THE PAIN OF THE MIKE PIAZZA TRADE

May 14, 1998 started as a very special day in my household.   It was my oldest son’s 18^th birthday.  We had some special plans to celebrate his birthday, once he finished with his school day.  The big news of the day was that Frank Sinatra had died.  Sad news certainly, but not anything that affected our family in any significant way.   That afternoon, by the time I went to my son’s high-school for baseball practice, word was coming out that the Dodgers had done the unthinkable – they traded Mike Piazza to the Florida Marlins.  Stunning!   Of all the players you thought might be traded, Mike Piazza was the last.   In fact, there was absolutely no reason to trade him.   At the time, Mike Piazza was far and away the Dodgers’ best player.   But Piazza, along with Todd Zeile were traded to the Marlins in exchange for Manuel Barrios, Bobby Bonilla, Jim Eisenreich, Charles Johnson and Gary Sheffield.   

The Dodgers had selected Mike Piazza out of Miami-Dade Community College in the 62nd round of the 1988 MLB amateur draft as the 1,390th player picked overall, after his father asked Tommy Lasorda to select him as a favor.   Tommy Lasorda was a friend of Piazza’s father growing up and was the Godfather of Mike’s older brother Vincent.  Think about where Piazza was drafted as we contemplate a 5 round draft two weeks from now.   He was a first baseman when drafted, but the Dodgers had him attend a special training camp for catchers in the Dominican Republic.  His MLB debut came with the Dodgers in September 1992.   He only appeared in 21 games that season, hitting .232.

In 1993 he was the Dodgers’ starting catcher.  He hit .318, with 35 home runs, 112 RBI, .370 OBP, .561 Slugging Percentage, .932 OPS and 153 OPS+.   Put simply, he was very good, appearing in the All-star game and winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award.   He would go on to appear in 10 consecutive All-Star games.  

His sophomore season he had a little dip, in that Piazza “only “hit .319, 24 home runs, 92 RBI, .370 OBP, .541 Slugging Percentage, .910 OPS and 140 OPS+.   Still good enough for him to be an all-star and finish 6^th in the MVP vote.  

In 1995, Piazza hit .346, with 32 home runs, 93 RBI, .400 OBP, .606 Slugging Percentage, 1.006 OPS and 172 OPS+.  Once again he was an all-star and finished 4^th in the vote for MVP.  

In 1996, Piazza hit .336, with 36 home runs, 105 RBI, .422 OBP, .563 Slugging Percentage, .985 OPS and 166 OPS+.  He finished second in NL MVP voting, behind Ken Caminiti.

1997 was Piazza’s best season with the Dodgers.  He hit .362, with 40 home runs, 124 RBI, an .431 OBA, .638, slugging percentage, 1.070 OPS and 185 OPS+.  He finished second in NL MVP voting for the second straight year, behind Larry Walker.

When he was traded, he was off to a slow start, though that did not have anything to do with why he was traded.  He went on to have a comparable year with the Marlins and the Mets.  

I do not need to remind you, that Mike Piazza continued to be good and he was voted into the Hall of Fame.   It hurts just typing that.   Looking back at the trade, I continue to ask myself why was he traded?  

Rumor had it that Piazza was unhappy with the way contract negotiations were going, and ownership wanted to get whatever they could before he hit free agency.  As a negotiating ploy, the Dodgers had leaked to the media that Piazza had turned down a 6 year, $80 million dollar contract offer from the Dodgers.   More rumors had Piazza demanding over $100 million for his next contract.   When the Dodgers released information on the negotiations, Piazza, becoming increasingly more unhappy, did likewise.   He complained about the situation to LA Times beat writer, Jason Reid.   Soon thereafter, things started to turn very ugly.   Before 1997, Piazza and his agent asked the Dodgers for a six-year, $60 million contract extension, but were turned down. They instead accepted arbitration and agreed to a two-year, $15 million deal that left Piazza bitter.   Now with the further trouble in the negotiations, Piazza started to hear some boos from the fans.   Not only were there issues with the negotiations, the Dodgers were also undergoing a much different change.  Long time owners, the O’Malley family were getting out of baseball and corporate giant, Fox was looking to get into the west coast sports market to keep ESPN from obtaining a TV presence in California through the Angels.  Adding to the difficulty, in Spring 1998, Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times interviewed a recently-retired Brett Butler, who was quoted as calling Piazza

 “a moody, self-centered ’90s player” and also said, “Mike Piazza is the greatest hitter I’ve ever been around, but you can’t build around Piazza because he’s not a leader.”

Butler claimed he’d been misquoted by the often-controversial Plaschke, and many members of the team came to Piazza’s defense, but more salt had been thrown on the wounds. 

There were also rumors (conspiracy theories perhaps)floated that Piazza was a PED user, that he was gay, or just plain unhappy being a Dodger.   Whatever the rumors, the trade still didn’t make any sense.   This was Mike Piazza.   He was not only the best player, he was the most popular player.   A while back posters were talking about which player’s jerseys they have.  I had one, Piazza.  When Piazza arrived on the scene, Fernandomania had ended just a couple of years before.   Pedro Martinez had been trade in the 1993 off-season(another painful trade!) And the fans were hungry for a hero.   They got it in Mike Piazza.  

Perhaps the Dodgers brass thought they were obtaining a better players in Gary Sheffield and Charles Johnson(at the time of the trade he was a highly rated catcher).   Other than Sheffield though, the other players never amounted to anything for the Dodgers and did not stay with the organization for more than 1 year.   When you compare Sheffield to Piazza, in the three seasons he was with the Dodgers following the trade, his statistics were virtually identical to that of Piazza.  Sheffield Gary Sheffield, in 436 games, had 113HR, 488 hits, 310 RBI, .312 Avg., .420 OBP, .581 Slugging Average and a 1.001OPS.   Meanwhile Piazza in 418 games hit 114HR, 469 hits, 331 RBI, .309 Avg., .380 OBP, .587 Slugging Average and a .967OPS.  Of course, Sheffield played an “easier” position than Piazza.   Despite their statistical similarities, Sheffield, who always seemed surly, never quite captured the hearts of the fans, and I don’t think you’ll ever see many Sheffield jerseys at Dodger stadium.   In January 2002, Sheffield was traded to the Braves for Odalis Perez, Brian Jordan and Andrew Brown.  Perez had a couple of good years pitching for the Dodgers and Brown indirectly helped the Dodgers get Andre Ethier, so that worked out okay. 

May 14, 1998 was a special day for me as my oldest turned 18.   He, like me, was and is a Dodger fan through and through.   We loved Mike Piazza.   It’s so unfortunate that the Dodgers decided to trade Piazza, and it’s especially troubling that they chose my son’s special birthday to make the trade.   I hated the trade back then, and no matter how I look at it today, I still hate it.

●  My song for the day, is “Willie McBride” by Liam Clancy and Tommy Makem.  No parody today.   It’s a song for Memorial Day, as I think it is the finest, most moving song about those that died because of war.