2 trades, 3 teams, 3 titles in 3 years
How the A’s, Dodgers and Reds all helped each other win 3 straight World Series titles
The World Series starts tonight, I’m back in the Bay Area, and definitely in a reflective kind of mood. I always get that way when I’m back home.
I’m thinking today about two trades made four days apart, that were quasi-linked, that led to three different teams winning the World Series in three consecutive years.
It was the ultimate “trade that helped both teams” or “trade that helped everyone.” Those are the best kind of trades. Really. That’s the point of a trade. We help each other by getting players we need for players that are excessive.
Those trades are rare now. These days, it’s usually a salary damp. A team that is losing a lot trades a good player making a lot of money to a winning team and receives a young player making the minimum who they hope becomes as a good player as the one they just traded.
These “good for everyone” trades involved the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics and Cincinnati Reds. This is when A’s general manager Sandy Alderson truly introduced himself to the sport, using creativity and aggressive decision making. [Little did we know, this was also the earliest stages of what became “Moneyball.”]
It began on Dec. 8, 1987. The A’s acquired outfielder Dave Parker from the Cincinnati Reds for minor league pitchers Jose Rijo and Tim Birtsas.
Then on Dec. 11, 1987, the A’s engineered a three-team trade with the Dodgers and Mets. The A’s acquired starting pitcher Bob Welch and reliever Matt Young. The A’s sent shortstop Alfredo Griffin and reliever Jay Howell to the Dodgers. The A’s also sent minor league pitchers Kevin Tapani and Wally Whitehurst to the Mets. The Mets sent reliever Jesse Orosco to the Dodgers.
Let’s start with the Dodgers perspective, since they won the 1988 World Series.
The Dodgers needed Alfredo Griffin because shortstop had become a revolving door of liability for them. Griffin missed roughly half the 1988 season and didn’t hit much, but his defense was always superb and he gave them exactly what they needed up the middle.
The A’s, meanwhile, no longer needed Griffin because they had Walt Weiss taking over at shortstop and Weiss ended up winning the 1988 Rookie of the Year.
The Dodgers bullpen was terrible in the mid-1980s. They needed help and got it with Howell and Orosco.
The A’s didn’t need Jay Howell because he struggled so badly in 1987 that, even though he was selected to the All-Star Game, and even though the A’s HOSTED THE ALL-STAR GAME, many fans -- including 14-year-old me -- booed poor Jay Howell when he was introduced and entered the game. They also didn’t need Howell because they had a feeling this failed starter named Dennis Eckersley might thrive in his new role as a ninth-inning specialist.
Howell is famous for a bunch of bad things. He’s probably most known for getting ejected from Game 3 of the NLCS game against the Mets for having pine tar in his glove. Or maybe he’s remembered for giving up the game-winning homer to Mark McGwire in Game 3 of the World Series. I feed bad regurgitating all this. So here comes a nice paragraph about him that is the point of this dramatic setup.
In the 1988 regular season, Howell pitched in 50 games, saved 21, compiled a 2.08 ERA, posted a WHIP of exactly 1.00, and whiffed 70 batters in 65 innings (back when that ratio was rare). Then in Game Four of the World Series, the night after blowing the game, Howell pitched the final 2 1/3 innings of a one-run game and preserved a 4-3 victory that effectively ended the World Series because they led 3-1 and Orel Hershiser was starting the next day.
Orosco did for the Dodgers what Orosco did for 24 years: pitch a lot and pitch effectively. In 1988, Orosco also pitched in 50 games, saved 9, and compiled a 2.72 ERA. In Game 6 of 1988 NLCS, Orosco pitched the final two innings to preserve a victory and send the series to a decisive Game 7 when Orel Hershiser again did the rest. You can snicker and say that Orosco’s biggest contribution was putting Pine Tar in Kirk Gibson’s cap early in spring training and sending him into a tantrum that set the tone for the entire 1988 season that the Dodgers needed to be more serious. You wouldn’t be wrong for saying that either.
Let’s also add another Dodgers-A’s trade four months earlier that helped everyone: the A’s acquired veteran reliever Rick Honeycutt for Triple-A pitcher Tim Belcher.
The Dodgers bullpen was rebuilt with Howell and Orosco. Belcher finished third in Rookie of the Year voting and won three of his four playoff starts in 1988. Combine that with Hershiser becoming unhittable for three months and a legendary Kirk Gibson home run, and the Dodgers won the 1988 World Series.
The trades worked ideally for the A’s too.
In Parker, the A’s got a left-handed cleanup hitter to sandwich between right-hander sluggers Jose Canseco and McGwire, the previous two Rookies of the Year. It was a gutsy move. The A’s allowed another lefty outfielder named Mike Davis, coming off a solid season, to depart via free agency. They chose Parker’s pedigree over Davis’ potential. (Davis signed with the Dodgers, continuing the web of connections.)
Parker was no longer the ferocious hitter from his earlier years with the Pirates and Reds that dominated baseball. But he was still very good. In 1989, when Canseco missed three months with a broken hamate bone and McGwire struggled for long stretches (.231 average), Parker was the glue of the lineup. At age 38, “The Cobra” hit 22 homers, drove in 97 runs, posted a 741 OPS and finished 12th in MVP voting.
In Welch, the A’s added a bona fide No. 2 starter behind ace Dave Stewart. During the three World Series years, Welch did this:
1988: 17-9, 3.64 ERA, 36 starts, 244.2 innings.
1989: 17-8, 3.00 ERA, 33 starts, 209.2 innings.
1990: 27-7, 2.95 ERA, 35 starts, 238 innings and the Cy Young award.
The A’s don’t reach three straight World Series, and don’t win in 1989, without Parker and Welch. Plus, Honeycutt was the setup man for Eckersley throughout the A’s mini-Dynasty.
(Really, they should have won at least two, if not three of those Series.)
But let’s not forget about the Reds either. The Reds were loaded with young outfielders back then. Eric Davis, of course, was the star. Don’t sleep on Kal Daniels or a young Paul O’Neill. Or an old Ken Griffey, Sr. back in Cincinnati. Or Hal Morris and Glenn Braggs rising through the minors.
Which is to say that Parker was expendable, and they were doing him a massive favor, because after playing 15 years on the brutal artificial turf fields in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, Parker’s knees were shot, he needed the cool breezes of the Bay Area, and a lot of starts as the designated hitter.
The trade of Parker almost looked like a giveaway. Both Rijo and Birtsas were originally acquired by the A’s in the first trade of Rickey Henderson to the Yankees after the 1984 season. But by 1987, they were borderline failed prospects.
Birtsas was a second-round pick in 1982. He reached the majors in 1985, but couldn’t stick in the A’s rotation, despite the A’s not being very good in those years. He spent all of 1987 in the minors. The Reds moved him to the bullpen, and while he wasn’t part of the famed “Nasty Boys” trio, he was a reliably serviceable arm in 1990, at a time when major league bullpens only needed six relievers at a time.
The real story was Rijo. He was always oozing with potential. He debuted with the Yankees at age 18 in 1984, even though that was clearly a George Steinbrenner-engineered publicity stunt to try matching the buzz over crosstown phenom Dwight Gooden the same year.
Rijo always showed promise. In 1986, in consecutive starts on April 19 and 24, Rijo struck out 16 and 14 Seattle Mariners. That Mariners team was just getting warmed up. They whiffed 20 times against Roger Clemens later that month on April 29. Those Mariners were ahead of their time for strikeouts.
Anyway, back to Rijo. He was inconsistent and constantly hurt. In 1987, his final year with the A’s, Rijo went 2-7 with a 5.90 ERA in 21 games (14 starts and sent to the bullpen by September).
The A’s couldn’t wait on Rijo any longer. Or wait on Birtsas. Or wait on Belcher. Or wait on Tapani. Enough waiting on prospects. The A’s were in win-now mode. Imagine that concept? Welch was reliable. Welch provided exactly what they needed.
The Reds could be patient with Rijo. For two years, they used him in relief some, started him some, let him get healthy, and let him develop. It all came together in 1990, when Rijo was 25 years old. Rijo made 29 starts and pitched 197 innings, compiled a 14-8 record, and his 2.70 ERA was fifth-best in the National League.
Rijo saved his best for the playoffs. In Game 4 of the NLCS, he pitched seven innings of three-run ball to get the win over the Pirates. Then in the World Series came the shining moments of his career. In Game One, he outdueled Dave Stewart with seven scoreless innings. In Game Four, he again outshined Stewart, pitched into the ninth and allowed just one run. Rijo was the obvious choice for World Series MVP.
The Mets didn’t win a World Series as a result of those trades, but even picking up Kevin Tapani eventually worked out. Two years later, Tapani was part of a package of players that landed native son Frank Viola, who finished 3rd in the 1990 Cy Young voting and nearly led the Mets to the playoffs.
It’s truly remarkable. Two trades, made in four days, involving four teams. Plus another trade by two of the same teams a few months earlier.
It some ways, it was a lot of reshuffling the chairs on the deck. But all the switcheroos worked. The trades helped three different teams twin a World Series in three straight years.