“The Baltimore Orioles ended five weeks of often frustrating trade talks by acquiring slugger Glenn Davis from the Houston Astros yesterday for a trio of 24-year-olds: pitchers Pete Harnisch and Curt Schilling and outfielder Steve Finley...Orioles officials reacted gleefully to the deal, saying that they entered the offseason seeking a pair of run-producing hitters and now - with the earlier signing of free agent Dwight Evans - they've fulfilled their need... the Orioles envision 35 to 40 home runs from their new addition."
"Manager Frank Robinson immediately proclaimed Davis his cleanup hitter. 'We felt like we had to add two quality offensive players to our ballclub,' he said. 'I feel like we've done that. . . . Glenn Davis is capable of doing big things for us.'"
Over parts of three injury plagued seasons with the Orioles, Davis batted .247 with 24 HR in just 764 plate appearances, before retiring in 1994. His OPS+ was just 96, and he accumulated 0.1 WAR, total, over those seasons.
Harnisch (17.5 WAR), Finley (40.5), and Schilling (69.7) each went on to have extremely productive careers; in terms of WAR, they were, quite literally, a thousand times more valuable than Davis.
Good trade for the Astros.
That wasn’t the prevailing opinion at the time, though. Thomas Boswell of the Post called it “the best trade for the Orioles since they got Frank Robinson”, which pretty much echoed the prevailing sentiment around the league at the time. Nobody had any idea that these three young players would go on to do what they did, definitely not the ultra-fortunate Astros, who were simply selling Davis off because they couldn’t sign him to a long term deal, and wanted to cut payroll to make it easier for the owner to sell the team.
Trading prospects is funny… sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes a deal comes back to bite you on the ass… and people are still talking about it twenty years later.
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