Musings on end-of-year transactions

The final week of the year is usually pretty quiet on the baseball transaction front. But there have been some significant deals that transpired in the final days of the year.

As the hours tick by to the end of 2014, here are a few notes on the more memorable baseball transactions that occurred in the final week of the year. Happy New Year to everyone!

December 25, 1880 – The Buffalo Bisons signed Jim O’Rourke as a free agent.

The Bisons were coming off a dreadful 24-58 record in 1880, just their second NL season after moving up from the International Association. With O’Rourke and Deacon White on the 1881 team to complement Pud Galvin, the Bisons turned in a respectable 3rd place finish, 7 games above .500. The addition of Dan Brouthers the next season further solidified Buffalo’s roster as the Bisons remained a first division club for each of the four seasons that O’Rourke manned the outfield and also managed the team.

With O’Rourke’s departure following the 1884 season, Buffalo collapsed to a 38-74 finish in 1885, their last season in the NL (the Bisons resumed operation in 1886 in the International League, but not before the Detroit Wolverines purchased all of Buffalo’s better players for the package price of $7,000). Despite O’Rourke’s success with Buffalo, he would manage again just once – for a single season while playing for the 1893 Senators. Outfielders as player managers are pretty unusual. but several of them, like O’Rourke, were HOF players, including Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb and Mel Ott.

December 26, 1919 – The New York Yankees purchased Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for $100,000.
December 31, 1919 – Sacramento (PCL) purchased Dazzy Vance from the New York Yankees.

Not much to be said about the first transaction other than it was the best 100 grand the Yankees ever spent. Don’t know whether the second transaction was related in any way (possibly to replenish a depleted treasury?) but one shudders to think how much more dominant the Yankees would have been with Vance on their staff. Or, would Vance not have enjoyed the same success had he remained in pinstripes? In franchise history, the Yankees have had only one right-handed pitcher (Red Ruffing) with 1500 career strikeouts (Mariano Rivera is fourth on that list, just behind Mike Mussina and Mel Stottlemyre).
December 31, 1974 – The New York Yankees signed Catfish Hunter as a free agent.
One of the first major free agent signings and a harbinger of the Yankees modus operandi under George Steinbrenner. Hunter would turn in a 300+ IP, 30 CG season in 1975, the first by a Yankee since Carl Mays in 1921. Hunter had a similar workload the next season in leading New York to its first pennant in 12 years, but an ERA almost a full run higher would prove to be an ominous sign. All those innings (over 3000 through age 30, second only to Don Drysdale in the live ball era) took their toll with Hunter’s workload and effectiveness sharply reduced on the Yankees’ world championship teams in 1977 and 1978.
December 29, 1981 – The St. Louis Cardinals signed Joaquin Andujar as a free agent.
Whitey Herzog‘s arrival in St. Louis in 1981 yielded immediate results as the Cardinals, ten years removed from their last 90 win season, finished first in the NL East (but failed to make the post-season owing to the Phillies and Expos winning the first and second halves of that strike-interrupted season). The decision to resign Andujar may not have been an obvious one. The under-achieving right-hander (92 ERA+ in five-and-a-half seasons with Houston) was acquired from the Astros just before the strike and turned in middling results for the Redbirds, with only two of eight quality starts. But, with Andujar anchoring the rotation in 1982, St. Louis claimed its first world championship in 15 years, and the second of his back-to-back 20-win seasons led to another pennant in 1985.
December 28, 1994 – The San Diego Padres traded Derek Bell, Doug Brocail, Ricky Gutierrez, Pedro Martinez, Phil Plantier and Craig Shipley to the Houston Astros for a player to be named later, Ken Caminiti, Andujar Cedeno, Steve Finley, Roberto Petagine and Brian Williams.
This blockbuster would yield results for both teams for several seasons to come. Caminiti and Finley became fixtures for San Diego over the next four seasons, including two division titles and the Padres’ second NL pennant. Houston’s fortunes also improved, with two second-place finishes and three division titles over the next five seasons as Derek Bell joined Houston’s other bashing B’s, while Gutierrez provided useful service at the keystone position.

December 28, 1995 – The Chicago White Sox traded Tim Raines to the New York Yankees for a player to be named later.
December 30, 1995 – The New York Yankees signed Kenny Rogers as a free agent.

The Yankees most recent dynasty began with their 1996 world championship that followed New York’s 1995 post-season appearance, its first in 14 years. In fact, there wasn’t a lot in common between the 1995 and 1996 teams, with the latter club mostly a very successful rebuild. These transactions were just two of many that off-season to construct a 1996 team that featured a new manager (Joe Torre) and new regulars at catcher (Joe Girardi), first base (Tino Martinez), second base (Mariano Duncan), shortstop (Derek Jeter) and left field (Gerald Williams). Kenny Rogers joined Jimmy Key and Dwight Gooden as new arms in the Yankee rotation to complement holdover Andy Pettitte. Mariano Rivera had his first season as setup man for closer John Wetteland,

When New York won its next championship in 1998, a further makeover had occurred with Jorge Posada now catching, Chuck Knoblauch at second, Scott Brosius at third (replacing Wade Boggs), Chad Curtis in left, and Darryl Strawberry at DH (replacing Ruben Sierra). Andy Pettitte still anchored the rotation, but was now joined by David Wells, David Cone, Hideki Irabu and Orlando Hernandez, with Mariano Rivera now installed as closer.
December 30, 2002 – The New York Yankees signed Roger Clemens as a free agent.

This was the Yankees’ second acquisition of the Rocket, who first appeared in pinstripes in 1999 after a trade with Toronto for David Wells. After a pedestrian 2002 season (102 ERA+), New York resigned the 40 year-old right-hander for just a single season in which Clemens turned in an improved performance (113 ERA+ in 200+ IP) that led New York back to the World Series. Clemens was on the hill for the clinching LDS and LCS games (though he was shelled in the latter), and got the ball for game 4 of the World Series that the Yankees were leading 2-1. The Marlins would win that contest on an Alex Gonzalez walk-off homer, but not before a young Miguel Cabrera had taken Clemens deep in a 3-run first inning.

Possibly with those disappointing post-season performances in mind, the Yankees took a pass on Clemens for 2004, Instead, Roger joined Yankee teammate Andy Pettitte in Houston, with the two leading the Astros to consecutive post-season appearances, including the 2005 NL pennant.

December 29, 2006 – The San Francisco Giants signed Barry Zito as a free agent.

Zito parlayed his success with the neighboring As to a huge and lengthy contract with San Francisco. Though he never regained his earlier form, Zito would remain a fixture (in part because his monster contract inhibited moving him) in the Giant rotation for 7 seasons that included two world championships, the latter highlighted by two outstanding post-season performances: holding the Cardinals scoreless into the 8th inning of game 5 of the NLCS with the Giants behind 3-1 in the series; and a commanding 6-inning start to win the World Series opener.

There have been 29 live ball era pitchers to follow a 120 ERA+ in 1000 IP through age 28 with another 1000 IP after that. Zito’s 87 ERA+ after age 28 is the lowest of that group and one of only 5 scores under 100.

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Mo
Mo
9 years ago

In your 2002 comment, you note that the 2005 Astros won the World Championship. Looks like a correction is needed here.

John Autin
Editor
9 years ago

Orator Jim O’Rourke’s 1885 Giants were steeped in Hall of Famers, with Buck Ewing catching, SS Monte Ward, 1B Roger Connor, and pitchers Mickey Welch and Tim Keefe. They went 85-27, akin to 123-39 … and finished 2 games behind Cap Anson’s White Stockings.

paget
paget
9 years ago

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to do this (though I suppose death is the ultimate end-of-year transaction), but I wanted to express a devoted rest-in-peace to Mario Cuomo, lifetime .244 hitter in professional baseball, and a truly great New Yorker.

All-time politician/baseball team? I don’t know whom you’d stock it with other than Jim Bunning. Have there been other ball players who entered into politics?

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
9 years ago
Reply to  paget

Vinegar Bend Mizell is one.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
9 years ago

Tommy Byrne also.

oneblankspace
9 years ago
Reply to  paget
paget
paget
9 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Looks like we’ve got the beginnings of a pretty good team here; certainly a very strong pitching staff: Bunning, Mizell, Byrne.

But what really clinches it is simply the idea of George Bush the elder shagging flies on the same team as El Jefe. The possibilities are endless with that one.

Luis Gomez
Luis Gomez
9 years ago
Reply to  paget

Mexican ballplayers Bobby Avila and Aurelio Lopez, were both City Mayors in their respective hometowns.