Tale of the Take: The Mulder Swap
TOWER GROVE — Cardinals forever rehabbing lefty Mark Mulder was supposed to take the mound for Triple-A Memphis tonight in what could have been his final minor-league start before returning the major leagues. And, in a coincidence only a sportswriter could love, a certain righthander, Danny Haren, was starting tonight in Fenway, fittingly floating into town in the wake of the Cardinals visit.
Well, Haren happened — to the tune of seven shutout against Boston.
The wait continues to Mulder.
At the same time Haren schooled Boston in a duel against Red Sox ace Josh Beckett, Mulder was scratched from his start in Nashville. “Stiff back,” read the diagnosis from the Cardinals’ officials. Mulder is considered day-to-day, which is progress for a starting pitching nearing the end of constantly rehabbing from two shoulder surgeries in two seasons. It’s not clear how Monday’s miss impacts the plan to have Mulder go three innings or so Monday and then jet to the majors in time to make the start Saturday in Kansas City.
It’s been clear for awhile what Oakland got out of the Mulder deal.
Before the 2005 season, the Cardinals sent Haren, reliever Kiko Calero and prospect Daric Barton to the Athletics for Mulder. The lefty had been one of the winningest pitchers in the game — the winningest lefty around — for several years before he came to the Cardinals. That and he was signed through 2006. There was a lot to like about the deal — even if it meant giving up the most promising young starting pitcher the system had.
This past winter, Oakland flipped Haren for a stockpile of players from Arizona.
Here’s how the deal worked for the A’s:
Turned LHP Mulder into …
RHP Calero … who was recently DFA’d after a 60-day DL stint.
1B Barton … blocked here, starting there with .227/.335/.332.
RHP Haren … went 43-34, 3.64 then flipped him and pitcher Connor Robertson to Arizona for …
LHP Brett Anderson … pitching in Double-A
RHP Dana Eveland … 5-5, 3.51 for A’s this year.
LHP Greg Smith … 4-5, 3.51 for A’s this season.
OF Carlos Gonzalez … .247/.284/.416 for A’s.
OF Aaron Cunningham … playing in Double-A.
1B Chris Carter… 20 HRs already in High-A.
As part of interleague play this year, Oakland visited Arizona — Haren even pitched against his former team — so naturally the conversation was about how the trade was mutually beneficial for both clubs. From the Cardinals point of view, it’s gotta be hard to comprehend the haul that one trade triggered for the A’s. Consider that for Mulder, the A’s got ended up with eight players, including two members of its starting rotation, a couple rising outfield prospects (including one who is the majors now) and of course whatever Haren gave them with the third-lowest ERA in the American League in 2007.
Of course, many trades can be mauled in hindsight, and the severity of Mulder’s shoulder injury and the erosion of his mechanics is far more than a mitigating circumstance. A few weeks ago, colleague Joe Strauss ran through the investment made on Mulder and the return in his Cardinals Insider. The absence of Mulder as much as the performance of Haren is what makes the trade so lopsided.
The physical reason is well-documented. Surgeries happen. As Kyle Lohse said earlier this season: “It’s not as if we’re doing something entirely natural with our arms. They’re going to hurt every once in awhile.” But the raw numbers, taken free of such context, are just staggering. Check out the wins, the losses, the innings, and the ERA that Mulder has posted as a Cardinal vs. what the Athletics have received:
MULDER, STL … 22-18 … 309 1/3 innings … 5.00 ERA
THE HAUL, OAK … 52-44 … 842 innings … 3.59 ERA
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
I hated this deal the moment I heard it was in the works. I’d seen Haren pitch in L.A. in 2003, and he looked great moving the ball around against Dodger batters. Then to see him pitch so well in the playoffs the next year, you could just tell he had something special in his make-up.
Then Jocketty made things worse by signing Mulder to an extension after he couldn’t finish the 2006 season. It was clear that deal was done to help justify the bad Haren trade, hoping that Mulder would at some point contribute something in St. Louis. So far, no good. I just wish dude could get healthy to show us what enticed Jocketty in the first place.
Let’s take what is still a leap to assume that Mulder will return as a competitive pitcher with his new arm slot. When Mulder’s shoulder went bad, what if he had changed his delivery right then? Could he have avoided the 9-12 month rehab (with the history we all know) and been where he is now in July 2006? It seems like all the cutting and rehab didn’t fix what was wrong with his shoulder. He’s now just working around the “impingement” that still keeps him from reaching his old arm slot. Is this an accurate description?
Is the underlying hip injury that supposedly led to Mulder’s shoulder problems healed or corrected?
Cards compounded the problem by passing on Brett Anderson 3 times and taking the 3 year older, less polished version of Anderson in Brad Furnish.
The passing of Porcello gets a ton of coverage, the passing on Melville will likely get some if he signs..but to me the passing on Brett Anderson for what amounted to be 350K was the biggest mistake the Cards have made under Luhnow’s control.
Great stuff as always Derrick…keep us up to date on the Walrus Watch…it is going into day 19.
:_)
derek- could you ppppppppppppleasssssssse stop reminding us of this horrible event in cardinal fans livesssssssss???!!
it is so brutal to be reminded of how we don’t have haren anymore.
the only person who feels worse than alot of fans is most likely dave duncan.
the story last year that quoted tlr about how much division there was between them after the trade brought back alot of painful memories..
let’s move on, and talk about our future—not the past.
I’m going to go puke now. Thanks, Derrick!
It’s funny what Oakland fans think of this… I live in the Bay Area and for the most part they all consider it some sort of karmic payback for the McGwire deal taking their best player in a long time and giving them nearly nothing in return. If you want a lopsided deal, look no further than the Big Mac trade. At least with the Mulder deal it wasn’t an instant failure. Injuries happen. For all anyone in St. Louis knew, we were getting a guy who was going to win 20 games a year for a few years and take the team over the playoff hump and into the series… and sometimes it just doesn’t work out!
And to think, the way the story is told, Walt was driving hard to have Jason Marquis replace Dan Haren in the Mark Mulder deal.
Dear Derrick
For me, the most worrying feature of this debacle is that Mark Mulder was already struggling at Oakland before the trade was done. In 2004, Mulder enjoyed a great first half of the season. However, he was not the same pitcher in the second half of the season, losing game after game and seeing his ERA soar. And yet the Cardinals simply ignored this. The fact is, the Cardinals bought damaged goods.
Overall, Walt Jocketty did an outstanding job for the Cardinals. However, his desire for experienced players meant he neglected the farm system and was willing to trade away the few good youngsters the Cardinals had. When challenged over this by the appointment of Jeff Luhnow, he sulked. How can a grown man refuse to speak to a crucial colleague? (Perhaps Scott Rolen can answer that one.)
The Mulder deal is not the only bad deal that was done in Jocketty’s time, simply the worst. We are still paying the price.
Regards
Dominic
My only issue is whether Mulder was already hurt when traded, and the A’s knew it. Otherwise, as the hoary cliché has it, “that’s the way the ball bounces.”
I am just hoping someway, somehow Haren finds his way back to St. Louis while he still has something left in the tank. In three years (two if the D-Backs don’t exercise their $6.75 million option, yeah right) he could hit the open market. Then the Cardinal Nation pain would be for only a couple of years not a lifetime.