As the trade deadline approaches, most broadcasters are naturally discussing full and possible transactions in Major League Baseball. During a game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Minnesota Twins, the announcers had just received word that a huge trade had been completed.
The Orioles had traded Zack Britton to the New York Yankees, leading the television analyst to criticize the deal. He complained that the Orioles, who are buried deep in the AL East side, had violated an unwritten rule about never trading within their own division.
He doubted there was such a rule, as any club planning to trade a player would make a deal that would give him the best return. When you want to do what’s best for your organization, geography won’t take precedence over your own interests.
The very next day reinforced my doubts regarding the so-called unwritten rule that the announcer had alluded to, because another major internal division change had been completed. The Tampa Bay Rays sent starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi to the Boston Red Sox, who currently sit atop the AL East.
Giving the announcer the benefit of the doubt, I was wondering if the rule ever existed but it disappeared like the complete games and sacrifice bunts of the current state of play. However, looking back on some notable trades in the last fifty years, I realized that there was no unwritten rule that suggested teams not trade within their own divisions.
Here are eight cases from the 1970s in which well-known players were traded from a team to a rival in their own division.
San Francisco traded future Hall of Fame first baseman Willie McCovey to a team not only in the same row in the standings, but also in the same state. The San Diego Padres acquired Stretch from the Giants back in 1973.
Early in the next decade, the Houston Astros traded All-Star outfielder Cesar Cedeño to Western rival Cincinnati, which in turn sent third baseman Ray Knight from the Reds.
The year immortalized by George Orwell’s futuristic novel, 1984, saw a remarkable trade of internal division. The Philadelphia Phillies sent popular outfielder Garry Matthews to the Cubs, and he helped Chicago make the playoffs soon after.
Two years later, future Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter was traded by the Montreal Expos to East Division rival New York, where Carter helped the Mets win the 1986 World Series Championship against the Boston Red Sox. Apparently, the Expos, like the Astros and Giants before them, had ignored the no-trade rule.
All Star slugger Carlos Delgado, less than a year away from winning a World Series Championship with the Marlins, was sent from Florida to the New York Mets in 2005. Three years later, on July 29, 2008, the Rangers Texas traded first baseman Mark Texiera. to the Angels.
In 2010, the Milwaukee Brewers traded All-Star center fielder Jim Edmonds to National League Central rival Cincinnati, who felt Edmonds would help the Reds reach the postseason for the first time since the turn of the century. xx. Again, if there were such a rule, most clubs would continue to ignore it.
In a more recent transaction, the Minnesota Twins in 2011 agreed to send designated hitter Jim Thome to the Cleveland Indians, the club with which he began his illustrious baseball career. Thome was thinking of retiring and wanted to end his playing days as a member of the Tribe.
