Today we go back to the beginning of FCM and a deal that lead to a swap between two of baseball's biggest names - Miguel Cabrera and Lars Anderson.
In 2010 the league was just getting started and the Red Sox GM at the time at his eyes on the prize. The team had won 101 games but had lost in the first round to the Oakland A's. They were second in all of baseball in scoring runs but decided the key to taking the next step to contending was adding All-Star Miguel Cabrera.
Miggy had hit 27 homeruns, driven in 103, and OPS'd .912. He was one of the best bats in the league and a force to be reckoned with. In Detroit we saw that the offseason after 2010 was an effort in rebuilding as they said goodbye to the bulk of their stars to the Chicago Cubs. The team had lost 82 games but were based mostly on a few star players with little room to improve their future. What they targeted in exchange for their offensive centerpiece was a now well-known offensive juggernaut: Lars Anderson.
We've already detailed the brilliance of Lars Anderson. 286 Homeruns and 4 MVPs later....Detroit had clearly gotten a star in return for their own. Unfortunately for Detroit, Lars was only able to take them to the playoffs twice, including a 2011 unexpected run to the World Series. Lars did little in that playoff run, but his team did make it through a very weak AL field. He was one of the true FCM greats, later moving to LAD in a deal detailed on our list already.
Clearly this deal had a tremendous impact on the Detroit franchise. Not only did it lead to an improbably WS run, it lead to another of the biggest deals in FCM history that helped spur the rebirth of the Tigers. Anderson's presence on the Tigers always had them a relevant force in the league and offered them long-term stability that Miggy could not. In the deal Detroit also received David Renfroe, an infielder that didn't produce much of anything until he had one fluke season at the age of 28 for Seattle. But the clear impact here for Detroit was perhaps FCM's greatest slugger.
For Boston Miggy was no slouch either. In his first season he hit 28 home runs, drove in 146, and hit .318. He had two more very solid seasons for Boston but the team itself could not get out of the first round in 2011 and didn't make the playoffs either of the next two years. Effectively, the move to Boston ended the career of Miguel Cabrera. He had a brief resurgence with CHW in 2014 but his career was seriously hindered by bouncing around from that point forward.
The deal may seem flimsy, but at the time in the league Miguel Cabrera was an elite player and Lars Anderson was one of the clear great prospects in the league. This swap was major news for both clubs and changed the direction of both clubs. Lars hit the league quickly and changed the fortunes for Detroit immediately. Miggy hit well but his steep decline undermined the entire future of the Boston Red Sox. Since 2011 the Red Sox have not finished higher than 3rd in the history of FCM. A storied franchise, with a ton of money and talent, destined to spend the rest of FCM's history in the cellar.
Next Up: FCM's 7th Most Impactful Trade: "The Cuban Missile Crisis"
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