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. 
When is it time to give up on Mulder?Two surgeries,and a host of other problems.I think the cardinals are going up the wrong road on this guy.He’ll never be the same again,so why keep up the hope. Its time to move on.
I’m not defending the trade, but the numbers differential do not seem to be so staggering to me. They show we would have 30 more wins had we kept Harren, but “The Haul” also produced 26 more losses. So, had we not traded, the figures show we would have gotten a lot more innings pitched but the end result is we would have had 4 more victories over a 3.5 year period — or, we would have one more win per year if we had kept Harren than have had with Mulder. It just doesn’t seem particularly significant to me. But, the money the Cards would have saved would have been exceptional.
When the deal was swung before the 2005 season the Cards were a team that was really close. They were a veteran bunch and many felt like the Birds were an ace pitcher away from a championship. It was a bittersweet deal. We were trading away a young promising pitcher in return for one of the premier pitchers in the game. You can’t place the blame on Jocketty. It was a deal at the time which was best for the team.
DG, what is going on with The Walrus right now? Great stuff as always.
Derrick,
On a completely unrelated subject …. I noticed that the Bosox were considering sending a complaint to MLB because they believed that the Phillies were stealing their signs. I found that particularly interesting because I noticed the Cardinal catchers were often giving multiple signs to the pitchers when no one was on second base. Since I haven’t noticed the Cards doing that in any other venue, is this a matter of ‘what goes around comes around’ with Boston? Have you heard any whispers of sign stealing during the series?
Perhaps stealing information from St. Louis teams might be some sort of Massachusetts disease? (talk about a can of worms)
How about trading Mulder to the REDS? Jocketty can have him back.
Dear dave
Thats cool that your from the bay area maybe you dont remimber the bigmac trad because the atletics had someone else in the clubhouse waiting ohhhh wait a minute that was none other than Jason Giambi and if i do recall he has played alot longer and has been doing farlywell altough he is no longer helping the As. So i wouldnt say it was a lopsided trade it just made since at the time. Even if you would have had Big Mac the As still would not have made it to the series he didnt even help us get to the series.