“Who Won the Trade?” – 2015 Edition

“Who won the trade?” That’s the first question that fans, journalists, pundits, and (probably) players ask when baseball teams swap employees. In the moment it’s very difficult to answer the question objectively since one of the involved parties is usually a prospect who has yet to play a big league game or is maybe just waiting for a break in the Show. It would honestly take a decade for everyone to definitively say how the trade worked out for everyone involved. With that in mind, let’s go back to the 2015 Cleveland Guardians season and see how their trades worked out.

Two notes: First, I’ll be considering the offseason before as well as mid-season trades. Second, I know their name wasn’t “Guardians” at the time but for the sake of consistency I’m just going to use that moniker. 

December 8, 2014

Guardians trade Joey Wendle to the Oakland A’s for Brandon Moss.

Cleveland drafted Joey Wendle in the 6th round of the 2012 draft. At the time of the deal, Wendle had reached AA where he managed a .725 OPS and perfectly fine season in Akron. Brandon Moss was coming off an All-Star season with the Athletics where he slugged 25 homers and recorded 81 RBI (.772 OPS). The deal offered a little pop for the middle of Cleveland’s lineup. And it did…for 94 games. Moss slashed .217/.288/.407 (.695 OPS), 15 dingers, 50 RBI, and a 106:32 strikeout to walk ratio. Cleveland traded Moss in July (more on that later). Wendle, meanwhile, played 36 games for Oakland before being dealt to Tampa Bay. He finished fourth in rookie of the year voting in 2018, was an All-Star in 2021, and reached the 2020 World Series with the Rays. Wendle may not have set the world on fire for the Green and Gold, but he blossomed into a solid middle infielder with a 13.0 career WAR so far.

Verdict: Tie (Cleveland kinda loses big picture)

July 28, 2015

Guardians trade David Murphy to the Los Angeles Angels for Eric Stamets

By the end of July, the Guards knew they were cooked. The team sat in dead last in the AL Central, sixteen games out of first with a 45-54 record. Looking to make a deal, they linked up with the Angels who were, on that day at least, in first place in the AL West. Murphy had been solid if unremarkable for Cleveland since joining the team in 2014. Over 170 total games he slashed .273/.327/.402 with a .777 OPS. He offered a fresh bat for the Halos who were willing to part with Ohio native Eric Stamets, playing in AA at the time. Stamets tooled around the minors until making his big-league debut in 2019. He played a mere 15 games for Cleveland going 2-for-41 which wound up being his entire MLB career. Coincidentally Murphy’s big-league career ended after 2015 and 48 games with the Angels who once again missed the playoffs. 

Verdict: Tie

July 30, 2015

Guardians trade Brandon Moss to the St. Louis Cardinals for Rob Kaminsky

Remember Brandon Moss? His Cleveland career lasted only 94 games. The fifteen homers and fifty RBI were nice, but that .217/.288/.407 slash line (.695 OPS) was tough to stomach. Plus, with the Guardians in full sale mode they figured it would be worth it to flip him to the Cardinals for left-handed pitcher Rob Kaminsky. Kaminsky had his best season in 2016 for Akron with a 11-7 record and 3.28 ERA. He never broke up with the big league club, however, and was granted free agency in 2019. To his credit, Kaminsky has stuck with it, bouncing around the minor league systems for St. Louis, Philly, Seattle, and the Independent Staton Island FerryHawks. He had a cup of coffee with the Cards back in 2020 (1.93 ERA in 4.2 innings) and appeared in a spring training game for the Redbirds this year. Moss meanwhile accumulated a 0.1 WAR over 297 games with the Cardinals and Royals before retiring after the 2017 season. 

Verdict: Cleveland Loses

July 31, 2015

Guardians trade Marc Rzepczynski to the San Diego Padres for Abraham Almonte

The man they call “Scrabble” was a key pickup during the Guards’ 2013 playoff race. In 27 games that year he racked up a 0.89 ERA while striking out 20 in 20.1 innings. He became expendable in 2015, however, and was shipped out West at the 2015 deadline. He hurled through 2018 for the A’s, M’s, Nats, and funnily enough back to the Guardians. Over those seasons he had a WAR of 0.9, 3.63 ERA in 157 games and averaged 8.3 strikeouts per nine innings of relief. Abraham Almonte played in Cleveland from mid-2015 through the end of 2017. Those were his most productive years with a 1.7 WAR in 187 games and OPS of .718. He later played for the Royals, Diamondbacks, Padres, Braves, Red Sox, and Mets. In other words, he is a great person to guess if you’re in a pinch on your Immaculate Grid. 

Verdict: Cleveland Wins

August 7, 2015

Guardians trade Michael Bourn, Nick Swisher, and cash to the Atlanta Braves for Chris Johnson

It’s hard to overstate what a big deal it was when Nick Swisher signed with the Guardians before the 2013 season. The then-32-year-old outfielder was proof of concept that free agents would choose Cleveland as a destination. He was solid in 2013, but his performance depreciated in the following years and the shine was long since gone by 2015 as Swisher was slashing .198/.261/.297 in only thirty games. Michael Bourn had followed a similar path and had also struggled in 2015. Atlanta picked up both falling stocks plus our old friend cash in exchange for infielder Chris Johnson. Johnson played 27 forgettable games in Cleveland before playing a year in Miami and retiring after 2016. Swisher retired at the end of ’15 and Bourn hung ‘em up after 2016. 

Verdict: Tie

So, how did the Guards’ do in retrospect? In terms of WAR acquired and dispensed, not very good:

You can argue that Abraham Almonte was the best pickup of the season and Joey Wendle was the biggest miss, but no one knew for sure that the then-AA player would pan out. If you take Wendle out of the equation, then Cleveland comes out on top 0.3 to -1.1. What’s most remarkable about these deals is how close to retirement so many of the individuals were. Of the eleven players moved, six would play fewer than 162 more games before retiring. By my reckoning, Cleveland went 1-1-3 in these trades with relatively minimal impact on either side – no major impact players lost or gained. If anything, this exercise goes to show that the question of “who won the trade?” is unanswerable the day it happens. Unless of course you just traded Luka Dončić in which case good luck with that.