[ohiodevil]

I had a situation where I had the top pitcher in all of baseball, future first ballot HoF type of player, think Nolan Ryan and Greg Maddux had a baby. My owner sold the team and the new owner dropped my payroll and I could not afford to resign the pitcher without completely gutting the rest of the team. We were knocked off in the LCS the previous year and we were heading into his contract year, so I put the 31 yr old pitcher on the block. I was able to trade him to on of the bigger market teams (Atlanta) for four prospects and a established #2 or #3 starting pitcher. The prospects I got back were ranked #4 (Pitcher), #11 (CF), #22 (SS) and #31 (Pitcher) by the OSA. We took a hit from the fans, but I had to do something because we were so close to the World Series and there was no way I was going to be able to stomach just getting a Comp pick when he walked.

Long story short, the #11 and #31 prospects made the team out of Spring Training and the veteran pitcher I got back became my #1 and we made it to the World Series and lost in 7 games. The following year, the #22 prospect came up in early July because of an injury to my starting 2B and he was the missing piece, we ended up winning the World Series that year and 3 of the next 7 overall (we were in 6 of those 7 WS).

The guy I traded, signed an extension for $47.6 mil per season over the next 6 years and continued to be dominant but Atlanta never made it past the divisional round and when he became a free agent at 38, I resigned him to a 2 year deal worth $18 mil and he finished his HoF career with me in the end as in the middle/back of the rotation. The only guy that I got back in that deal that flamed out was the #4 prospect, he had some arm injuries and appeared in only 15 games for me mostly out of the bullpen over 2 season before I released him and he bounced around for a few years before ending up in the Indy Leagues before retiring. The other 4 guys all became regulars for me and kept them for at least 8 seasons.