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Ranking 3 worst LA Angels trades in franchise history

By Evan Desai |
LA Angels, Vernon Wells
LA Angels, Vernon Wells / Lisa Blumenfeld/GettyImages
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The LA Angels have botched many trades in their history, unfortunately.

Recently, we totally nailed the Raisel Iglesias trade, but there were times in our past where we didn't have such luck.

When taking a look back at some past blunders from this franchise, three trades in particular stand out that really took a toll on the success of the organization.

No. 3 worst LA Angels trade in franchise history: The J.T. Snow trade (1996)

After the 1996 season, the LA Angels decided to deal a multiple-time Gold Glover in J.T. Snow for...pitchers Allen Watson and Fausto Macey. This failed miserably.

As for Snow? He was a key piece in the Giants pennant that they won before falling to our Angels in the 2002 World Series, and won FOUR more Gold Gloves. He improved very much as a hitter, hitting .273/.369/.438 (.807) with the Giants for nine years (he later came back and played one more game with them in 2008, making it a tenth year).

Macey, however, never even pitched at the Big League level with the Halos. And as for Watson, he did pitch at the Big League level with us, but it wasn't necessarily by our choice. Watson recorded a 5.28 ERA, a 1.541 WHIP, and allowed 10.6 hits per nine innings with the Angels.

He gave up a homer and a half per nine, and only struck out 6.3 batters per nine frames. It's safe to say the team lost this trade miserably. But at least the ring was ours!

Vernon Wells, LA Angels
Vernon Wells, LA Angels / Lisa Blumenfeld/GettyImages

No. 2 worst LA Angels trade in franchise history: The Vernon Wells trade (2011)

The LA Angels trading for Vernon Wells really couldn't have gone any worse than it did. Wells was coming off of his third All-Star season, so the Halos thought it was a great time to go ahead and bring him aboard. And on the bright side, due to it being a trade, we didn't have to pay the entire 7-year/$126 million contract.

We did, however, have to pay for the last four, and sure enough he only played with us for two years. He was awful in those two years. Wells hit .222/.258/.409 (.667 OPS) with the Angels, and had a total of 36 home runs, 95 RBIs, and 96 runs.

Just embarrassing. It turned out to be an awful move, and when he went to the Yankees for that third year, we had to pay for most of the money on his contract for that season.

We traded Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera to get Wells. Napoli hit .320/.414/.631 (1.046 OPS) in his first year removed from the Halos, and was an All-Star in just his second year removed from the franchise. To make matters worse, he did this for the rival Texas Rangers.

Dave Parker, LA Angels
Dave Parker, LA Angels / Ken Levine/GettyImages

No. 1 worst LA Angels trade in franchise history: The Dave Parker trade (1991)

The LA Angels really should not have traded Dante Bichette for Dave Parker in 1991. I can summarize the trade without even describing how good Bichette was in his career: Parker was traded 119 games later.

He played terribly. Parker had a GREAT career, but his stop in Anaheim is something we all should just forget. He hit .232/.279/.358 (.638) with just 11 bombs and 56 RBIs.

The three-time Gold Glove award winner also didn't bring that type of defense over to the team.

As for Bichette, well, it's a completely different story there. He ended up proving to be on the up-swing while Parker was of course on the down swing. Bichette made four All-Star teams after he parted ways with the Angels.

He finished his career averaging 108 RBIs per 162 games after driving in just 76 in 178 games with the Halos.

Next. Projecting our Opening Day starting rotation during lockout. dark

It was another situation where the Halos made a bunch of trades that were not only unnecessary, but a bunch of trades that ended up really hurting the team. All we can do is hope this type of stuff doesn't continue with Perry Minasian at the helm, and hope that he can pull off a big one once this lockout ends that gets the team in contention.

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