Former Orioles -- Chris Britton and Jaret Wright
Some trades have burned the Orioles in the past, like the notorious deal that sent Steve Finley, Pete Harnisch and Curt Schilling to the Houston Astros for Glenn Davis.
Recently, they’ve had a lot of success in the trade department. Last offseason, they dealt Erik Bedard to the Seattle Mariners for Adam Jones, George Sherrill, Chris Tillman, Kam Mickolio and Tony Butler. They also shipped Miguel Tejada to the Astros for Luke Scott, Matt Albers, Dennis Sarfate, Troy Patton and Mike Costanzo.
While a number of trades have a definitive winner and loser, like the ones described above, the majority of deals don’t give an advantage to any of the participants. An example would be the exchange of Chris Britton for Jaret Wright between the Orioles and New York Yankees on Nov. 12, 2006.
I’m mentioning this trade because the Yankees recently parted ways with Britton when they didn’t tender him a contract for 2009. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, the 6-foot-3, 278-pound relief pitcher signed a minor league contract with the San Diego Padres. He’s expected to compete for a spot in their bullpen during the upcoming season.
Wright only made three starts for the Orioles in 2007 before missing the remainder of the season due to a shoulder injury. He was 0-3 with a 6.97 ERA in 10 1/3 innings. The team released the right-handed pitcher at the end of the year, and he signed a minor league deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates prior to the 2008 season. He didn’t make the majors out of spring training and elected to become a free agent.
In two seasons with the Yankees, Britton split time between the majors and minors.
He was 0-1 with a 3.55 ERA in 11 appearances for the Yankees during the 2007 season. The Orioles’ eight-round pick in the 2001 MLB draft had five strikeouts and issued four walks in 12 2/3 innings. When he wasn’t pitching in the major leagues in 2007, Britton was 4-2 with a 2.51 ERA and eight saves in 37 games for the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees.
Britton wasn’t as successful in his second season with the Yankees. The 26-year-old reliever had a 5.09 ERA in 15 appearances in 2008. He walked 11 hitters and had 12 strikeouts in 23 innings. Britton was 3-1 with a 2.28 ERA in 21 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last season.
It’s obvious that the trade didn’t have a major effect on the Orioles or the Yankees, but there’s always the chance that Britton could develop into something in the future.
Does anyone have any strong feelings about this trade? While we’re on the topic, what do you think were the best trades in Orioles history? How about the worst deals?
Categories: Former O's minor leaguers
Comments
How about the dreadful Glenn Davis trade in the early 1990s?
Posted by: Andy | December 21, 2008 8:54 PM
The best was the Frank Robinson trade for pitcher Milt Pappas, pitcher Jack Baldschun and outfielder Dick Simpson. Frank was an old 30!
The worst would be a tie between the Murray for three nobody's named Juan Bell, Brian Holton and Ken Howell and the Harnish, Finly and Schilling for Glenn Davis.
There have been several deals I remember where we really robbed the Yankees and built our pitching staff for Torres, but none had the impact like the Robinson trade.
Posted by: cb coach | December 21, 2008 9:26 PM
I think the jury is still out on the Tejada trade. Outside salary dumping, I am not ready to put this in the "win" column yet for the "O's."
You need to measure it not simply by the players and money, but how pathetic we were at shortstop last season.
Posted by: Charlie | December 22, 2008 8:28 AM
The Robinson trade was great, but we did give up value for Frank Robby. Milt Pappas was a fine pitcher; fortunately, we had Jim Palmer in the wings. I think that our best deal was the one for Mora. We gave up Bordick to get Mora and Mike Kinkade. Bordick came back to us via free agency and Kinkade might have done better with better coaching.
Posted by: R P Hall | December 22, 2008 12:16 PM
The Orioles and everyone else need to stop looking at the past, and look at the future. This is getting ridiculous and more ridiculous everyday and every year with people saying "Oh! remember that, or God wish we had him back" Move on, its the past, cant bring it back!
GO GET TEIXIERA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop low- balling the fans of Baltimore, and the surrounding area. The Orioles will not and are not anything even if they do have Andy MacPhail....If yall tell us your going for change, PROVE IT Baltimore Orioles! Prove it...Otherwise, I will be sitting in living room cheering on the Washington Nationals...The Orioles are a complete joke...Nothing is going to change!
Posted by: Steve | December 22, 2008 3:16 PM
How about Dave McNally for Ken Singleton or Mike Boddicker for Brady Anderson? McNally never pitched after he left Baltimore and Singleton hit 308 usually and was an MVP candidate.
Boddicker helped Boston make the World Series and Brady was a mainstay for a decade or so.
Posted by: Nugget man | December 22, 2008 6:12 PM
don't kill me, but i just got word from a friend that teixiera is coming home. if that's true then its time to get season tickets. He's close to him and I really hate to put it out there, but if its true I want to be the first to say i told you so. if not i will have learned my lesson about listening to friends.
Posted by: Darryle Graves | December 22, 2008 10:56 PM
I couldn't believe they gave up a young reliever for Jaret Wright. As a rookie Britton had a 3.35 ERA; 46 hits in 53 innings and 41 K's versus 17 BB's. Even with a bad 2008, he has a cumulative 3.83 ERA; 83 hits in 89 innings; and 58 K's verus 32 BB's. He's 26- why not take a shot?
Another young arm for questionable veteran deal was John Maine and Jorge Julio for Kris Benson.
Going back, a very regretable deal was Don Baylor and Mike Torrez for Reggie Jackson and Ken Holtzman it was clear Reggie wouldn't stay in Baltimore, but Don Baylor might have. Reggie moving to NY shifted the balance of power from the O's to the Yankees for the next 5 or 6 years.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 23, 2008 12:08 AM
Curt Blefary for Mike Cuellar.
And while the deal for Reggie might not have been a good one in the short term, remember that Holtzman was part of the package that was one of the better trades in O's history, the one that brought Scott McGregor, Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez and Rudy May (who was later sent to Montreal for Don Stanhouse and Gary Roenicke).
Posted by: TOMC13 | December 25, 2008 9:27 AM
The Glenn Davis trade was the worst...and the F. Robby trade the best, but the Eddie Murray trade was not quite as bad as it seemed. Ken Howell was immediately flipped for Phil Bradley who actually had a few pretty good seasons for the birds. The O's hit rock bottom in 1988 and then actually became a playoff contender in '89 after making just a few moves. And Murray's best days were behind him...its just unfortunate that Juan Bell didn't work out.
Posted by: Bob S. | December 25, 2008 8:22 PM
How about Willy Miranda for Jim Gentile?
Posted by: mikezpen | December 26, 2008 2:37 AM
dave johnson for the atlanta catcher earl williams who earl weaver had to have.
Posted by: al engel | December 27, 2008 6:30 PM
The Orioles should not have done this trade. No team should trade with the Yankees to help them get rid of contracts. Let them drown in their free agent signings.
Posted by: Randy | January 2, 2009 12:35 PM
Hey Charlie, Tejada hit a whopping 13 HR's last year...How many did Luke Scott hit? I would have taken Scott alone for him and the four others were a bonus. Thank God Tejada and his "B12" was traded.
Posted by: Julie | January 5, 2009 2:28 PM
They weren't trades, but two other player personnel actions rank high and low in the history of this organization. High was the day that the team drafted Paul Blair from the Mets, Dave May from the Giants and Curt Motton from the Cubs. Low was the day when they lost, via the expansion draft, Dean Chance (to the Angels) and Chuck Hinton (to the Indians).
Posted by: R P Hall | January 6, 2009 11:25 AM
How about giving Chad Bradford away for NOTHING. Bradford was a Type A free agent, costing us a draft pick, he was one of only 2 consistent bullpen pitchers we had and the O's gave him away...they didn't even want the player to be named later, just the cash.
Posted by: Josh | January 6, 2009 12:33 PM
The worst was the Eddie trade. He was the Captin. Then they traded away the future to replace him with Davis.
Posted by: T Savage | January 9, 2009 4:22 PM