KC Royals Trades: Four great deals with Milwaukee

We recently looked back at four great trades the KC Royals have made with Cincinnati. Those deals brought Jeff Montgomery, Hal McRae, Charlie Leibrandt and Johnny Cueto to Kansas City.

But Milwaukee is another team the Royals have been successful with in trades. Four deals with the Brewers truly stand out.

In 1976, the Royals made a deal to acquire Jim Colborn and the late Darrell Porter from the Brewers for Jamie Quirk, Jim Wohlford and future Royals pitching coach Bob McClure.

Quirk lasted one season in Milwaukee before coming back to Kansas City and Wohlford spent the majority of his career as a reserve outfielder, playing three years for the Brewers before going to the Giants and Montreal. McClure lasted the longest for Milwaukee, spending 10 years there as a stout reliever.

Jim Colborn and Darrell Porter turned out quite well for the KC Royals.

Colborn started 1977 by winning four of his first five starts and pitching one of the four no-hitters in club history. He ended the campaign 18-14 with a 3.62 ERA. But he pitched mainly in relief in 1978 before KC traded him to Seattle June 1.

Porter caught Colborn’s no-hitter and in his four years with the Royals became arguably the second best catcher in team history behind Salvador Perez. Porter slashed .271/.375/.435 with 61 home runs, 301 RBIs and 318 walks. He was a three-time All-Star during that span.

His 1979 season was his best—he slashed .291/.421/.484 and clubbed 20 homers, drove in 112 runs and led the majors with 121 walks. He hit .282 across three American League Championship Series with Kansas City.

Porter went on to win the World Series with St. Louis in 1982 and was named National League Championship Series and World Series MVP that year.

Two other notable players the KC Royals received helped in postseason play.

Jim Sundberg is perhaps best known as a Ranger, but in January 1985 he was part of a four-team trade between the Rangers, Brewers, Royals and Mets. Among other components of the deal, the Brewers sent Sundberg to Kansas City while the Royals sent Don Slaught to Texas and Frank Wills to the Mets.

Sundberg hit only .227 in his two years with the Royals, but he made considerable noise in the 1985 postseason.

In the ALCS against Toronto, Sundberg drove in four runs in the deciding Game 7 to help give the Royals the AL pennant. His effort included a bases-loaded triple to score Hal McRae, Pat Sheridan and Steve Balboni in the sixth inning.

Then, in the controversial Game Six of the 1985 World Series, Sundberg scored the winning run on a Dane Iorg single by avoiding Darrell Porter’s tag.

Although he didn’t have the dramatic flair of Sundberg, Nori Aoki was traded by Milwaukee to the Royals for Will Smith in December 2013.

Aoki spent one year in Kansas City, but in that lone season he slashed .285/.349/.360, stole 17 bases and slapped 22 doubles. His only home run was a grand slam off Bo Shultz in an August game against the Diamondbacks. He also broke Kansas City’s franchise record for the most hits in a three-game series when he had 11 against the White Sox.

Aoki rose to the occasion in the 2014 ALDS when he hit .333 in Kansas City’s three-game sweep of the Angels.