreaded deal went down.

On August 21, 1915 the White Sox sent Braggo Roth, Ed Klepfer, Larry Chappel and $31,500 to Cleveland for Jackson.

The players were nice, but the money was probably the key attraction. On April 9, 1916 the Indians sent three players and $55,000 to the Red Sox for Tris Speaker.

Still, this article isn’t about how the Indians spent their money. It’s about bad trades in July and August. And getting rid of Joe Jackson was bad.

If you believe movies like Field of Dreams or Eight Men Out, Shoeless Joe was just a pawn in the Black Sox scandal. If that’s true, you could make the argument that Jackson would be in the Hall of Fame had he remained a Cleveland Indian.

And what is it with the Red Sox selling Hall of Fame outfielders?

Bad Trade No. 3: Sick Burn: Jeromy Burnitz for Kevin Seitzer

Seitzer did his part in 1996. He hit .386 for the Tribe (OPS 1.022). But they would have made the playoffs without him. And they would have lost to Baltimore in the first round without him too. In the end, he didn’t make a difference.

But Burnitz wound up with 315 career home runs, most of them for the Brewers. Every day (it seemed). Turn on SportsCenter and see another Burnitz home run.

Advantage Milwaukee.

Bad Trade No. 2: Victor Martinez for Nick Hagadone, Justin Masterson and Bryan Price

This trade looked good for a while. Masteron had three good seasons at the top of the Indians rotation. And Hagadone spent four years in the Indians bullpen with some success.

But they’re both gone. Not just from Cleveland, but from the major leagues. And Victor just keeps hitting. And hitting. And hitting.

Bad Trade No. 1: John Smiley and Jeff Branson for Danny Graves, Damien Jackson, Scott Winchester and Jim Crowell

Has there ever been a worse result in a trade?

Smiley was not having a good year for the Reds. At the time of the trade he was 9-10, 5.23. He was no better in six starts in Cleveland (2-4, 5.54). But the real problem was what happened in the bullpen as Smiley was warming up before his seventh start on September 27, 1997. It was described as “First a crack, then a scream.” Smiley’s left arm broke at the shoulder. His season and his career was over.

Graves recorded 182 saves for the Reds. Winchester pitched for two seasons. Jackson played 11 seasons in the big leagues, mostly with San Diego. As an added bonus, Graves was on the radio doing the Reds report, so I got to listen to that.

It would have been the worst trade – but my rules excluded it: John Rocker for Steve Karsay and Steve Reed

On July 7, 2001 Rocker took off from Cleveland to attend a Black Sabbath concert. He made it back in time to blow a save on July 8. Rocker went 3-7 with a 5.45 ERA down the stretch.  Karsay saved more games for the Braves than Rocker did for the Tribe (7-4).

Both Reed and Karsay were effective through 2004, long after Rocker was gone.