MLB Trades: San Diego Padres Received Hall of Fame Talent for Roberto Alomar

On Dec. 5, 1990, the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays made a blockbuster trade involving one future Hall of Famer, but the trade included another player who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

The Padres sent Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter to the Toronto Blue Jays, in exchange for Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez, but this is not about Alomar. It is about Fred McGriff, who like Alomar, should be in the Hall of Fame.

McGriff spent a mere two seasons with the Padres, but they were two incredibly productive seasons.

In 1992, he led the National League with 35 home runs to become the first Padre to lead the league in home runs. No Padre has done it since.

When he won the National League home run championship as a Padre, McGriff became the first player to win a home run title in each league, a record that has been equaled only by the infamous Mark McGwire.

During his two Padres seasons, McGriff batted a combined .282/.395/.525 (AVG/OBP/SLG). The Padres finished third in both 1991 and 1992.

In 1993, the Padres management claimed poverty. On July 18, they traded McGriff, who was batting .275 with 18 home runs, to the Atlanta Braves for three minor leaguers.

In late June, the Padres traded batting champion Gary Sheffield to the Florida Marlins and got extremely lucky. One of the players they received was Trevor Hoffman.

In less than a month, the Padres traded the defending home run champion and the defending batting champion.

McGriff, while not completely surprised, was upset when he spoke to a writer for the Associated Press.

“From what they’ve been telling me, it’s basically money. He continued. “I never thought it would get the day where I made too much money and it became a bad situation.”

Tony Gwynn was more upset than McGriff. He was extremely disappointed that the Padres didn’t receive some of the Braves top prospects, which included Ryan Klesko and Javier Lopez.

“You trade somebody like Freddie McGriff, you expect to get some quality in return,” Gwynn told reporters. “I’m frustrated. I don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing.”

McGriff immediately became an integral part of the Braves, batting .310 with 19 home runs for the remainder of the 1993 season. The Braves won pennants in 1995 and 1996 with McGriff at first base.

There is little chance that Fred McGriff will be voted into the Hall of Fame.

He has better statistics (284/.377/.509) than many Hall of Famers, including the great Tony Perez (.279/. 341/.463) and the beloved Harmon Killebrew (.256/.379/.509), but the quiet, reliable and classy McGriff has always been underrated.

During the last decade or two, certain numbers seem to ensure election to the Hall of Fame. One of those benchmarks is hitting at least 500 career home runs.

McGriff finished his career with 493 home runs. He averaged 32 home runs and 102 RBIs over a 162 game season.

The Hall of Fame voters have every right to reject McGriff, but each one must ask themselves if McGriff would be kept out if he had hit a mere seven more home runs over an almost 19-year career.

References

Padres trade McGriff for 3 braves farmhands. (1993, Jul 19). New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. C7-C7. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/109114666?accountid=46260

Baseball Reference