My Favorite Trades

Just wanted to look back at some of my favorite trades in Dodger history. Some, I was very young for, others, not so much. They are in no particular order.
1. Gino Cimoli for Wally Moon. On December 4th, 1958, the Dodgers made the first trade that would impact the team significantly for several years. Gino Cimoli, a right-handed hitting outfielder, was traded to the Cardinals for former ROY Wally Moon and pitcher, Phil Paine. Cimoli would last in St. Louis for only a season before being traded to the Pirates and was out of the game by 1965. Moon became the Dodgers regular left fielder and during the 1959 Championship season, he hit .302/19/74. He used the screen in left field to his advantage and perfected what Vin Scully would call Moon Shots over the screen. Paine never played at the major league level. Moon would stay with the Dodgers for seven seasons hitting .286 with 64 homers and 330 RBI’s He was a member of three Championship teams.

2. Dick Gray for Chuck Essegian: On June 15th, 1959, the Dodgers sent Dick Gray, their opening day third baseman in 1958 to the Cardinals for reserve outfielder, Chuck Essegian. Chuck almost immediately became Walter Alston’s go to pinch hitter. Chuck would hit .304 in 50 plate appearances with 1 homer and five driven in. But in the World Series against the White Sox, he would slug two pinch-hit homers. Tying the Giants Dusty Rhodes for the most PH homers in a World Series. Chuck was not as successful in 1960 and was sold to the Orioles after the season. But he is always remembered as a key player in their victory over the Sox.

3. Don Zimmer for Lee Handley, John Goryl, and Ron Perranoski: With Maury Wills taking the job as the everyday SS, Zimmer had no place to play. So, on April 8th, he was traded. He went on to play 132 games for the Cubs and got his average to a respectable .256. Handley, a minor league pitcher, never made it to the majors. Goryl, a SS, was sent to AAA and played two seasons there before being selected by the Twins in the 1961 Rule 5 draft. The jewel of the trade turned out to be Perranoski. Perry would spend eight years in LA, recording a 51-41 record and 100 saves. Included in those stats was a stellar year in 1963, where he went 16-3 with a 1.67 ERA and 21 saves.

4. Darnell Sweeny and John Richy to Philadelphia for Chase Utley: On August 19th, 2015, the Dodgers sent Sweeny and minor league pitcher, Richy to the Phillies for Chase Utley. It was a deal designed to bring playoff experience into the Dodger dugout. While Utley did not exactly light up the stat sheet, his presence in the clubhouse was extremely helpful. He only had three at bats in the NLDS against the Mets, but his slide into second base, taking out the Mets SS, and breaking his leg, resulted in what has come to be known as “The Chase Utley Rule.” Players can no longer go out of the way to take out infielders. Utley would spend parts of four seasons in LA and have some other memorable moments. Especially the game where he hit two homers in Citi Field against the Mets.

5. Jesse Valdez, minor league pitcher, for David Freese: Another stretch run trade that panned out. One reason I miss the August 31 deadline for deals to help for the playoffs. Freese came over and was immediately impactful. He hit .385 with two homers and nine driven in. He also was one of the few Dodgers who had good stats in the postseason. He hit .417 against Boston in the 18 World Series and had two postseason homers. He re-signed with LA in 2019 and had a solid year, hitting .315 in 79 games with 11 homers and 29 RBIs. He had some injuries that limited his playing time. But he was 4-8 against DC in the NLDS loss. He retired after the season.

6. Dick Tracewski for Phil Regan: In Dec of 1965, the Dodgers traded Tracewski, a backup SS, for reliever, Phil Regan. Regan would go on to have one of the best seasons ever by a Dodger reliever and earn the nickname, “The Vulture.” Regan would go 14-1 with 21 saves and a 1.62 ERA. The Dodgers would win the pennant but lose the World Series to the Orioles in Koufax’s last season. But he and Regan were two bright spots for the year. Regan pitched one more year for LA and then was traded in 1968 with Jim Hickman to the Cubs for Ted Savage and Jim Ellis.

7. Ron Fairly and Paul Popovich to the Expos for Maury Wills and Manny Mota: June 1969. The Dodgers needed a SS, so they traded fan favorite Ron Fairly and SS Paul Popovich to the Expos to bring home a long-time Dodger fan favorite, Maury Wills. They got a PH supreme and backup outfielder in Manny Mota. Although Wills was 36 at the time of the trade, he would have three good seasons before fading in his age-39 season. He would be replaced by Bill Russell as “The Infield” began their run. Mota on the other hand, would become the Jim Gilliam of outfielders and the most prolific pinch hitter of his era. He would spend 13 years as a player and another 20 or so as a coach. Mota and Wills are both in the Legends of Dodger baseball.

8. Three-team trade involving the Dodgers, Pirates, and Red Sox: Dodgers received Manny Ramirez. The trade cost the Dodgers, Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris to the Pirates; the Pirates sent Jason Bay to the Red Sox and got Craig Hanson and Brandon Moss. Few trades at the deadline have impacted a team as much as this trade impacted the Dodgers. To put it simply, Ramirez went off. In his 53 games with the Dodgers, he slugged 17 home runs, drove in 53, and he hit .396. His OPS was 1.232. He brought instant excitement to Dodger Stadium and turned the left field seats into Mannywood. Fans bought Manny-style dreadlocks, and the Stadium was rocking every time he came to the plate. He would also shine in the playoffs, hitting over .500 in the two series with four homers and 10 RBIs. One of the more memorable moments was when he came off of the bench on his bobblehead night and had a pinch-hit homer. He of course ruined that legacy with his PED suspension the next season, but for one bright shining moment, he was maybe the most exciting player to ever don a Dodger uniform.

9. The Trade: August 25th, 2012. The new owners of the team, Guggenheim, wanted to make a splash and get a superstar player on the Dodgers. They made a pretty good choice in Adrian Gonzalez. With a large and loyal Hispanic fan base, Gonzalez, who had started his career with Texas and then been traded to the Padres, was definitely the face they were looking for. But he wasn’t the only piece. Carl Crawford, past his prime, but still a very good player when healthy, Josh Beckett, who had been with the Marlins and Red Sox when they won World Series in 03 and 07 respectively, would bolster the starting staff, and reserve infielder, Nick Punto. He quickly became Danny DeVito’s favorite player and DeVito could be seen wearing the #7 jersey at Dodger Stadium quite often. The cost? James Loney, Ivan De Jesus, Allen Webster. After the Season, Rubby De La Rosa and Jerry Sands were both sent to Boston.

Beckett spent three seasons with LA, winning eight and losing 14. One of his wins was a no-hitter against the Phillies. Crawford, injury-prone as usual, played parts of four seasons in LA, hitting .278 with 18 homers and 99 driven in. He did hit over .300 in all of his combined postseason at-bats. Punto spent two seasons in LA and had two homers and 21 RBIs. Gonzalez played six years in LA. He had 101 homers and 448 driven in. He was the Dodgers’ butter and egg man as so named by Vin Scully. He was later traded to the Braves in the salary dump that brought Matt Kemp back to LA.

10. Nathan Eovaldi and Scott McGough to Miami for Randy Choate and Hanley Ramirez. Another Ramirez trade. I loved this deal when it went down. Although Eovaldi would develop into a solid starter, at the time he was just another prospect. Choate was a solid lefty reliever and helped the pen a lot. Choate would eventually pitch in 36 games, usually to get out tough leftie hitters. This, of course, was before the three-batter rule. A lot of Choate’s appearances involved one hitter. Ramirez was solid in the 64 games he played. He hit .271 with ten homers and 44 driven in. He was a force through the following season. He hit .345 in 86 games. He was injured in the WBC and got a late start on the year. The Dodgers’ chances of getting to the World Series took a huge hit when his ribs were broken by a Joe Kelly pitch in the NLDS against the Cardinals. Hanley played for one more year in LA. He was then allowed to walk after the 2014 season as a free agent.

Well, there you have it, some of my favorite trades. Don’t ask me about my least favorites, I could write a book!