KC Royals: Looking back at the worst deadline deal in Royals history
By Cullen Jekel
Last, there’s Mark Teahen, who collected 4.0 WAR during his Kansas City Royals tenure, which lasted just five years. (It felt like 100.)
His best season came in 2006, when he, then just 24, slashed .290/.357/.517 with a career-high 18 home runs while driving in a career-high 69 runs while scoring 70 runs. His OPS+ came in at 122 (so, 22% better than the league’s average). His WAR was 3.7.
So, yep: he collected 3.7 of his 4.0 WAR with the Royals in a single season. For his career, Teahen’s WAR was 2.6. Thankfully, those very bad Teahen years came when he was with the White Sox and, for a brief stint, the Blue Jays.
A quick summary:
- In 90 games with the Astros in 2004, Carlos Beltran accumulated 4.5 WAR.
- In 87 games with the Royals between 2004-2006, Mike Wood accumulated 0.7 WAR.
- In 584 games with the Royals between 2004-2009, John Buck accumulated 2.0 WAR.
- In 676 games with the Royals between 2005-2009, Mark Teahen accumulated 4.0 WAR.
That’s 4.5 WAR for the Astros and 6.7 WAR for the Royals.
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The difference being, of course, that Houston got their share of WAR in just 90 games while it took the Royals 1,347 games. And, to boot, the Astros only traded Buck to the Royals. The other two came from the A’s.
But hey! It doesn’t just end there for the Kansas City Royals. Despite Buck leaving through free agency and Wood leaving through (wait for it) waivers, the Royals can trace this deal down the line a little bit.
Of course, that leaves just Teahen.
Just after the 2009 World Series, the Royals dealt Teahen to the White Sox, where he absolutely bombed in one-and-a-half seasons. In return, the Royals acquired second baseman Chris Getz and third baseman Josh Fields. That’s right: for some reason the White Sox traded two players for Mark Teahen.
A different time, 2009.
In 332 games with the Royals, Getz accumulated 1.3 WAR. Fields, meanwhile, lasted just 13 games with Kansas City (the last 13 games of his Major League career, turns out), and in that short time, accumulated 0.3 WAR.
Next. 20 Best Royals During the Dark Years. dark
That’s another 1.6 WAR in 345 games for the Kansas City Royals as a result of saving face and trading the franchise’s best bet at making the Hall of Fame since George Brett.
It’s amazing to me that the man who made that trade somehow still has a gig in the pros, hamstrung he might have been. But of course he now works for the Mets, so it’s not that surprising.