Grade the Trade: Texas Rangers trade Chris Davis to Baltimore Orioles for Koji Uehara

The MLB trade deadline often includes deals that end up lopsided. In 2011, the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles cut a deal which featured one of baseball’s best sluggers long before he was hammering home runs with great regularity.

On July 30, 2011, the Rangers acquired relief pitcher Koji Uehara from the Orioles. The cost was slugger Chris Davis and pitcher Tommy Hunter.

Many are familiar with how Davis has turned out in Baltimore. To accurately grade this trade, we must also look at what Uehara was able to deliver to the defending American League champions.

At the time of the trade, Uehara was pitching fantastically for the Orioles. He had a 1.72 ERA in 47 innings. It made sense to acquire a top-level relief pitcher. The Rangers already employed two other first basemen, Justin Smoak and Mitch Moreland, thus, Davis became expendable.

When Uehara joined the Rangers for the stretch run in 2011 he failed to deliver. During his final 18 innings with the Rangers, his ERA was a not-so-fantastic 4.00. Worst of all, Uehara was horrific in the postseason. Over his 1 1/3 innings, he allowed five earned runs. Although the Rangers did make it to the World Series, Uehara was not given a chance to pitch beyond the ALCS.

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Uehara stuck around for another year in Texas. The veteran reliever finished 2012 with a much better 1.75 ERA in 36 innings of work. He only pitched one redemption inning in that year’s postseason (the first ever Wild Card game) and redeemed himself by striking out the side. Unfortunately, Texas was eliminated by Davis and the Orioles.

Speaking of Davis, the 2012 season was a very good one for him. He hit a then career-high 33 home runs for the Orioles in his first full season with the team. That personal best didn’t last long. One year later Davis led the league with 53 bombs. Since first putting on an Orioles’ uniform, Davis has hit over 200 home runs and led the league twice.

Because Davis did so well, Hunter barely factors into this deal. For the sake of rubbing it in a little more, let’s examine.

Hunter didn’t pitch well in his first two seasons with Baltimore. In the latter two, the Orioles moved him to the bullpen. Once there, Hunter turned into a very reliable relief pitcher. In 2013 and 2014 he finished both seasons with an ERA below 3.00. Some could say the move to the bullpen saved Hunter’s career. If not for this trade, he might be out of baseball entirely instead of having a very productive year with the Tampa Bay Rays.

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It doesn’t take years of teaching to know this trade’s grade favors the Orioles by a longshot. If there is anything they can hang their hat on at all in this deal, they are not the ones paying Davis $23 million a year to hit .220 and strike out 220 times. They’ll save that for Joey Gallo.