Wednesday, August 30, 2017

A Two-Decade Old Trade That Was Helpful To The Sox

Twenty-one years ago yesterday (August 29, 1996), the Seattle Mariners made a really bad trade. They sent a young member of their Single A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers—a  20-year-old first-baseman named David Arias—to the Minnesota Twins for Dave Hollins. Hollins ended up playing 28 games for Seattle in 1996. A guy on the other side of the Rattlers' diamond—named Alex Rodriguezstayed in the Mariners system (for a while, anyway). Sometime during his stay in the Twins minor league system, Arias changed his name to David Ortiz. The Twinkies eventually released him, Pedro Martinez made a call to Yawkey Way, and the rest is Hall-Of-Fame history. Thank you, Seattle Mariners! Thank you, Minnesota Twins! Much obliged!