Trades of the Decade: #6 Boston Trading Party

In 2003 Dave Littlefield was a very busy man as far as trades went. He had plenty of players to move, both for financial and baseball concerns. Among two of the players that were looking to be traded were lefty reliever Scott Sauerbeck and right handed discounted starter Jeff Suppan. Both players were in demand and the Red Sox liked both of them.

On July 22, Littlefield dealt them Scott Sauerbeck and young prospective bullpen arm, Mike Gonzalez to Boston for Brandon Lyon and Anastacio Martinez. That trade, while perhaps not the greatest, was not all that bad of a trade. Lyon for Sauerbeck was a good move, I would quibble with Martinez and Gonzalez, as I would have really wanted to have Gonzo to replace Sauerbeck. It really would not have made much sense to send both lefties to the Sox.

Turns out it did not matter as, Brandon Lyon had an injury issue that forced the teams to redo the trade. So we sent back Anastacio Martinez and Lyon to Boston, along with Jeff Suppan, for Mike Gonzalez and Freddy Sanchez. In the end the trade can be looked at like this:

Boston Gets: Scott Sauerbeck and Jeff Suppan (while keeping Brandon Lyon and Anastacio Martinez)
Pittsburgh Gets: Freddy Sanchez (while keeping Mike Gonzalez)

Boston initially made out in this deal as Sanchez was stuck behind veterans and was not going to be playing anywhere anytime soon, so they get two pitchers in the deal. It could have been much worse had we not gotten Gonzalez back. When looking at the stats, we see that the Red Sox really did not get all that much.

Suppan lost more games than he won for the Sox and was not a part of the postseason roster. He would leave via free agency to St. Louis the next season. Sauerbeck did little as well, having an ERA over 6, and only appearing in one ALCS game. Brandon Lyon was indeed hurt, but was traded later that year in the Curt Schilling deal to Arizona. Anastacio Martinez has only appeared in 11 major league games, all with Boston in 2004.

When looking at the little return that Boston got, the Pirates made out like bandits. For one we kept Mike Gonzalez, who was groomed to be a closer and was dealt for Adam LaRoche prior to 2007. Freddy Sanchez is the story of this trade, as he seemingly beat all expectations to become a batting champion and All-Star. Sanchez was a solid player for the majority of the decade for the Bucs and provided excellent offensive production.

This trade is remembered for the fact that it had to be reworked a little over a week later. Some may think of it as the trade that brought Freddy Sanchez to the Bucs as well. I like to think of it as the trade we were lucky to keep Mike Gonzalez a Pirate. In all honesty looking back at this trade it is amazing that it just did not all fall apart. It had the potential to be a horrendous trade, but instead it was one that worked out well.