Well today's trade is here for a variety of reasons, but let's be honest - how many trades got someone killed in FCM? That's right, this deal created such an uproar that a prominent FCM personality was killed. Today's trade takes us back to 2023, two weeks into the season, and one of the most baffling deals in the league's storied history.
Chicago had 6 straight seasons with over 100 wins and were coming off a World Series Championship in 2022. However, starting the 2023 season they were under new management. The first action of that new management? Take the best player, on the league's best team, and deal him for a steaming pile of garbage.
In 2022 Rafeal Romero scored 142 runs, had 214 hits, 10 triples, 12 homeruns, 70 RBI, 106 SB, a .345 average, and a .926 OPS. All that while playing a ridiculously good centerfield. Romero has never been given enough credit for how truly amazing he is as a player and he could be argued to be FCM's third greatest hitter of all time. And despite this, he was dealt coming off of a World Series Championship.
Chicago's trade partner was the Florida Marlins. To land Romero - a ridiculous talent - they offered the 37 year old Dexter Fowler who had a career year after a decidedly mediocre career prior and being paid 11M dollars. They also included Greg Attaway a 24 year old pitcher with two years of experience in the league. Attaway was billed as one of the best young arms in the league by some, while others thought he was a decidedly mediocre talent who had benefited more from the Florida ballpark then his actual talent. Along with Romero went the amazing RJ Seidel - a legend in FCM who was 3 years from retirement.
Here is where this trade gets interesting. To be frank - Fowler was garbage and that was called out from the beginning. He never OPS'd over .775 in one of the best hitter's parks in the league and made a fat 8 million for three more seasons with Chicago. Romero went on to win a World Championship with Florida in 2027 and has been a consistent +.800 OPS player in his time there despite it being a terrible home ballpark to hit in.
RJ Seidel went 28-10 for the Florida Marlins until beginning to show his age in 2025. The bizarreness doesn't end there with RJ, but we'll come back to that. Greg Attaway has been every bit the mediocre #2ish type starter he was pegged by those in the league office opposed to this deal. He went 19-11 with the Cubs but was dealt to Atlanta just a year later for average third baseman Chris Tarrant, bust Rafeal Florino, and roleplayer Larry Zimmerman. In the end, for FCM's third greatest hitting talent - the Cubs got an aging bum in CF and a pile of roleplaying prospects. This was a clear loss for the Cubs in many ways.
Before we get to the heart of this deal's presence on the list we should address that this deal spelled the end for FCM's greatest dynasty. The Chicago Cubs had 3 world titles and 2 additional NL championships. They brought a rare dominance both offensively and with their pitching staff. In dealing Romero the signal was raised - the club was going to be retooled and their greatness was over. Just two years after this trade they dropped to 63 wins and the team was officially destroyed.
We talked about the steal of a deal....now for the uproar. In this deal RJ Seidel went to the Marlins. As part of it he agreed (while drunk or at gunpoint hopefully) to cut his salary 5 and a half million dollars and agree to be cut the moment he could not make the rotation. Apparently Seidel was every bit an idiot as he was an amazing pitcher. So not only was Florida getting one of FCM's greatest hitters, they were also acquiring one of the best pitchers after a drunk contract negotiation in which he would cut down his salary. Around this league this caused a massive disruption with people crying foul about collusion between Seidel and the Marlins. League tensions ran very hot from this and the uproar was personal at times.
Centered on this was Agent McInnis. How any player agent could allow his client to negotiate this was unbelievable to people around the league. It was one step short of Seidel accepting macaroni and something shiny to pitch for the Marlins. News broke shortly after the deal went through despite all these problems that McInnis was found dead. Read about it here. That's right, mega-agent McInnis was dead. Some thought depression, others foul play so he'd keep his mouth shut about the bizarre deal that he had helped to orchestrate. One thing was clear - an FCM trade had literally killed someone.
And that...is a one way ticket to the Top 3 of this list.
Next Up....FCM's 2nd Most Impactful Trade: "Cross-Country Arm Swapping"
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