There are some trades that leave you scratching your head in the moment, then somehow turn out even worse than expected.
The San Francisco Giants made one of those trades last year, when they sent hard-throwing right hand pitching prospect Prelander Berroa (just 22 years old) to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for the hitting–challenged Donovan Walton.
It was a doozy. The trade was part of five in the span of less than three weeks that the Giants and Mariners made together, all of which flung around underwhelming infielders.
The first two sent cash considerations and brought in first baseman Mike Ford and third basemen Kevin Padlo. The Giants found themselves without any capable MLB infielders, and didn’t express any confidence in their farm system.
The Berroa-Walton deal was the third of those trades, and the day after, the Giants sent back Ford… again for cash considerations. Two days later, the Giants acquired outfielder Stuart Fairchild for minor league third baseman Alex Blandino and… more cash considerations.
But the Berroa trade was a serious one. It cost the Giants. In a story from The Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish, an American League scout says the trade was horrendous:
Prelander Berroa for Donnie Walton might have been the worst trade of 2022. And it might not be close.
Berroa has been hitting the high 90s with his fastball and pairing with an impressive slider in spring training, per reports.
He was originally acquired by the Giants at the trade deadline in 2019 in an impressive haul for relief pitcher Sam Dyson, bringing Berroa, Jaylin Davis and pitcher Kai-Wei Teng to the Giants’ system.
Here’s what Berroa looked like as a prospect at the time of the trade:
- 22 years old, signed out of Dominican Republic in 2016 by Minnesota
- 4 starts with High-A Eugene.
- 0.68 ERA (1 ER, 13.1 IP) with 6 walks and 16 strikeouts.
- 12–8 in 55 career minor league games (50 starts), 3.93 ERA (97 ER, 222.0 IP) with 114 walks and 263 strikeouts.
And Walton…:
- 27 years old, former fifth-round pick in 2016 out of Oklahoma State University
- Appeared in 37 career games with Seattle (1 in the 2022 season, before he was acquired), batting .196 with 9 runs, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs, 12 RBI, 1 stolen base and 8 walks.
- In 438 minor league games, had a .288 average with 271 runs, 96 doubles, 12 triples, 38 home runs, 208 RBI, 38 stolen bases and 205 walks.
In 24 games with the Giants, Walton batted .158, striking out 16 times in 76 at-bats and driving in 8 runs.
San Francisco was just acquiring a guy, while shipping off someone who could actually be a quality player.
It is a cosmically hilarious trade, at least if you subscribe to the thesis that comedy = tragedy plus time… especially with the consideration that it was a trade made out of a need to find someone, anyone to play infield.
