KC Royals: Examining Kansas City’s 3 worst trades ever

Few things in baseball evoke as much thought, scrutiny, discussion, argument, and visceral reaction than trades. As deals the KC Royals have made demonstrate, some trades are good, some bad, and some turn out to have no real impact. No one knows immediately how a trade will turn out: healthy players may suffer injuries, hot players may slump, others may simply fail after being traded and trade “throw-ins” may suddenly catch fire and become stars.

The Kansas City Royals have completed hundreds of trades since acquiring Buck Martinez, Mickey Sinnerud and Tommy Smith from Houston in exchange for John Jones 1968. (KC acquired four players before that trade, including former Kansas City Athletics pitchers Orlando Peña and Dave Wickersham; because those deals were purchases involving no other players, the Martinez deal was the Royals’ first true player trade).

Martinez became a solid catcher, making the deal good for the Royals. Other trades have been better, others worse. Here, in reverse order, are three trades worthy of the label “worst trades in Royals’ history” and another worthy of honorable (or dishonorable) mention.

The Royals made a major trade blunder during the 2017 season

Royals general manager Dayton Moore faced the classic “buyers or sellers” dilemma as the 2017 July trade deadline approached: trade soon-to-be free agents Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar for prospects to begin a Royals rebuild or, with the club still eyeing a playoff berth, trade for stretch run help?

Moore chose to make one last run with his stars. Needing pitching but having to give up pitching to get it, Moore sent lefties Matt Strahm and Travis Wood and and minor league infield prospect Esteury Ruiz to San Diego for veteran pitchers Brandon Maurer, Trevor Cahill and Ryan Buchter. Immediate help was the goal; a failed trade became the reality.

Although Buchter appeared in 29 games for KC and went 1-0 with a 2.67 ERA, Cahill and Maurer flopped. Cahill walked 21 batters and gave up 21 runs in 23 innings (8.22 ERA and 8.22 RA9), struck out six fewer batters than he walked, and had a 10.24 FIP.  Maurer surrendered 18 earned runs in 20 innings  (8.10 ERA) and posted a -5 WAR.

The trade was a mixed bag for the Padres: Strahm, high on the Royals’ list after pitching 21 innings for them in 2016 with a 1.23 ERA but injured when the trade was made, returned in 2018 and has pitched in almost 100 games for the Padres. Wood went 3-4 for the Padres, but tore an ACL in 2018 spring training and has been out of baseball since. At 21, Ruiz has a bit of pop, can drive in some runs, and steals a lot of bases, but has yet to play above High A.

For the Royals, though, this was a miserable trade. Two things distinguish it from other poor KC deals: the Royals should have known the Maurer component was destined to fail and, when it did, their continued reliance on Maurer in 2017 and 2018 defied logic. Despite his 20 saves, Maurer was a struggling reliever with the 2017 Padres: he was 1-4 with a 5.72 ERA and a negative WAR. He was even worse in Kansas City; his 8.10 ERA in relief and -5 WAR were catastrophic. He brought no value to the franchise.

Unfortunately, Maurer’s woes continued in 2018, when his performance required a brief demotion to the minors. In 37 games for the big club, Maurer went 0-4 with a horrendous 7.76 ERA; he gave up 27 earned runs in 31.1 innings and posted an alarming 8.33 RA9. Despite Maurer’s glaring ineffectiveness, manager Ned Yost repeatedly thrust him into game situations that demanded someone better. Not surprisingly, Maurer (and Yost) drew the fans’ ire and disenchantment; seldom had they seen such misplaced reliance on a Royals reliever.

The “Maurer-Strahm” trade wasn’t the worst in Royals history, but it warrants honorable mention here because it was ill-advised, predictably bad for the franchise, and triggered atypical degrees of fan frustration, anger and angst — especially when Yost stuck inexplicably with Maurer.

Only four Royals players have reached the Hall of Fame. They traded a young, budding star and future Hall of Famer in 2004 in a deal still questioned today.

The Royals lost one thing they’ve always craved, and another they like when they can find it, when they traded young phenom Carlos Beltrán in 2004–gone with Beltrán were his speed and power.

Beltrán was just 24, but a veteran of five full productive big league seasons when the Royals shipped him to Houston as their contribution to a three-way deal with the Astros and Oakland that saw Houston send Octavio Dotel to the A’s, who sent Mark Teahen and Mike Wood to Kansas City while Houston sent John Buck and cash to the Royals. Beltrán was the key man and biggest piece in the deal and the only player involved who went on to stardom.

Wood went 11-19 in three KC seasons; claimed off waivers by Texas in late 2006, he never pitched in the majors again. Buck and Teahen, however, became important short-term assets for the Royals, Teahen at third base and in the outfield and Buck at catcher. Teahen made his debut as a KC regular in 2005, batting .270 and averaging over 12 home runs and 73 RBI’s in four seasons. He declined sharply after the Royals traded him to the White Sox (and obtained Chris Getz) after the 2009 season and played only three more years in the majors.

Before giving way to Miguel Olivo in 2009, Buck was the regular KC backstop and averaged over 11 home runs and 43 RBIs in his six Kansas City seasons. He averaged almost 16 homers and over 56 RBI’s in four seasons after leaving via free agency after the 2009 season, but then declined and was out of the big leagues for good after a poor 2014 season.

In the five seasons they played together in Kansas City, Teahen and Buck combined to hit 117 homers and drive in 522 runs; during the same span, Beltrán belted 127 homers, drove in 466 runs (averages of over 25 and 93) and hit .281. He was an All-Star each season and won three Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers. Beltrán, a superb base stealer with the Royals, averaged almost 20 steals a season during the period while Buck and Teahen were never threats to steal.

And while Buck and Teahen were both gone from the majors within a few years after coming to Kansas City, Beltrán remained productive and didn’t retire until he returned to the Astros and won a World Series in 2017. He finished with solid Hall of Fame numbers: 435 home runs, 1,587 RBIs, 312 steals, a .279 average, and a career .279/.350/.486 slash. He made the All-Star team nine times.

The Royals lost Beltrán’s outstanding and consistent production for 14 seasons. Although they truly contended in only three of those seasons–2013, 2014 and 2015–the Royals would have been better with him than without him. In the end, it was the Royals’ conservative approach to high salaries that doomed Beltrán in Kansas City, and reflected their inability to retain key potential free agents.

And who knows if Beltrán, considered a hot managerial prospect and a front-runner for the Mets’ managerial opening, might now be a candidate to replace Ned Yost if the Kansas City Royals hadn’t traded him so long ago?

The early 1987 trade of a young pitcher to the Mets is almost universally considered the worst trade in Royals history.

In 1982, a 19-year old Kansas City Royals third-round draft choice posted a stellar 16-3, 2.08 ERA record in just his second season of pro ball and seemed to be on the fast track to the big leagues.

But David Cone went 25-31 the next three seasons and his rising profile dipped. He was a prospect to be sure, but not the dominant starter he would become. So the 1987 spring training trade that sent Cone and Chris Jelic to the Mets for Ed Hearn, Rick Anderson and Mauro Gozzo wasn’t particularly startling.

It is the aftermath of the deal, however, that makes it widely panned as the worst trade in Royals history. Hearn, the Royals’ main target (they were in search of a new catcher and traded Jim Sundberg a few days after acquiring Hearn) never helped the franchise. Injured soon after Opening Day in 1987, he played in only 13 games in his two KC seasons and never played in the majors again.

Anderson also appeared in only 13 games and was out of the majors after the 1988 season. Gozzo never made it out of the Royals’ minor league system and later ended his career with the Mets. Jelic, shipped with Cone to the Mets, made it to New York in 1990, appeared in four games, then disappeared into the minors.

Cone, on the other hand, went on to win almost 200 major league games (including 27 in a two-year, early ’90’s return to Kansas City), record 2,668 strikeouts, pitch a perfect game, and win a Cy Young Award. He struck out 19 in a single game, won 20 games twice, was a five-time All-Star and played on five World Series champions. He suffered only four losing seasons in 17 years–the combined difference between his wins and losses in those four seasons was only 16.

Cone’s record speaks convincingly for itself. He was one of the best pitchers of his time and a hurler who always wanted the ball. He won big games for big teams; some argue that he should be in the Hall of Fame (a discussion best suited for another day).

By any measure, Cone I was a horrific trade for the Royals, a result made worse by Cone II and their failure to learn from their original mistake.