Trades Involving Young Players-Is Volquez for Hamilton as Good as it Gets?

A reader recently asked if there has ever been a trade of two youngsters that worked out as well as the one this off-season between the Reds and Rangers that featured Josh Hamilton and Edinson Volquez. I aim to please so the following is an answer to that question.

Has there been? Well, the answer is yes and no. There have been some trades that have worked out well for the clubs in question, but none I could find in the last 40 years that featured a potential MVP (Hamilton) traded for a potential Cy Young (Volquez) in the first year after the deal.

Here are 10 trades that worked really well for both clubs. I used a cutoff date of 27-years old in the season prior to the trade to determine "youngsters" for this piece.

1. Dodgers trade Frank Howard (27) to the Senators for Claude Osteen (24) in a seven-player deal in December of 1964 - Osteen won 147 games in nine years for the Dodgers. He won 15 games his first year in LA and finished seventh in IP (287) and ninth in ERA (2.79). Howard hit 248 home runs in seven-plus seasons for the Senators. He finished sixth in the league in batting (.289), ninth in on-base percentage (.358) and seventh in slugging (.477) in 1965.

2. A's trade Rick Monday (25) to the Cubs for Ken Holtzman (25) in a straight swap in November of 1971 - Holtzman won 77 games in four years with the Swingin' A's. He went 19-11 with a 2.51 ERA in 1972 and started and won Game One of the World Series that year. Monday was not quite as good, but posted five above-average seasons for the Cubs, including 1976 when he finished third in the NL with 32 home runs and received MVP votes.

3. Phillies trade Rick Wise (25) to the Cardinals for Steve Carlton (26) in a straight swap in February 1972 - Carlton turned in one of the greatest seasons ever for a pitcher in '72, going 27-10 for a last-place team. Carlton went on to become the greatest LHP since Warren Spahn so everyone forgets about the other player in the deal. Wise won 32 games in his two seasons with the Cardinals. In 1972, he finished ninth in the National League in wins (16) and sixth in innings (269).