KC Royals: Looking back at the worst deadline deal in Royals history
By Cullen Jekel
David Schoenfield over at ESPN published a neat article that picked each MLB team’s worst ever trade-deadline move. The KC Royals’ was a move that occurred in the 2004 season.
There were some other doozies on there, like the Detroit Tigers giving up a young, unproven John Smoltz for veteran starting pitcher Doyle Alexander, who, to his credit, had an excellent stretch run that year for the Tigers. But the Kansas City Royals one is where we’ll keep the focus for this article.
For the Royals’ worst move at the trade deadline, Schoenfield went back to June of 2004 when the team shipped the phenomenal center fielder Carlos Beltran, then only 27, in just his sixth full season in the Majors and due to hit free agency after the year, to the Houston Astros.
This was actually a three-team, five-player trade between the Royals, Astros, and Oakland Athletics. The Astros received only Beltran while the A’s picked up closer Octavio Dotel from the Astros. From Houston, Kansas City received minor-league catcher John Buck; from Oakland, Kansas City acquired two players: minor-league third baseman Mark Teahen and a young starting pitcher, Mike Wood.
That season ended with the Boston Red Sox breaking the Curse of the Bambino by sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. The Royals, meanwhile, finished an American League worst 58-104.
In Oakland, despite over 50 solid innings and 22 saves from Dotel, finished a game back of the Angels in the West, missing the playoffs. The Astros, then in the National League Central, finished 92-70, 13 games back of the Cardinals, but still won the Wild Card.