Now that we’ve reached July and the Padres still sit well outside of a playoff berth, trade rumors will likely dominate much of the talk amongst San Diego baseball fans. GM Jed Hoyer will entertain offers for the club’s expensive veterans ahead of the July 31^st non-waiver trade deadline and will target young, controllable talent in return. This isn’t the first time the Padres have been in this position and they’ve also been on the other side of situations like this.

I’ve previewed some probable candidates to be moved a few weeks ago. I think if Hoyer plays his cards right he can add several talented players to the Friars stable of prospects.

Not surprising, thinking about the present and future, I recently began remembering back to previous deadline deals the Friars have made throughout their history. Naturally the ones I vividly recalled have occurred within the last 25 years or so. Let’s review some of my favorite deadline deals in Friars history. I will profile one trade each week leading up to the trade deadline.

First though, allow me to define what I consider to be “deadline deals.” For me, the deadline trading period begins in the second half of June and runs right up to the exact minute on July 31^st when teams are no longer allowed to submit trades to MLB. So, that’s exactly the criteria I’m using here. In fact, I may even include some that occurred in August when any player dealt must have already cleared waivers first.

Also, please note, not every deal I may review over the next several weeks will have worked in the Padres favor. Some may even be considered among the worst deals in franchise history.

On July 26, 1993 the Padres dealt veteran pitchers Bruce Hurst (35 years old) and Greg Harris (29) to the division rival and expansion club Colorado Rockies. In return, the Friars picked up 24 year-old catcher Brad Ausmus, 23 year-old RHP Doug Bochtler and 26 year-old righty Andy Ashby.

Bruce Hurst – Hurst was a significant free agent addition by former GM Jack McKeon prior to the 1989 season when he accepted a 3 year, $5.25 million deal to leave Boston. The LHP was solid with San Diego winning 55 games, pitching to a 113 ERA+ (100 is league average, anything more is above league average), and was a 15.0 WAR in 4+ seasons in San Diego.

Hurst was in the second of a two year deal paying him $3 million per when he was traded to Colorado. He had also missed much of the year due to injury at the time of the trade and had made just two starts with the Padres. Hurst would make just three more starts that year, winning none and pitching to a tune of a 5.19 ERA with the Rockies. He recorded a lowly 0.1 WAR in Colorado.

The veteran LHP would depart Colorado for Texas following the 1993 season where he would win two of his three decisions but had an ERA in excess of seven. Those eight starts for Texas were the last of Hurst’s fifteen-year career.

Greg Harris – Harris spent most of his first three big league seasons pitching out of the Friar bullpen. He posted an ERA of 2.40 while making all but nine of his 132 appearances as a reliever.

In 1991 the club converted Harris to a full-time starter. He would make 62 starts over the next 3 seasons with the Padres and was an above average starter in two of those three years. Harris was making just more than $2 million in 1993.

It was a much different story in Colorado. His ERA +, 128 as a Friar, was just 75 as a member of the Rockies. Of course, pitching in Colorado, especially at Mile High Stadium, was going to do anyone’s ERA a disservice. Still, Harris won just four games and lost 20 as a member of the Rockies. He was worth 1.4 wins less than replacement-level.

Colorado, as an expansion club, was in desperate need for legitimate big league starting pitching. Armando Reynoso was the staff ace winning 12 games and finishing with an ERA of 4.00. Bruce Ruffin was the only other pitcher to make at least 10 starts and finish with an ERA of 4.00 or less. Meanwhile, Butch Henry and his 6.59 ERA made 15 starts, David Nied (5.17 ERA) was drafted first overall in the expansion draft to be the staff ace and Kent Bottenfield got the ball to start 14 times and threw to a tune of a 6.10 ERA.

Harris was under contract for the 1994 season so that carried some extra value. Hurst had been a very good pitcher for many years and at 35 it was possible he may have another productive year or two under his belt. Unfortunately nothing went right for Colorado in this exchange.

The Padres acquired defense-first catcher Brad Ausmus, who was originally a 48^th round draft selection of the New York Yankees in 1987. Ausmus posted sub-.700 OPS marks at ever minor league stop leading up to the trade.

Doug Bochtler was a 9^th round selection of Montreal in 1989. He was a starter for a bulk of his minor league career prior to the trade and recorded sub-3.00 ERA’s at high-A and AA in the Montreal organization while throwing over 230 innings.

Andy Ashby was signed as an undrafted free agent in 1986 by Philadelphia and spent five seasons bouncing around rookie league and single-A ball. By the time the Friars acquired the right-hander, Ashby had thrown over 200 innings at triple-A posting an ERA in the mid-3.00’s.

Ausmus,  while not to be confused with a hall-of-famer, was a serviceable starting catcher for San Diego for parts of four seasons. He was later dealt to Detroit as part of a deal that brought fellow catcher John Flaherty to San Diego. Ausmus would go on to cement his reputation as one of the better defensive catchers in baseball winning three gold gloves and participating in an all-star game.

Bochtler was a serviceable reliever for the Friars throwing 171.1 innings of 3.78 ERA ball before being dealt away.

Ashby was the cream of the crop in this trade. He would start 185 games during two stints with the Padres, winning 70 games for San Diego. His ERA while a Padre was a solid 3.59 and he qualified for two all-star games.

If you weigh the cumulative WAR values between the players Colorado and San Diego received based only on their contributions with those clubs, San Diego wins out easily, 27.8 to -1.3 (WAR values courtesy of the Baseball Reference website).

When this trade was made it seemed as if San Diego sent two solid, veteran starting pitchers in exchange for marginal, B and C prospects. Fortunately for San Diego they received excellent value; particularly in the form of Ashby while Colorado got less than replacement value in exchange. Having occurred in the depths of the 1993 Tom Werner driven fire sale, this trade is a clear win for San Diego.