He's amassed over 100 career WAR. He'll be a first-ballot, likely unanimous, Hall of Famer when he's eligible next year. He's won six silver sluggers, three gold gloves, and three MVPs. So, if someone were to trade him, they'd better get a lot in return, right?
The Ottawa Whiskey Jacks traded fan favorite
Félix Deleón to the Mumbai Cobras in 2124. In exchange, they received three players:
Boboy Rivera,
Nick Honeyfield, and
Tso-lin Chin, plus four picks - a 1st and 2nd each in 2125 and 2126. We'll look at each of these branches - some of them go rather deep, and we'll save the best for last.
Starting with the uneventful branches, the 2126 picks, a 1st and a 2nd, were not traded. Who did Ottawa select with them? I don't know. In the WBA, when a player who never made the majors retires, they are deleted from the league history, which includes draft histories. If you go back and look at old drafts, a lot of the picks just don't show up. So it's safe to say these picks were busts, but I can't tell you exactly who they were.
Technically, I did find the 2126 2nd, which was traded from Mumbai to Santo Domingo even though Mumbai had already traded it to Ottawa. Commish abuse of power??The more interesting draft picks were the 2125 ones. With the 2nd, Ottawa selected... nobody, instead opting to trade the pick to Melbourne for RP
Felipe Romero. Romero's stay in Ottawa - who, by this point, were actually Edmonton - was unimpressive. He spent four years there, amassing an ERA of 4.05, before being traded to... Mumbai (who, by now, were El Paso) - and spoiler alert, this isn't the last time these two teams make a deal in this tree. In exchange for Romero, Edmonton received two prospects,
Nicolá Figura and
Víctor Luna. Figurá became a free agent before playing a game for Edmonton, but Luna spent four years in the majors for the team that was now Daegu, hitting .221 with 68 HRs before leaving in free agency.
So far, we've gotten through three draft picks without finding anyone who had a significant impact. That ends now. Ottawa opted not to trade the 2125 1st, using it themselves to select
Younes Mughal. If you don't recognize that name, don't worry - he had a grand total of 1.1 major league innings, in which he gave up 5 earned runs. But that very brief cup of coffee didn't happen with Ottawa/Edmonton, because while he was still a prospect, he was packaged with another prospect and shipped to São Paulo for SP
Alfredo Cavazos.
Cavazos's career wasn't long enough for the Hall of Fame, but at his peak, he was a very good pitcher. In five years in Rio, he had a 3.34 ERA and 2.92 FIP, plus a W-L record of 61-34. A similarly good season in São Paulo enticed Edmonton to trade for him, where he would spend many productive years. Just kidding. The phones never stopped ringing in Edmonton, as Cavazos spent just over half a season there (a very good half a season, to be fair: 15 starts, 3.39 ERA, 2.81 FIP) before being flipped to Cairo in exchange for SP
Declan Cullimore and a 1st and 2nd, both in 2127. Cullimore had two okay seasons in Edmonton, then left in free agency. The 1st was packaged with a prospect and used to trade up to 4th overall in 2127. Which future Hall of Famer did Edmonton select 4th overall? Unfortunately, it was
Marcos Manuel, who played a total of one major league season. But the 2nd rounder became a player you have heard of:
Bernie Luna, a late bloomer who turned into a superstar with Beijing. You may be thinking "I don't remember Bernie Luna being on Edmonton", and you would be right - Edmonton traded the pick used to select Luna to Paris for
Guillermo Rodriguez, an outfielder who put up
negative WAR in a four-season major league stint in Edmonton/Daegu, then became a free agent. Ouch.
So, to recap so far, Ottawa received four draft picks from Mumbai, which turned into essentially nothing worth talking about. What about the three players?
Boboy Rivera spent seven years with the franchise, becoming one of only a few players to play for all three recent iterations (Ottawa, Edmonton, and Daegu). He had one standout year, hitting .326 with 5.1 WAR in 2127, and was generally pretty good, averaging 2.8 WAR per season. After seven decent seasons, he was traded to Rio for
Yun-fat Lee and a 3rd round pick. The 3rd never made the majors and has since retired, meaning we don't know who he was. Yun-fat Lee played in Daegu for three years and led the league in losses in 2135, with an impressive 2-19 record. Eventually, Daegu traded him to Beijing for a 5th rounder, who has since been deleted, and that ends this branch.
Nick Honeyfield spent four and a half years in Ottawa/Edmonton, going 25-46 with a 4.67 ERA and surprisingly good 4.03 FIP. He was traded to - guess who? - Beijing (who, at that point, were still in Cairo), along with another player, in exchange for four prospects:
Wendell Maupin,
Pedro Velásquez,
Alain Barraud, and
Keisuke Miyata. Velásquez is probably the one who had the most success, playing for eight years in Daegu and gaining 6.6 WAR (total, not per season, which isn't great, but eight years isn't bad). Maupin, a defensive shortstop, hit .216 in three years in Daegu. Barraud spent a total of 27 innings in the major leagues. And Miyata managed to pitch over a thousand innings for Daegu, but unfortunately went 41-85 with a FIP over 5. None of these prospects were traded by Daegu, so this branch is over.
So far, it's been mostly bad news for Whiskey Jacks/Trappers/Monks fans, but this last branch is, if not good, then at least long and interesting. Tso-lin Chin, the final piece of the first Deleón trade, played parts of four years in Ottawa/Edmonton, amassing 3.2 WAR in around 300 games. He was traded to Rome for
Oles Dziewulski and
Percy Stevense. Stevense, still a prospect at this point, was traded almost immediately to Melbourne for
Francisco Aromin, a reliever who spent two unimpressive years with the franchise before being packaged with some picks and sent to Rio for a 1st and 5th rounder. Sadly, both picks were busts and have been deleted. Dziewulski, though, has had a reasonably successful major league career, playing over 1200 games and gaining 22.3 WAR - and at the age of 35, he's still playing. Sadly, none of that success came in Daegu, but he was traded to Black Forest for
Heiko Uhlirz,
Alex Molinari, and a 3rd round pick. The pick has been deleted. Uhlirz was claimed off of waivers by Karachi before playing a major league game (and later drafted in the R5 draft by Phoenix, released, then signed with Phoenix/Chicago as a minor league free agent, and finally made his major league debut
this year at the age of 32). Molinari never reached the majors (but hasn't retired yet, so he hasn't been deleted). And, finally, that concludes Ottawa's half of the trade tree.
This wasn't meant to be an attack on the Ottawa franchise. Despite the near-complete lack of major league talent in this tree, I don't see it as a failure - at times it came agonizingly close to success. Ottawa wound up getting several first rounders and many decent prospects from this tree, but none of them ever turned into successes. It's bad luck (and maybe bad drafting?) more than anything else. But if you're wondering where all the superstars in this tree are... here they are.
In exchange for four picks and three prospects, Mumbai received Felix Deleón, and one might think that's where the tree ends. But Deleón only spent a few years in Mumbai, where he had a lot of success, hitting 80 HRs and amassing 17.9 WAR in just under 500 games (a pace of 5.6 per 156 games), and winning the 2126 WBA Championship with Mumbai. But after just three years, he was traded... back to Edmonton.
The return was
Jorge Fernández,
Esteban Clemente, and a 1st rounder in 2128. Clemente had one okay year in Mumbai before being sent to Karachi for cash. That branch is short and easy.
The 1st round pick was traded to Black Forest, plus another 1st and a prospect, in exchange for a player who Eurafrican, Asian, and North American teams will all remember:
Avajaya Ganeshwaran. Ganeshwaran was coming off of three and a half absolutely dominant years in Black Forest, where he hit .303, added 91 home runs (in just 626 games!) and had a really ridiculous wRC+ of 150. He didn't
quite live up to the hype in Mumbai/El Paso, but put together several very nice seasons, hitting .266 with 108 HRs and a 136 wRC+. After six years with the franchise, he became a free agent (and unfortunately experienced some very rapid development crashes, cutting short what looked like a Hall of Fame career). And incidentally, the 1st round pick that was traded for Ganeshwaran wound up being a bust:
Éric Villard, who played just one major league season, and not even for Black Forest.
Finally, Jorge Fernández only spent one year with Mumbai. He did not perform well, hitting just .143 (although still putting up positive WAR thanks to excellent defense). But he was traded to Santo Domingo - admittedly, as one piece in a very large package that included a full draft - for, drumroll please,
Stu Jensen. Jensen is a very clear future Hall of Famer, and his time in Mumbai/El Paso is a big reason why. In five seasons, he hit .306, hit 117 home runs, slugged .484, and put up 31.3 WAR, for a pace of 6.4 WAR per full season. When he's eventually voted into the Hall of Fame, he'll be wearing a Thunderbirds cap. We can now put a bow on this trade tree - Mumbai turned Deleón into Ganeshwaran and Jensen, two massive parts of their last few years in Mumbai and first few in Texas. Well done.
Except... that's not quite the end. As the El Paso Rebuild commenced, Jensen was traded to Beijing. The return was a 1st and a 2nd in 2134, both of which El Paso kept. The 1st became
Samson Nisbet, who had some dev crashes and eventually became a minor league free agent. But the 2nd was used to select
Don Penaflorida, a first baseman who's bounced between the majors and AAA for El Paso. He's not a very good player. But he is still in the El Paso organization, which means that, as of right now, the Felix Deleón trade tree is still active - and if the Thunderbirds decide to trade him, who knows how long the tree might survive.
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