The Phantom
All the talk going on with the trading deadline can be very taxing. What will my home team do? Is that big star going to my competition? Will my team do nothing? They have to do something, right?
Sometimes the best thing to do is stand pat. Trading for a star will increase ticket sales. It often will increase wins. It may help a team get into the playoffs. But when does it ever give you a World Series victory?
Let’s look at two scenarios in recent memory.
The Texas Rangers had Mark Teixeira. He was a young budding star. Teixeira refused a $140,000,000 contract for 8 seasons. The Rangers had no choice but to trade him before the trading deadline.
The Atlanta Braves saw him as the answer to their needs. They essentially traded away Elvis Andrus and Naftali Feliz to get him. The Braves did not win with Teixeira. They in turn could not sign him and traded him to the Los Angeles Angels for Casey Kotchman.
Yes, the Braves lost all the way around. That’s what trading for a star player at the trading deadline is, a gamble.
The next scenario shows us the Cleveland Indians.
They knew that they could not sign ace Bartolo Colon and traded him to the Montreal Expos for Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips, and Grady Sizemore. No wonder the Expos never won anything.
Colon could not bring a championship to Montreal and was never heard of again. He is in limbo.
The Indians also traded away C.C. Sabathia and then traded away Cliff Lee.
I can’t think of any team that has a World Series banner hanging in their ball park because of a trading deadline deal. Sometimes the best deal is the one you don’t make.
Don’t let some team sneak up on you and steal away your future stars for a dark promise of today.
I am the Phantom, I know these things.
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