Atlanta Braves Top 5 worst trades of all-time (deadline or otherwise)
By Josh Mathews
4. June 3, 2009
The Atlanta Braves traded Gorkys Hernandez, Jeff Locke and Charlie Morton to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Received Nate McLouth.
What we got:
Nate McLouth was serviceable, even pretty good for the Atlanta Braves for a short time. In 2009, McLouth hit .257 over 84 games, but hit 10 homers, 20 doubles, and knocked in 36 runs. He even added a dozen steals.
It looked like a justifiable move since Jordan Schafer slumped after looking like boy wonder at the start of the season.
After that, he was miserably bad for two seasons. I mean, like Dan Uggla, B.J. Upton at their worst bad. Like Michael Scott taking the microphone at a wedding bad, and if Twitter was a thing then, Nate probably wouldn’t have wanted to search up his name.
Two years removed from an All-Star season with Pittsburgh, McLouth mustered just a .190 batting average in 2010, then followed that up with a .228 performance in 2011, becoming an ineffective fourth outfielder that we gave up three quality prospects for.
McLouth would briefly recapture his fire in 2013 with Baltimore, but largely, was never the same. An injury during his 2014 stint with the Washington Nationals seemed to be the last straw.
What we gave up:
Gorkys Hernandez has been worth -0.6 WAR over his career, but interestingly, after spending the majority of 2012-2016 in the minors, found his stroke with the San Francisco Giants.
In reserve duty in 2017, he managed a .255 batting average and swiped 12 bags. In 2018, he hit 15 home runs and drove in 40 runs when he had only hit five home runs prior in the big leagues.
Now, almost as mysteriously as he surfaced, he’s back in Triple-A with the Red Sox organization.
Jeff Locke went on to be a quality, but not spectacular, starting pitcher for four seasons, including a 2013 All-Star campaign with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
He signed a $3.5 million dollar contract to play with the Marlins in 2017, but a shoulder injury sidelined him after seven starts and he hasn’t pitched since.
Presumably, he’s done now, but during his peak stretch, Locke would have been a fine #5 starter, as he complied a 34-32 record, a 4.29 ERA and his FIP in both the 2015 and 2016 seasons was about 0.54 and 0.60 lower, suggesting he had a bit of bad luck in those campaigns.
Charlie Morton, outside of recording the final out of the Houston Astros’ World Series win in 2017, became a pretty darn good pitcher — it just took a while.
After the trade, he pitched for the Pirates for the next seven seasons, spending time in the minors due to injury rehab or ineffectiveness in six of those seasons.
He was inconsistent, but there was plenty of potential there.
Houston trusted Morton’s potential (and his nasty curveball) and signed him to a 2 year, $14 million dollar contract and were rewarded for it, immensely.
He won 14 games for Houston in 2017, then followed that up with a 15-3 performance for Houston in 2018, en route to his first All-Star game.
This past offseason, the small market Rays paid him $45 million over three seasons and in his first season in Tampa, he’s an All-Star.
To date, he’s posted an 8-2 record with a career best 2.33 earned run average.
Analysis:
McLouth was terrible for the Atlanta Braves, and at best, we gave up two solid arms that could have served in our rotation when they were ready.
Morton has recently evolved into one of the game’s top pitchers. In a world where you can never have enough pitching, Locke and Morton would have indubitably helped the Braves far more.