Trade Tree: Mark Langston

The second in our continuing series of Trade Trees, the Mark Langston variety is massive, with 13 total trades occurring and 29 players eventually being exchanged between the Ners and other teams. Since this Tree is so damn long and complex, the visualization of it is slightly different than last newsletter’s Erik Bedard Trade Tree, in that this one only features players the Mariners received. A solid border around a player means that they retired, became a free agent, or were released by the Ners, while a dashed border means the player was traded away, with the arrow indicating for whom.

Many younger Mariner fans may not know this, but once upon a time the Mariners drafted a left-handed pitcher from the Bay Area, Mark Langston. He made the Ners roster by age 23 and made the All-Star game by 26 – however, the M’s could not/did not want to pay him once his cheap rookie deal ended. In 1989, before he could leave in free agency and sign what was to become a $30 million contract with the Angels, the Ners traded him to Montreal for a slew of prospects. This is the root of the Mark Langston Trade Tree – a Tree with branches that stretch all the way to 2012.

This story spans 23 years and 3 General Managers, each making multiple deals that greatly shaped the Ners’ rosters throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The first GM up is Woody Woodward, who looks like Theo Epstein compared to Bavasi and Zduriencik. Woodward made the initial trade, turning Langston into some value: decent starter Brian Holman, forgettable reliever Gene Harris and a left-handed-giant-who-couldn’t-throw-straight named Randy Johnson. As Mariners, Holman was decent, Harris was flipped for an even more forgettable prospect, Will Taylor, and Johnson became left-handed-giant-Cy-Young-Candidate Randy Johnson. But Woodward flipped Johnson at the 1998 trade deadline, acquiring Carlos Guillen, Freddy Garcia and the always irrelevant player-to-be-named-later, who became John Halama.

Randy was great. But now things get much darker – because we now enter the Bill Bavasi Era, also known as “Where it All Went Wrong for the Ners.” Bavasi quickly flipped Garcia to the White Sox and Guillen to the Tigers for prospects. The Miguel Olivo Experience Round 1 was bad, Jeremy Reed never learned how to hit, and Mike Morse was trying to be a shortstop for a while. Ramon Santiago never rose above replacement-level utility player quality and Juan Gonzalez’s picture isn’t on the internet, which is just not a good sign. To be fair to Bavasi, he bailed on the Miguel Olivo Experience after two seasons and got the Ners Miguel Ojeda, who lasted 16 games before being taken off waivers. Nathanel Mateo also is not on the internet. Yea, maybe Bill Bavasi wasn’t a great GM (uh, ya think?).

Now things get really spicy as the “false prophet” aka Jack Z takes over. He made an instant, not obviously negative, impact on the team by pulling the trigger on a 3-team, 12-player deal that netted the Ners Franklin Gutierrez, Mike Carp, Aaron Heilman, Endy Chavez, Maikel Cleto, Jason Vargas and Ezequiel Carrera. Heilman was flipped before he could throw a pitch, Endy Chavez was fun, Mike Carp was cool, Ezequiel Carrera would go on to have an MLB career elsewhere, Maikel Cleto bounced around the league as a fringe reliever, Jason Vargas gave an autograph to a fan in a Red Mill once (Patrick) and was an able, bordering on above-average starter, and Franklin Gutierrez became “Death to Flying Things” and then purchased real estate on the disabled list.

Jack Z was not done after that mega-trade, though, for he would go on to flip 4 of the 7 guys he had just acquired. Cleto became hits-behind-the-pitcher Brendan Ryan, Jason Vargas was traded for Kendrys Morales Round 1, Heilman became Garrett Olson and Ronny Cedeno (neither were good), and Carrera turned into Russell-the-Muscle Branyan. Jack Z also sent Mike Morse to the Nationals to become the DC Beast, leaving us with Ryan Langerhans. And because it wouldn’t be the Jack Z era without a little more disappointment added on, he sent Cedeno, prospects and Jeff Clement to the Pirates for Ian Snell and Jack Wilson. Snell wasn’t very good, and while Jack Wilson might’ve hit better than Brendan Ryan, neither of them would make a piñata tremble in fear.

At the end of this massive, overly-complex, possibly confusing, Trade Tree, I am left with a few thoughts. First, don’t hire bad General Managers. Second, the Mariners got very lucky that a 6’10 lefty who couldn’t throw straight sat down with Nolan Ryan one game to talk mechanics – and were equally lucky Woody Woodward was able to get some return for the best pitcher in baseball. Finally, all capital acquired by Woodward in the Johnson deal was promptly destroyed by Bavasi and Jack Z, who, as shown by this Tree, were truly more awful then I remember.

#TradeTree #Pitching