Talking Transactions: 1993 Royals' Attempt To Bolster Bullpen Backfires

The trade deadline is always fun, but it’s a lot more fun when your team is buying. Of course, as Royals fans, we are almost always on the other side. I guess on the bright side, a selling team is unlikely to make the same sort of blunder the Royals made thirty years ago, when they traded two prospects to Pittsburgh for reliever Stan Belinda. The mistake was not so much the player they received as it was the two they gave up; Jon Lieber and Dan Miceli would both go on to fruitful major league careers.

The move to acquire Belinda was at least defensible from the team’s standpoint. After three seasons of mediocrity, the Royals woke up on the morning of July 25 just two games out of first place. With less than a week to go before the trade deadline, they could claim contender status. True, they were only 50-46 and had been outscored 439-418 on the season, but they were in the hunt. And neither the first-place Chicago White Sox, the third-place Texas Rangers, or fourth-place Seattle Mariners could claim to be super impressive to this point. And this was the last year before the leagues realigned to three divisions and added a wild-card playoff spot, so it was a division title or nothing. Given all that, fortifying the roster was an easy choice as the franchise looked to end a seven-year postseason drought.

The subplot here was the health of owner Ewing Kauffman. I think it’s a safe assumption that the very un-Royal free agent spending spree before the 1990 season (adding pitchers Mark Davis and Storm Davis) and another pair of free agent splashes before the 1993 season–bringing pitcher David Cone back to his hometown and picking up shortstop Greg Gagne–were all about giving Kauffman one more chance at a title. But Kauffman’s induction into the team’s Hall of Fame and the renaming of the stadium were signs that perhaps the end was near, as it seemed unlikely he would allow those honors if he were fully healthy.

The Royals were very focused on adding to their bullpen in the days before the deadline. They picked up Greg Cadaret, who had been waived by Cincinnati. Then they acquired John Habyan from the New York Yankees in a three-team trade (as a footnote, the Royals gave up Tuffy Rhodes, who would enjoy a career day on Opening Day 1994 when he homered three times off Dwight Gooden).

But Belinda was the prize. The sidearming right-hander had postseason experience, although in some quarters he was blamed for the Pirates’ Game 7 loss to the Atlanta Braves in the 1992 NLCS. However, he entered that game with the bases already loaded and no outs, so there was plenty of blame to go around. In a way, Pittsburgh was in the opposite situation from the Royals; the departures of Barry Bonds and Doug Drabek after the 1992 season meant the Pirates’ run of three straight NL East titles was coming to an end, and it was time to rebuild.

For the Royals, it was all about building a bridge to closer Jeff Montgomery. The rotation was anchored by Kevin Appier (who really should have won the Cy Young Award that season) and Cone, with Hipolito Pichardo giving a solid performance as the third starter. Beyond that, it was a bit of a mess, although Tom Gordon was providing quality innings whether as a starter or a reliever. Billy Brewer was doing well as a left-handed specialist, and Mark Gubicza was adjusting well to a relief role after being demoted from the rotation early in the season, but the Royals were definitely having trouble with middle relief. 

“We have the best closer in baseball. We have consistently been getting six innings from our starters, but we’ve gotten in some trouble in the seventh. It doesn’t do us much good if we can’t get to Jeff.”--General manager Herk Robinson, quoted by Gary Bedore, Lawrence Journal-World, August 1, 1993

Manager Hal McRae was ecstatic to add Belinda.

“I have the one guy who I thought was the best guy available in baseball to do the job. He keeps us in the hunt. It doesn't assure us of anything, but it does keep us alive.”--McRae, quoted by Bob Dutton, The Kansas City Star, August 2, 1993

McRae indicated that Belinda would be his primary setup man, and he would be using him for multiple innings if he could.

“I think we're in good shape. We're a better bullpen, but he's not a one-man army. I'd like to go to him every other day and get two innings.”--McRae, quoted by Bob Dutton, The Kansas City Star, August 2, 1993

And Belinda had no problem with that.

“If we're winning, I don't care where I pitch. I really wasn't the main guy the last three years (in Pittsburgh). We pretty much had a bullpen by committee. As long as we're winning, I don't care if I don't get any saves. I'm not the kind of guy who has to go out and have 40 saves to (stay happy).”--Belinda, quoted by Bob Dutton, The Kansas City Star, August 2, 1993

Just hours after the trade was official, Kauffman passed away in his sleep at his home. Robinson recalled that he had phoned the owner earlier in the evening to tell him about the trade, and could hear the radio broadcast of the game in the background. According to the GM, Kauffman’s last words to him were “Get some runs,” which the Royals did not do, or did not do enough of anyway, as they lost to Cleveland 6-4.

Kauffman’s request does bring up a good question, though: why didn’t the Royals seek to upgrade their offense at the trade deadline? On the morning of July 31, they had been outscored by 10 of the other 13 American League teams. But Robinson and McRae both felt an upgraded bullpen was a bigger need. Plus, Belinda was under team control for the next three seasons.

And, despite a blown save in his second appearance with the Royals, Belinda did what the team hoped for. He picked up six holds and a win in August. However, the team ended the month six games out of first, as the White Sox picked up two games on them over the course of the month.

Chicago continued to keep the Royals at arm’s length through September. The two teams had a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium midway through the month. A Royals sweep would have had them just three games back, but after Kansas City picked up a 9-0 win in the first game, Chicago won the next two. Belinda allowed the tie-breaking double in the eighth inning of that second game, and the Royals would not get closer to first than the six-game deficit they ended that night with.

Belinda ended the season with a 1-1 mark for the Royals and a 4.28 ERA, although the underlying numbers (109 ERA+, 2.88 FIP) say he pitched better than that sounds. However, he was less effective in 1994, with a 2-2 mark and 5.14 ERA (and a 98 ERA+ and 4,99 FIP). Once the strike hit, and with Kauffman’s checkbook no longer available, the Royals were in cost-cutting mode, and Belinda was non-tendered. He would sign with Boston as a free agent, then pitch two years for them, three for Cincinnati, and one final season split between Colorado and Atlanta. Interestingly, he pitched in the 1999 and 2000 seasons, his last two, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis near the end of the 1998 season.

So the Royals got one year and two months of, by Baseball Reference’s reckoning, a replacement-level player (+0.3 bWAR in 1993, -0.3 bWAR in 1994). For that, they surrendered Lieber and Miceli, both of whom were at Class AA Memphis at the time of the deal. While prospect info was not as plentiful then as it is now, Lieber had just been promoted after going 9-3 at Class A Wilmington with a 2.67 ERA in 114 ⅔ innings; Miceli was 6-4 with seven saves with a 4.60 ERA in 58 ⅔ innings for Memphis. So these were not really the proverbial lottery tickets.

Lieber would go on to pitch for 14 seasons in the majors, with a 131-124 record, including a 20-6 mark for the Cubs in 2001. Miceli made it to the big leagues at the end of the 1993 season, and also lasted 14 years, pitching for 10 different teams (making him an excellent name to know for Immaculate Grid purposes). Lieber compiled 25.5 bWAR for his career, while Miceli ended up with 2.4. Of course, the Pirates didn’t reap the benefit of all that, but they certainly could claim victory on this swap. Let’s hope that the Royals can pull off a similar deal today.