By Woodrow Carroll
Trades are a part of the professional sports world and can engender plenty of controversy. Of course, we often have to wait a lengthy time to reasonably know who got the better of the deals.
Prior to the 2017 Major League Baseball season, the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox engaged in an attention-getting trade. The White Sox sent left-handed pitching ace Chris Sale to the Red Sox for prospects Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Victor Diaz, and Luis Basabe.
To the Red Sox and their fans it was a the-future-is-now approach. The White Sox were looking down the road.
Results of the trade will take time to fully understand. Perhaps both sides will feel good about the outcome.
In 2017 and 2018, Sale’s won-loss records were 17-8 and 12-4 with Boston. The Red Sox were World Series champions in 2018. Early on Boston clearly came out ahead in the trade, not an unexpected result.
By factoring in COVID-19 and the havoc created by the pandemic, a shoulder injury to Sale and the contributions of Moncada and Kopech, specifically, perhaps the White Sox have pulled even in evaluating the trade.
Ideally, a trade should benefit both teams, and, that may turn out to be the case involving both Sox teams’ evaluations.
There have been instances, however, where one team comes out a clear winner such as the Brock for Broglio trade between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals in 1964
In 1964 the Cubs traded fleet outfielder Lou Brock to the Cardinals for pitcher Ernie Broglio. At the time some observers felt the Cubs were the clear winner in the exchange.
In two full seasons with the Cubs in 1962 and 1963, Brock’s batting averages were .263 and .258.
In June 1964, Brock, who was hitting .251 at the time, was sent to the Cardinals for Broglio. Broglio, who had won 21 games in 1960 and 18 victories in 1963 with St. Louis. Media members at the time of the Brock-Broglio trade were only too happy to let us know their opinions.
Brock did well in St. Louis. He was moved to left field for the Cardinals and his batting average was .348 the rest of 1964 under manager Johnny Keane. Thanks in large part to the play of Brock, St. Louis caught the Philadelphia Phillies at the wire to win the National League championship, then beat the New York Yankees in 7seven games to win the World Series.
Broglio? Plagued by arm troubles, Broglio was 4-7 after joining the Cubs in 1964 and 1-6 and 2-6 the following two seasons for the Cubs which wrote a completion to his Major League Baseball career.
In his time with the Cardinals, Brock was an energizer. Each plate appearance was an adventure. He successfully stole bases.
Brock was a Cardinals’ regular in 1967 and 1968 when they won National League championships. The Cards were World Series champions in 1967 by beating the Red Sox in seven games, however, fell to the Detroit Tigers in seven games in 1968. Brock’s batting averages were .414 and .464 against Boston and Detroit, respectively,
In his 19-year career that ended in 1979, Brock was caught stealing 307 times, however, he ended with 938 stolen bases! Rickey Henderson over 25 years in the big leagues collected 1406 stolen bases and was caught stealing 335 times to give him leadership in those two departments.
A lifetime .293 hitter, Brock struck out more than 100 times in eight seasons. The man came to the plate with serious intentions!
Both Brock and Brologio are no longer alive. Brock died in September 2020 and Broglio in 2019.
We should not expect the trade involving Chris Sale to be one sided or dramatic. We will need a few more years to know its full impact.