Top 10 Worst Trades in LA Angels history

#6 – April 4, 1977 = Angels trade OF Mike Easler to the Pirates for pitcher Randy Sealy.

Randy Sealy was an up an coming pitching prospect for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1977.  He had a couple of good seasons in A and AA ball in 1973, 1974, and 1975. The Angels thought he eventually make the jump and join their rotation, but that never materialized. Sealy pitched from 1977 to 1980 in the Angels minor league system, but only cracked Triple-A one time and never making it to the big leagues.  Thus Sealy became a major bust and Easler blossomed in Pittsburgh.

Mike Easler was an up and coming outfielder that the Angels acquired from Houston in 1976. He only played 21 games for the Angels in 1976 batting .241 with no home runs and four RBI’s. In his first couple of years in Pittsburgh he didn’t look like he would pan out either playing 65 games combined in his first three seasons with the Pirates.

However in 1980, Easler finally got a chance to show what he could do and he took advantage of it hitting .338 with 21 homers and 74 RBI’s.  He followed it up the next year by making the NL All-Star team in 1981 and continued to play well even after being traded to Boston in 1984.

Easler ended up playing 14 years in the majors sporting a .293 batting average with 121 homers and 521 RBI’s in his career.  This trade was definitely a flop as far as the Angels were concerned.

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