The final week of the year is usually pretty quiet on the baseball transaction front. But there have been some significant deals that transpired in the final days of the year.
As the hours tick by to the end of 2014, here are a few notes on the more memorable baseball transactions that occurred in the final week of the year. Happy New Year to everyone!
December 25, 1880 – The Buffalo Bisons signed Jim O’Rourke as a free agent.
The Bisons were coming off a dreadful 24-58 record in 1880, just their second NL season after moving up from the International Association. With O’Rourke and Deacon White on the 1881 team to complement Pud Galvin, the Bisons turned in a respectable 3rd place finish, 7 games above .500. The addition of Dan Brouthers the next season further solidified Buffalo’s roster as the Bisons remained a first division club for each of the four seasons that O’Rourke manned the outfield and also managed the team.
With O’Rourke’s departure following the 1884 season, Buffalo collapsed to a 38-74 finish in 1885, their last season in the NL (the Bisons resumed operation in 1886 in the International League, but not before the Detroit Wolverines purchased all of Buffalo’s better players for the package price of $7,000). Despite O’Rourke’s success with Buffalo, he would manage again just once – for a single season while playing for the 1893 Senators. Outfielders as player managers are pretty unusual. but several of them, like O’Rourke, were HOF players, including Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb and Mel Ott.
December 26, 1919 – The New York Yankees purchased Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for $100,000.
December 31, 1919 – Sacramento (PCL) purchased Dazzy Vance from the New York Yankees.
December 31, 1974 – The New York Yankees signed Catfish Hunter as a free agent.
December 29, 1981 – The St. Louis Cardinals signed Joaquin Andujar as a free agent.
December 28, 1994 – The San Diego Padres traded Derek Bell, Doug Brocail, Ricky Gutierrez, Pedro Martinez, Phil Plantier and Craig Shipley to the Houston Astros for a player to be named later, Ken Caminiti, Andujar Cedeno, Steve Finley, Roberto Petagine and Brian Williams.
December 28, 1995 – The Chicago White Sox traded Tim Raines to the New York Yankees for a player to be named later.
December 30, 1995 – The New York Yankees signed Kenny Rogers as a free agent.
The Yankees most recent dynasty began with their 1996 world championship that followed New York’s 1995 post-season appearance, its first in 14 years. In fact, there wasn’t a lot in common between the 1995 and 1996 teams, with the latter club mostly a very successful rebuild. These transactions were just two of many that off-season to construct a 1996 team that featured a new manager (Joe Torre) and new regulars at catcher (Joe Girardi), first base (Tino Martinez), second base (Mariano Duncan), shortstop (Derek Jeter) and left field (Gerald Williams). Kenny Rogers joined Jimmy Key and Dwight Gooden as new arms in the Yankee rotation to complement holdover Andy Pettitte. Mariano Rivera had his first season as setup man for closer John Wetteland,
December 30, 2002 – The New York Yankees signed Roger Clemens as a free agent.
This was the Yankees’ second acquisition of the Rocket, who first appeared in pinstripes in 1999 after a trade with Toronto for David Wells. After a pedestrian 2002 season (102 ERA+), New York resigned the 40 year-old right-hander for just a single season in which Clemens turned in an improved performance (113 ERA+ in 200+ IP) that led New York back to the World Series. Clemens was on the hill for the clinching LDS and LCS games (though he was shelled in the latter), and got the ball for game 4 of the World Series that the Yankees were leading 2-1. The Marlins would win that contest on an Alex Gonzalez walk-off homer, but not before a young Miguel Cabrera had taken Clemens deep in a 3-run first inning.
Possibly with those disappointing post-season performances in mind, the Yankees took a pass on Clemens for 2004, Instead, Roger joined Yankee teammate Andy Pettitte in Houston, with the two leading the Astros to consecutive post-season appearances, including the 2005 NL pennant.
December 29, 2006 – The San Francisco Giants signed Barry Zito as a free agent.
Zito parlayed his success with the neighboring As to a huge and lengthy contract with San Francisco. Though he never regained his earlier form, Zito would remain a fixture (in part because his monster contract inhibited moving him) in the Giant rotation for 7 seasons that included two world championships, the latter highlighted by two outstanding post-season performances: holding the Cardinals scoreless into the 8th inning of game 5 of the NLCS with the Giants behind 3-1 in the series; and a commanding 6-inning start to win the World Series opener.
There have been 29 live ball era pitchers to follow a 120 ERA+ in 1000 IP through age 28 with another 1000 IP after that. Zito’s 87 ERA+ after age 28 is the lowest of that group and one of only 5 scores under 100.
