The Worst Trade: A Look at What Happened

The trade may haunt the Angels well into the next decade, but the deal appeared fairly insignificant at the time: On July 31, 1996, the Angels acquired oft-injured and unproductive pitcher Greg Gohr from the Detroit Tigers for oft-injured and unproductive infielder Damion Easley.

Gohr won one game for the Angels that year and retired the next year. Easley made the American League all-star team last season and signed a four-year, $26.3-million contract extension with the Tigers this season.

Easley, 29, hit .271 with 27 homers and 100 runs batted in last year. No Angel middle infielder has posted similar numbers since 1979, when all-star Bobby Grich hit .294 with 30 homers and 101 RBIs.

Bad trade? “That’s a no-brainer,” Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi said.

Easley dazzled the Angels in the minor leagues, with some team officials comparing his skills to those of Barry Larkin, but he struggled to stay healthy once he reached the majors. The Angels placed Easley on the disabled list twice in 1993, once in 1994 and once in 1996. He did not go onto the disabled list in 1995, but he did play through migraine headaches, a contusion on an arm, a sprained wrist, a sprained knee and tendinitis in his rotator cuff.

He also hit .215 and .216 in his last two full seasons in Anaheim.

“I think that the blanket statement, ‘He was always hurt,’ was unfair to him,” said Easley’s agent, Paul Cohen. “I think there was a judgment mistake.

“He had some injuries, and one of his managers gave up on him. When that happens, there is a problem. . . . The discussion I had with Bill was, ‘If you have somebody who feels he can’t play, we respect that. But other people think he can play, so give him a chance.’

“I don’t think Bill Bavasi ever gave up on Damion Easley.”

If Marcel Lachemann, the manager at the time, gave up on Easley, he never said so publicly. He repeatedly declined to label Easley as injury-prone, pointing to Paul Molitor as an example of a player who thrived after overcoming a series of injuries early in his career.

And, no, Bavasi isn’t stunned at Easley’s success.

“That’s what Easley can do when he’s healthy, which was very seldom here,” Bavasi said. “It was frustrating for him. We were frustrated with him. It was time to give everybody a break.”

Gohr arrived in Anaheim with much the same reputation Easley carried to Detroit. The Tigers drafted Gohr in the first round of the 1992 draft, but he had been on the disabled list three times and won seven games before Detroit gave up on him.

“Gohr was the Easley of the mound,” Bavasi said. “Great tools. Never did anything.”