Worst trade in MLB history?

[madducks]

It wasn't a trade but it cost the Pirates nothing to get an unprotected Roberto Clemente from the Dodgers.

[rhd]

Not sure if they top the WAR count, but these were certainly franchise-altering deals:

- Reds trade 20-year old Christy Mathewson (93.5 WAR) to the Giants for a washed-up Amos Rusie (8.57 ERA with Reds)
- Phillies trade Ryne Sandberg to Cubs for Ivan DeJesus
- D'Backs trade Max Scherzer in a 3-tm deal to Tigers for Edwin Jackson & Ian Kennedy
- Rays trade Bobby Abreu to the Phillies for Kevin Stocker
- Cards trade Steve Carlton to the Phillies for Rick Wise
- Astros trade Joe Morgan, Jack Billingham, Cesar Geronimo & others to the Reds for Lee May & Tommy Helms
- Marlins trade Johan Santana to the Twins for Jared Camp
- Yanks trade Fred McGriff, Mike Morgan & Dave Collins to the Blue Jays for Dale Murray
- Cubs trade Dennis Eckersley to the A's for three buckets of goop
- Padres trade Ozzie Smith to the Cards for Garry Templeton
- White Sox trade Sammy Sosa to the Cubs for George Bell
- A’s trade Mark McGwire to the Cardinals for three boxes of baseballs

No wonder the Expos always stunk:
- Expos trade Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips & Grady Sizemore to Indians for Bartolo Colon
- Expos trade Randy Johnson to Mariners for Mark Langston
But they did swipe Pedro Martinez.

These Met doozies:
- Mets trade Nolan Ryan to the Angels for Jim Fregosi
- Mets trade Amos Otis to the Royals for Joe Foy
- Mets trade Tom Seaver to the Reds for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson & others in "the Midnight Massacre"
At least to the Mets' credit, they made about 6 or 7 heists in the 1980s to sort of make up for these.

These forgotten Red Sox gems:
- Red Sox trade Tris Speaker to the Indians for Sam Jones. Speaker had a 74.2 WAR while with the Indians
- Red Sox trade Pee Wee Reese to the Dodgers for Red Evans

Wow, a bunch of other really lop-sided trades. I'll look at several of these.

- Rusie's bWAR after the trade was -0.7. "Edge" of 96.0 WAR to Mathewson side (plus 1 WS title and 4 WS appearances).
- DeJesus' bWAR after the trade was 2.3. HOFer Sandberg compiled 67.6 for the Cubs for an advantage of 65.3.
- This one's really bad, too (good one, George!). Dale Murray's bWAR after the trade was -0.9, and -0.8 for his Yanks' tenure. McGriff had a near-HOF career, compiling 52.4 bWAR. Morgan compiled 27.3 bWAR after the trade for several clubs. Collins put up 7.0 bWAR after the trade for several clubs. Yanks lost a net 87.6 WAR.
- Templeton put up 8.9 bWAR after the trade. Ozzie compiled 65.7 bWAR for the Cards, made the HOF and helped them to a WS title in 1982 and 2 other WS appearances. Advantage 56.8 WAR for the Cards,
- Colon compiled 22.5 bWAR after the trade for several clubs (still active, maybe) but only 2.4 of it in his half season w the Expos. Tim Drew also went to Montreal and put up -0.6 bWAR. -0.5 for the Expos. Lee had 43.3 bWAR after the trade, 22.6 of it for Cleveland. Phillips never did much for the Indians, only 0.1 bWAR, but has had 30.9 bWAR and counting overall. Sizemore compiled 27.2 bWAR, 27.6 for Cleveland. Lee Stevens also went to Cleveland in this deal and he put up 0.3 bWAR. Difference of 101.7 - 21.9 = 79.8 WAR overall but the difference for the WAR these players put up for the trading teams was 50.2 - 1.8 = 48.4, advantage Cleveland.
- Yep, a doozie. FRegosi put up 2.9 bWAR overall after the trade, only 0.2 for the Mets. Ryan compiled 81.0 bWAR after the trade, 40.3 of it for the Angels. Overall difference of 78.1 WAR.
- Sad Sam Jones had a very good career and compiled 39.8 bWAR after the trade, 10.4 of it for Boston. Fred Thomas also went to Boston and compiled -0.1 bWAR but 0.9 for Boston. The Sox also got $55K cash (which play did they finance w that?). HOFer Speaker compiled 78.6 bWAR after the trade, 74.5 of it for Cleveland. Overall difference was +38.9 for Speaker but for Cleveland it was 63.2.

[rhd]

It wasn't a trade but it cost the Pirates nothing to get an unprotected Roberto Clemente from the Dodgers.

I didnt realize they had the rule 5 draft back then (1954). Has to be the best pick of all-time. Clemente had 94.5 career bWAR.

[cavebird]

The Ruth trade still obviously wins, but it is hard to say if it should count, due to it being more or less compelled due to financial situations. This applies to so many of the very old trades.

[revo]

I just read a Joe Posnanski article on the worst trades ever by WAR....he claims the Ruth “trade” wasn’t a real trade since it didn’t involve another player, so the Mathewson deal was worst. Runner up, Bagwell, bronze goes to Pee Wee Reese (who I must admit, I didn’t realize was traded until today).

[rhd]

I just read a Joe Posnanski article on the worst trades ever by WAR....he claims the Ruth “trade” wasn’t a real trade since it didn’t involve another player, so the Mathewson deal was worst. Runner up, Bagwell, bronze goes to Pee Wee Reese (who I must admit, I didn’t realize was traded until today).

If he's basing it on WAR and not counting the Ruth trade, then I dont know how he gets that the Mathewson trade was the worst when the Glenn Davis was over 44 WAR worse.