Angels Trade Deadline: Five best deals in team history

Angels’ Best Trade Deadline Deals: Chone Figgins

Quick show of hands. How many of Angels fans out there remember Kimera Bartee? Anyone?

Signed as a minor league free agent in December of 2000, Bartee was a journeyman outfielder that hit just .216/.282/.298 across six major league seasons. The Angels picked him up for minor league depth and stashed him in Salt Lake. However, with an outfield of Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson, and Darrin Erstad, that was little to no chance he was going to crack the lineup anytime soon.

So on July 13th, the spun him in a minor league trade to the Colorado Rockies for a Double-A second baseman that wasn’t doing much at the plate himself. However, it didn’t take Chone Figgins long to make his mark in Anaheim.

Figgins would bounce between the big leagues and the minors in 2002 and 2003, but he seized the opportunity in 2004 and became a fixture in the Angels lineup for the next six seasons. He’d ultimately hit .291/.363/.388 with 280 stolen bases during his Angels career.

Figgins would depart the Angels after the 2009 season, signing a big contract with the Seattle Mariners. However, he was never quite the same player outside of Anaheim. He retired following the 2014 season.