Certainly the 2007 Garza and Bartlett for Delmon Young trade deserves some consideration, no more frustrating #1 pick to don a Twins uniform than Young,  Reverse that trade and the Twins handily win the Central in 2008 instead of White Sox.

On 7/16/2023 at 1:49 PM, Squirrel said:

If I recall ... didn't Gardy want Hardy gone for some reason? Still a horrible trade and one I wouldn't have made ... 

My recollection is that the Twins had just moved to Target Field, and they thought it was going to be a pitcher’s park, and Gardy didn’t like having a SS who couldn’t steal bases and/or run fast on the team.

In a few years, this will be replaced by the Mahle for CES and Steer trade.  Book it.

14 hours ago, Lefty61 said:

Certainly the 2007 Garza and Bartlett for Delmon Young trade deserves some consideration, no more frustrating #1 pick to don a Twins uniform than Young,  Reverse that trade and the Twins handily win the Central in 2008 instead of White Sox.

Delmon Young has a 100RBI season in a Twins uniform. Can't call that bad just bc of that

On 7/21/2023 at 8:10 AM, Trov said:

Really it is the Hardy to Baltimore that was the worst trade, not the Hardy for Gomez. You group 2 trades in as the worst trade, but if you look at the trade of Gomez and Hardy it was not a bad trade.  The follow of up sending Hardy away because Twins thought they had a SS coming from Japan was the terrible trade.  If we kept Hardy and he produced what he did with Baltimore with Twins we would not say it was a bad trade.  

This is a VERY fair point and 1 of which I did take into account. I didn't want to continue the pattern bc then I'd have to include the Joham trade which brought Gomez in etc. I also wanted to show the full spectrum of the trade in terms of what the Twins gave up. Yes the Hardy trade as an outlier is the worst, but then others would say "Why didn't you include Gomez in this article bc he traded Hardy for him" so I widened the spectrum. I appreciate you reading and thanks for the idea!

31 minutes ago, Devlin Clark said:

When Rob Wilfong is the centerpiece, it's bad. 

Especially when he wasn't involved it that trade.

9 hours ago, AlwaysinModeration said:

My recollection is that the Twins had just moved to Target Field, and they thought it was going to be a pitcher’s park, and Gardy didn’t like having a SS who couldn’t steal bases and/or run fast on the team.

Yes. Gardy thought shortstops should be short, fast guys, not tall guys with strong arms. Old school vs hey, look at all the shortstops now-Correa, Seager, Tatis, Machado, Didi, heck, Oneill Cruz is 6"7!

On 7/24/2023 at 9:25 AM, LewFordLives said:

The Santana trade has to be up there. At the end of the day, what did they get.... NOTHING (see article above).

I hated the trade at time and it didn't age well. There was no reason to make the trade. He was under contract through 2008. If they couldn't reach agreement on a contract they could have made him play it out and then let him walk after 2008 and take the compensation picks. Instead they traded him for a collection of projects from the Mets and missed winning the division by one game.

I don't like it when people say you gotta get something for a pending free agent. Is there no value in watching a generational talent like Johan for one more season and making the playoffs?  That one just really stings.

Exactly my thoughts.    So often there has been talk of we need an ace or we need to rent an ace.   We had arguably the best pitcher in baseball for a well below market one year deal.    He said he wouldn't waive his no trade clause during mid season but that could well have been a negotiating stance and I am guessing if the Twins were tanking in 2008 he would have welcomed a trade to a contender.   As it was we played a game 163 which we lost but if we had Santana it is very likely we would have won the division outright.   Yes, we would have been the underdogs again in the playoffs but with an ace like him it is not so far fetched that we could have done well.   For starters we wouldn't have played the Yankees in the first round.    This to me was the worst trade.    Ramos for Capps hurt a bit.   The Herr for Brunansky was a good one on paper.  Who knew the guy was going to be such a putz?

7 hours ago, Devlin Clark said:

Delmon Young has a 100RBI season in a Twins uniform. Can't call that bad just bc of that

Not an impact 100 RBIs in year 3 of Twins career after first two seasons sub 70 RBIs, Twins knew 2010 was an aberration and salary dumped Delmon to Tigers the next August for a couple minor leaguers to avoid Year 5 of the Delmon Young mystery tour.  Original trade for Delmon still cost Twins 2008 Division title, and Bartlett's first 3 years total War in TB was 10.4, Garza 7.9 War, Young for Twins 1.0...the more I revisit the more I hate that one.   

noticing that Arraez is finally leveling off to the hitter that most felt he always was...a solid .300-.330 hitter who could always be in the race for the batting title. Over the last 30 games he is still a .300 hitter but not the upper stratosphere .400 hitter that some felt he might sustain. Still in the .370's but that will probably continue to fall.

Lopez---his first year in Minnesota has been up and down. But a solid finish down the stretch will help the Twins perhaps be a competitor in post season. So that will be good.

Well, to be fair.. for what we got out of Gomez.. trading Santana was pretty rough.. Santana was meant to stay a Twin at a time we really needed an Ace.. Also, it can be argued trading Garza and Bartlett for Young and Harris was terrible as Garza & Bartlett were two key pieces to the Rays first WS run.. #RIP2006Twins

I'll go a little different direction.  Instead of a trade let's look at a couple guys who were released who still had a lot more "juice" than the Twins were expecting.  First, let's look at Luis Tiant.  The twins traded Craig Nettles, Dean Chance and Ted Uelander to Cleveland for him prior to the 1970 season.  In 1968 Tiant was dominant going 16-8 with and ERA well below 2.00.  In 1969 he started having some health issues so the Guardians shipped him to the Twins at seasons end.  Tiant still wasn't "right" but went 7-3 for the Twins with a 3.50 ERA in 1970.  We let him go and the Red Sox scooped him up, let him get healthy and he came back with a vengeance in 1972 and won 20 games a couple times for the Red Sox.  The Twins should have been more patient with him.

The other is Jim Kaat.  Kitty had been one of the most consistent pitchers in Twins history and was lights out in 1972 going 10-2 with a 2.07 ERA by the All Star break, but he began having health problems, something he had never experienced before and in the off season the Twins cut him loose.  He landed with the White sox and won 20 games a couple times for them as well before bouncing around to several teams as his career wound down.  Again, the Twins should have been more patient.  They could have had several more productive years from Kaat if Calvin wasn't just trying to save a buck all the time.  

Yeah, Kaat and Tiant.  Just a hair before my time of following the Twins, but wow, talk about epic bad decisions to save paltry sums of money!

As much as we may complain about current ownership, the Pohlad family is much better than Griffith!

On 7/25/2023 at 9:10 AM, Five minute major said:

In a few years, this will be replaced by the Mahle for CES and Steer trade.  Book it.

very few

12 hours ago, TopGunn#22 said:

I'll go a little different direction.  Instead of a trade let's look at a couple guys who were released who still had a lot more "juice" than the Twins were expecting.  First, let's look at Luis Tiant.  The twins traded Craig Nettles, Dean Chance and Ted Uelander to Cleveland for him prior to the 1970 season.  In 1968 Tiant was dominant going 16-8 with and ERA well below 2.00.  In 1969 he started having some health issues so the Guardians shipped him to the Twins at seasons end.  Tiant still wasn't "right" but went 7-3 for the Twins with a 3.50 ERA in 1970.  We let him go and the Red Sox scooped him up, let him get healthy and he came back with a vengeance in 1972 and won 20 games a couple times for the Red Sox.  The Twins should have been more patient with him.

The other is Jim Kaat.  Kitty had been one of the most consistent pitchers in Twins history and was lights out in 1972 going 10-2 with a 2.07 ERA by the All Star break, but he began having health problems, something he had never experienced before and in the off season the Twins cut him loose.  He landed with the White sox and won 20 games a couple times for them as well before bouncing around to several teams as his career wound down.  Again, the Twins should have been more patient.  They could have had several more productive years from Kaat if Calvin wasn't just trying to save a buck all the time.  

Kaat get hurt sliding into 2nd base.  Broke his hand.

Did not read the comments. Somebody must remember the Rod Carew trade. 

Let's just say there's a LOT of competition for the prize of worst overall trade in Twins' history....

14 hours ago, Minderbinder said:

Let's just say there's a LOT of competition for the prize of worst overall trade in Twins' history....

It's important to realize that every team has these, though, if they've been around long enough. It stinks in the moment, and burns when someone really emerges 2-4 years later that you dealt, but pretty much every fandom has some of these stinkers that get brought up and usually start with, "Can you believe those idiots traded [X] for [Y]?!? Man, were we stupid!"

The JJ Hardy stuff drove me batty at the time because it felt so clearly driven by Gardy (who obviously had a lot more say in the organization once Terry Ryan left and Bill Smith took over) and even if Hardy didn't have best season it felt like our manager was running another SS out of town just because he didn't like his style or something, and after having the corpse of Orlando Cabrera manning the spot it just felt wrong. And we spent years and year trying to find a quality SS after that.

My worst was 1987 trading Brunansky for Tommy Herr.  Bruno played a big part in the twins dispatching Detroit in the Alcs in 5 games hitting 412 with 2HRs and 9 RBIs in the series though his bat went quiet in the World Series.   Traded a month after the Twins win the World Series, they receive winner cry baby Tommy Herr who between his bitching on having to play for Minnesota was pretty useless on the field the next year.  Bruno went on to be productive with his power for six more years.

Complain about the Jaime Garcia deal(s) all you want but the fun fact is that he won more games for the Twins than he did for the Yankees that year.

For me, this is an easy pick.

Calvin Griffith traded Rod Carew away after he had hit .350, .359, .364, .388 and won an MVP award along with 7 batting titles, 239 hits in 1977, stole in the 40s in bases at least twice.

If you thought the Pohlads were cheap!

Who, in their right mind, even in their wrong mind would trade a 7 time batting titlest. The return was inconsequential. 

On 7/30/2023 at 4:33 AM, LeatherAntenna said:

My worst was 1987 trading Brunansky for Tommy Herr.  Bruno played a big part in the twins dispatching Detroit in the Alcs in 5 games hitting 412 with 2HRs and 9 RBIs in the series though his bat went quiet in the World Series.   Traded a month after the Twins win the World Series, they receive winner cry baby Tommy Herr who between his bitching on having to play for Minnesota was pretty useless on the field the next year.  Bruno went on to be productive with his power for six more years.

I totally agree with you on this.  Not only was it a horrible trade statistically but it destroyed the amazing club house chemistry and the whole camaraderie between the players and the fans and the whole community.  I remember clearly the amazing celebration that erupted when we finally won not only a world series but a real championship in any sport.  It brought everyone together.  And then, just a month later, they go and trade one of the heroes, one of our boys.  They broke up the family, and for what?  Tommy Herr.  He was terrible both on the field and off the field.  A dour personality, the exact opposite of our Bruno.  It was a real shortsighted blockheaded trade.