Historic Trades: Parker for Weisberg

To start this series of articles about historic trades I’d like to talk about one of the most controversial trades in the history of the league. As a consequence of this trade not only did the players change teams, a GM also left the league to never return (and another was soon to follow).

It was November of 1976 and the league had just expanded. The Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins, and Toronto Blue Jays finished their expansion draft not long before. Milwaukee was still enjoying their last World Series victory against the San Francisco Giants. It was the Giants’ third World Series in four years and third against the Brewers; these were no doubt the best two teams in baseball.

The Kansas City Royals had just finished a mediocre campaign: 77 wins and 85 losses. They featured a new GM at the helm hoping to turn the team around. They had nothing to be hopeful about if not for the performance of their bright young star, Jimmy Parker. The fresh-faced third baseman was recently crowned Rookie of the Year for the American League, finishing with a 126 OPS+ and 5.4 WAR in 156 games. Surely, this was only the beginning of an illustrious career for him with the Royals. Unless…

Kansas City Trades:

3B Jimmy Parker

San Francisco Trades:

3B Jessie Weisberg

CF Mike Hoefferle

LF David Salazar

SP Jim Thompson

Shock! A future MVP at the dawn of his career traded for a star with injury problems near the end of it. A team that needed to build for the following years traded the centerpiece of their future, and the juggernaut of the National League got stronger and younger.

Managers were not happy, especially National League rivals. One of them in particular, the brand new (and quite sharp!) Colorado Rockies GM eventually left the league, with the Royals GM leaving before the 1977 season even began. Regulations were discussed -- and feelings got hurt -- but life and baseball carried on…

Parker’s MVP didn't take too long, in his next year he accrued 10.5 WAR to lead the National League and earned that desired award.

How are they doing now?

Jessie Weisberg earned 16.4 WAR for the Royals. He was traded after 3 and a half years to the Brewers for the mildly-promising LHP John Clark and he’s now a Free Agent.

Jimmy Parker has attained 33 WAR -- and counting -- for the Giants. He signed an eight-year extension last season and looks to remain a Giant for life (at least until the next rebuilding team with a new GM has a budding young superstar third basemen).

Mike Hoefferle has collected 8.5 WAR in his career for the Giants. Yes, he got him back.

Salazar retired and Thompson hasn’t made his debut yet. (Thanks Anthony for editing and improving the article!)