Trades That Look Worse Now...The Heathcliff Slocumb Deal

July 31, 1997 - The Seattle Mariners trade pitcher Derek Lowe and catcher Jason Varitek to the Boston Red Sox for closer Heathcliff Slocumb

I know what you all are thinking.

How in the hell can you defend that trade?

Watch me.

Back when the trade was first done, the Mariners were in a dogfight for the American League West title, fighting with the Anaheim Angels for supremacy. 

Unfortunately, the team was having trouble holding leads and was leading the league in blown saves.

So the Mariners went to work, trading Jose Cruz Jr. to the Blue Jays for Paul Spoljaric and Mike Timlin and acquiring Slocumb, who was down and out with the Red Sox at the time, but it was thought that a change of scenary would allow him to be able to let him flourish eslewhere, especially in Safeco, one of the best pitchers parks in the league.

Is it easy to criticize the Mariners on this trade, resulting in the Red Sox acquring two of the the seeds that bloomed into their 2004 World Series title.  I know I did in an earlier post.

But upon further thought, there was logic to the whole thing.

Let's take a look at Varitek, arguably the best piece exchanged between both clubs.

Varitek at the time was the Mariners' best catching prospect.  However, he was doing next to nothing with the bat and in spite of his excellent catch and release skills, the bat was viewed to be pretty anemic.

In the meantime, the Mariners already had an established young catcher in the majors in Dan Wilson. who was acquired from Cincinatti in 1994.  Wilson had established himself as the Mariners' No. 1 catcher in the mid-1990s and he was young, 27 at the time of the trade I believe.  Varitek wasn't going to see much playing time had he remained in the Mariners and while many may say that it would have made sense to move him, at the time, his bat was poor and really didn't fit anywhere else in the lineup.

Lowe is much of the same.  At the time, he was a reliever, not a starter, and he was an average one at best.  There certainly weren't any signs that Lowe would become the innings eating horse that he is now, just another sign of how flukely things can be in deals such as these.

As for Slocumb, he was a servicable closer and probably helped save the Mariners' season as well.  And really, this trade looks like hell only when Slocumb imploded the next year.

Many fans, Boston fans and masocist Mariners fans the main culprits, will say that this is one of the greatest hosings in Mariners history, but the fact of the matter is that there certainly weren't any signs that Lowe and Varitek were capable of greatness.   And realistically, we wouldn't be talking about either player in the terms we do had it not been for the Red Sox's World Championship in 2004.  So, before you are ready to crap on this trade as one of the worst ever, and before Boston Fans are ready to cackle madly with how badly they made off like bandits in this trade, remember this one?

August 30, 1990 - The Boston Red Sox trade first baseman Jeff Bagwell to the Houston Astros for pitcher Larry Andersen.

I rest my case.