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Over Spilled Milk: Lidle to the A’s
On November 16, 2002 the Oakland A’s traded pitcher Cory Lidle to the Toronto Blue Jays for a couple of prospects. The review of the trade was one of TBO’s initial Trade Bait articles. Let’s look back at this trade and see who’s possibly ‘crying over spilled milk’.
In the fall of 2002, Cory Lidle had just completed two very reliable seasons as part of the Oakland A’s starting rotation. He held a 3.59 ERA in 2001 and a 3.89 ERA in 2002, pitching a combined 380 innings over those two years. Cory was seen as a good innings-eating pitchers at that time. But getting costly for the Athletics. ”I think there’s no question payroll was part of the motivation…” said A’s general manager Billy Beane. Lidle was slated to earn $4.8 million in 2003, approximately 1/10th of the entire team’s salary.
Beane still had his top three horses in 2003 as Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, and Mark Mulder won 45 games that season. Lidle’s replacement, Ted Lilly, pitched a decent 178-1/3 innings for the A’s in 2003, winning 12 games with a 4.34 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP.
Lidle, on the other hand, had an ugly 5.75 ERA for the Blue Jays in 2003. He went on to have a few more mediocre years for three other major league teams before dieing tragically in an airplane crash.
Billy Beane turned to old buddy J.P. Ricciardi, trading Lidle for two minor leaguers. Infielder Mike Rouse and right-handed pitcher Chris Mowday were sent to Oakland in the deal. At the time, I called them, “minor league roster filler”.
Rouse had a good year in Double-A in 2003 for the A’s, hitting .298 with a .386 OBP. That high OBP no doubt made Beane happy. Overall, he hadn’t had an OBP under .340 until last season with the Indians in Cleveland. But his 2008 as he was ineffective for both of the Triple-A franchises of the Chicago White Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies. He probably won’t make it back to the majors.
Mowday had an ugly 2003, giving up a 6.49 ERA in A-ball before the A’s moved him to advanced A-ball. He was traded to the Chicago Cubs and put up a sparkling 1.89 ERA for their advanced A-ball team in 2004, albeit with a 1.26 WHIP. Since then he’s seen time in the independent leagues, but hasn’t put up good enough numbers that a major league team would want to try him again.
In the end, although this trade didn’t help either team on the field that much. It saved the Athletics a few million dollars, while letting Ted Lilly start regularly. He pitched better than Lidle as well. Although neither prospect panned out, this trade looks like a win for Billy Beane.
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