In honor of major league baseball being in the midst of trade deadline season, I decided to take a look back at some of the strangest trades in MLB history. While doing some research, I wasn’t disappointed at all with the results. There have certainly been some bizarre trades that have went down in the history of major league baseball, as you can see from the title of this article. So, let’s take a look at a few of them:

Johnny Jones Traded for a Turkey

Director of baseball operations for the Chattanooga Lookouts, a minor league affiliate of the then-Washington Senators, Joe Engel had a flair for bizarre stunts. Included on that resume was having players ride elephants to games, having a duck lay an egg on second base, and having a local female pitcher start a game against the New York Yankees (all in an attempt to draw a bigger crowd). Then in the 1931 season, he decided that Lookouts’ shortstop Johnny Jones wasn’t cutting it. So, he traded Jones to the independent Charlotte Hornets baseball team for a 25-pound turkey. Engel’s reasoning behind the trade: “The turkey was having a better year.” They later cooked the turkey and served it at a dinner over the offseason, but after discovering the turkey was a little rough, Engel resolved that the Hornets had won that trade.

Dave Winfield Traded for Dinner

At the 1994 trade deadline the Minnesota Twins traded Dave Winfield to the Cleveland Indians. Winfield would later go on to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but at the time of the trade he was 42 years old and not nearly of as much value. Also, the Twins were in last place in the AL Central so they figured they would trade him to a contender and get something of value for him. That something was a player to be named later. But as you may know, the 1994 season would end early due to the players’ strike, actually beginning just a few weeks after the trade took place. Since Winfield was in the last year of his contract, Cleveland still needed to offer something to Minnesota to complete the deal. So, the Indians’ executives decided to take the Twins’ executives out for a nice dinner which finally settled the deal.

Lefty Grove Traded for a Fence

Before Lefty Grove made a name for himself, he was pitching for the minor league Martinsburg Mountaineers in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He was just 20 years old and was pitching really well throughout that 1920 season, so well in fact the Baltimore Orioles (a minor league team at the time) took notice and wanted to trade for him. The manager for the Martinsburg Mountaineers said he would trade Lefty Grove, and named his price. His price was a new fence. The outfield fence at the Mountaineers’ ballpark had been destroyed by a storm which caused the team to play all their games on the road up to that point. The Orioles gladly paid the $3,500 to have a new fence built and the rest is history.

Harry Chiti Traded for Himself

If you’re like everyone else, this one seems to make zero sense after reading the title. But, it actually did happen and it surely was a strange trade. At the very beginning of the 1962 season, the New York Mets (who were in their first season as a franchise) wanted to have a veteran catcher to provide leadership at a valuable position on the new team. So, they traded for 13-year veteran Harry Chiti from the Cleveland Indians. Just as the previously mentioned Dave Winfield trade was, this was a trade for a player to be named later. About mid-way through the season, the player to be named later was finally named and traded to the Indians. That player was none other than Harry Chiti. Upon arriving in New York, Chiti struggled greatly with a batting average below .200. The Mets were so tired of Chiti’s underperformance that they sent him right back to Cleveland.

Credit: https://www.mlb.com/cut4/trade-deadline-the-weirdest-trades-in-mlb-history/c-244576290

Garett

TBT: That Time an MLB Player Was Traded for a Turkey