Sorry, no do-overs
The Detroit Tigers make a trade 36 years ago today with designs on winning the World Series.
So, the Tigers reach into their minor league system and pluck one of their Class AA prospects to send to the Atlanta Braves for pitcher Doyle Alexander.
This is, after all, a major reason why the minor leagues exist – for teams to trade prospects for major league-ready talent.
And no one at the 1987 trade deadline is more major league ready than the 36-year-old Alexander, who already is in his 17th season in the majors.
Does not matter to the Tigers that Alexander is a mere 5-10 at the time.
They know he can be a valuable puzzle piece for their plans, so they are more than willing to give up a 20-year-old Class AA pitching prospect to get him.
And they certainly are pleased with themselves as Alexander goes 9-0 in 11 starts with a sparkling 1.53 ERA during the height of the pennant race to lead Detroit to the American League East title.
Alas, the Tigers fall in five games to Minnesota in the league championship series with Alexander getting pounded for 14 hits and 10 runs over nine innings of the two games – both losses – that he starts in the postseason.
Alexander lasts two more seasons in Detroit, winning only 20 of 49 decisions before the team cuts loose its once-vaunted playoff acquisition.
Detroit does not return to the postseason until 2006.
In the meantime, the 20-year-old pitching prospect the Tigers give up to get Alexander reaches the majors less than a year after the trade and initially struggles.
In fact, the rookie pitcher loses seven of nine decisions for Atlanta with a rather odoriferous 5.48 ERA.
Undeterred, the Braves stay with the kid, keeping him in the rotation in 1989 and watching him become a National League All-Star that season.
From there, the kid’s career takes off with seven more All-Star selections, a Cy Young Award as a starter and a mid-career switch to become one of the game’s most dominant closers.
He leads Atlanta to 13 postseasons, including five trips to the World Series – just like the kind the Tigers had hopes for with Alexander.
In fact, the kid pitches another 19 seasons in the majors after Alexander leaves the game after the summer of 1989 and eventually ends up in the Hall of Fame.
Of course, the Tigers have no clue any of this would happen when they trade that 20-year-old prospect – a right-handed pitcher and, ironically, a Detroit native named John Smoltz – for Doyle Alexander.