The KC Royals have an interesting trade history with Seattle

Seattle traded a little-known lefty pitching star-to-be to the KC Royals.

In October 1981, Kansas City shipped infielder Manny Castillo to Seattle for a player to be named later. Castillo had 10 at-bats with the Royals late in 1980, then hit .335 with 91 RBIs in 1981 at Triple-A Omaha. After the trade, he hit .257 in extensive action with the Mariners in 1982, but when his average slipped to .207 in ’83, he was released. He spent 1984 in Toronto’s minor league system and was out of baseball after that season.

Then, during 1982 spring training, the Mariners sent little-known lefthander Bud Black to the Royals to complete the Castillo trade. Black had two appearances with Seattle in 1981, just his third year of professional baseball after the M’s picked him in the 17th round of the 1979 amateur draft out of San Diego State University.

Black became a mainstay of the KC pitching staff and posted a 17-win season in 1984 to help the club win the American League West for the first time since 1980. Before being traded to Cleveland for Pat Tabler in June 1988, Black helped the Royals to the 1985 World Series title and posted 56 wins, 10 saves and a 3.73 ERA in nearly 1,000 innings with the club.

Now the manager of the Colorado Rockies, Black gave up Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson’s 500th home run.