This nightmare trade still haunts the Royals decades later  

We may have already turned the page on spooky season, but there are still plenty of scary stories left to tell. When it comes to the Kansas City Royals and their history with trades, there are enough ghoulish tales that can make anyone’s skin crawl. And since today is Friday the 13th, what better time than now to relive the worst trade that the Royals have ever made?

On March 27, 1987, the Royals sent promising young pitcher David Cone and outfielder Chris Jelic to the New York Mets in exchange for pitchers Rick Anderson and Mauro Gozzo, and catcher Ed Hearn. With just 22.2 career innings of work under his belt at that point, Cone wasn't close to being considered a sure thing on the mound. Yes, he had the potential to develop into a solid pitcher moving forward, but with a touch of wildness and a lack of true polish to his game, the Royals opted to part ways with Cone. 

Hindsight is 20/20, but it would take some kind of argument to even justify that trade back in 1987. It would be like Jason Voorhees trading in his iconic hockey mask for three pieces of tissue paper. Just one year after landing in New York, Cone put up a 5.5 bWAR season with the Mets. He became a 20-game winner in 1988 thanks to his minuscule 2.22 ERA and an equally impressive 2.58 FIP. You can bet that the Royals had some serious seller’s remorse after dealing away a dominant starting pitcher like Cone. 

The Royals ran into some horrible luck after dealing away David Cone 

After being selected in the 3rd round in the 1981 MLB Draft, David Cone quickly became a name to watch out for in the Royals minor league system. As a hometown kid, he had all the makings of a future fan favorite. In his first two minor league seasons, Cone flaunted an impressive ability to take control of ball games. He simply needed to hone in on his command before taking the next step in his development. 

Following a torn ACL in Spring Training in 1983, Cone was forced to miss the entire season, putting a real damper on his evolution as a pitcher. It took him a few seasons to get back on the star track that he appeared to be on just a few years earlier. By then, the Royals had already decided to move on from Cone. 

Obviously, dealing Cone in 1987 was a mistake for the Royals. Not only did they lose out on some stellar years from the hurler, but the return they got in exchange for Cone was underwhelming to say the least. You could almost say that the team was faced with something of a curse in the aftermath of the nightmarish deal.   

Anderson would appear in just 13 games for the Royals in two seasons. He sported a 6.89 ERA in 47 innings of work before becoming a free agent at the end of the 1988 season. He’d never make another appearance in the big leagues. As for Gozzo, he struggled through two seasons in Double-A Memphis before being drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1988 minor league draft.     

The Royals didn’t exactly get a whole lot of value from Hearn either. The catcher played in just 13 games in two seasons for Kansas City. After collecting nine hits in 35 at-bats for the Royals, Hearn never saw MLB action again in his career. When all was said and done, the trio of players accrued a ghoulish -0.5 bWAR over the course of their respective time with the Royals. That is definitely worthy of an internal scream or two. 

The Royals would attempt to right their catastrophic wrong when they signed Cone in free agency in December 1992. He enjoyed two of the strongest seasons of his career with the team, resulting in his lone Cy Young Award in the strike-shortened season in 1994. The following year, the Royals dealt Cone to the Toronto Blue Jays in yet another lopsided trade that resulted in negative value for the team. 

In the two decades that followed that second Cone, the Royals failed to make the postseason a single time until their tragic World Series loss in 2014. Was that prolonged stretch of futility connected to the team's two Cone trades? Probably not. But perhaps they’ll think twice before they ever consider dealing away another hometown kid like Carter Jensen for a whole lot of nothing.

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