How the Cardinals Almost Traded for Wade Boggs

35 years ago the St Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox came close to completing a trade that would have involved one of baseball's alltime great but it fell through at the last moment why didn't this trade occur you would think it was due to one of the teams or players involved maybe the Cardinals or Red Sox changed their mind at the final minute or backed out of the trade due to a sudden injury or perhaps even one of the players involved exercised a no trade clause bottom line it was either someone on the Red Sox or Cardinal side that halted this trade right well as it turns out this trade did not happen not because of anyone involved but because of a third team not even associated with the deal how exactly well let's start from the beginning the year is 1989 and the Cardinals entered this season coming off a disappointing 1988 campaign they went to the World Series in 1987 but ended 1988 with a 76 and 86 record 25 games out of a playoff spot the team suffered a lot of injuries That season and really struggled offensively despite the poor performance the club remained hopeful for 1989 during spring training manager Whitey herzo stated he thought the team would be good as long as they remained healthy I can only imagine the amount of times a manager has said that when the season started St Louis got off to a slow start being just one game over 500 entering July however they rebounded over the next 5 weeks and had a good but not great 56 and 50 record through August 5th if you're wondering why I chose that date exactly I'll get back to it in a moment while that record isn't eye opening by any means the Cardinals were still right in the middle of a tight playoff race in the National League East Division through August 5th St Louis was tied with a New York match for second place both five games behind the Chicago Cubs and Montreal Expos who were both tied for first first only 2 months left in the regular season and four teams were battling it out for one playoff spot obviously given the situation the Cardinals needed every win they could get to climb uphill into first within the division the team had a solid rotation and even better Bullpen but could use another big bat in the lineup which is why they took interest in trading for Red Sox third baseman Wade bogs if you don't know who Wade bogs is then to make it simple he's one of the greatest third basem of all time and 1989 was in the middle of his prime it would take an hour to highlight just how amazing bogs was so I'll explain it with two stats among all players in Major League Baseball from bgs's debut season in 1982 through 1988 he ranks first in both war and adjusted Ops there's a strong argument that bogs was the best player in baseball at the time so he could certainly be the piece to propel the Cardinals into a playoff spot should they acquire him and entering 1989 there was much speculation that Boston was interested in trading him with many newspapers reporting on the idea as earliest spring training while bog stated he wanted to remain in Boston it did make some sense why the Red Sox had thoughts about trading him he was on the final year of his contract and there were Financial concerns over if Boston could or were willing to pay him a high salary adding the fact that the Red Sox were also under 500 entering July and it seemed like an enticing mov to ship bogs now I should mention the fact that in mid July the Red Sox did sign him to a three-year extension but still kept the idea of trading him according to multiple sources his deal did not come with a no trade clause and even Boston management stated bogs could still be traded general manager Lou Gorman said if a club is going for the pennant and wants to trade for weade bogs they would go for it regardless of the contract situation Red Sox co-owner Haywood Sullivan also stated when you get that kind of money you always have to expect that trade could be a possibility and last right Wade bogs in the Red Sox came to terms on a three-year contract extension a contract worth 7.3 million dollar in the wake of the well publicized Marco Adams Affair bogs a frequent subject of trade speculation his new contract does not have a no trade provision which he originally demanded so the Red Sox can deal him why the Red Sox would extend the player they were still interested in trading I have no idea but wanted to get that information out of the way while interest in him remained active the July 31st trade deadline came and went and bogs remained in a Red Sox uniform does this mean Boston dropped any plans to trade him away not exactly and this is why I only mentioned the standings up until August 5th earlier in the video at the time the Cardinals and Red Sox were reportedly working on a trade that would have sent Wy bug as St Louis in exchange for Cardinal's third basement Terry Pendleton and Veteran catcher Tony Pena Pendleton was the main prize coming back to Boston and there were many reasons why they were interested in him he was younger than bogs on a cheaper contract and had big potential Pendleton would go on to win the 1991 National League MVP and enjoyed 15 years in baseball retiring after the 1998 season while bogs and Pendleton may have been the two main pieces involved it was Tony Pena that held of the deal you see according to the rules at the time if a player isn't traded by the July 31st trade deadline he can still be traded by the end of August but he has to pass through waivers first for those unfamiliar with how the waiver process worked here's a basic summary if a team puts a player on waivers all the other teams in the league have the opportunity to put a claim on him if none of the teams claim the player then the original Club is then allowed to trade him if a team does put a claim on him the original team can either a allow that player to go to the new club or B revoke the transaction and retain the player as if he was never on waivers in the first place congratulations you now have the knowledge to be a general manager in Major League Baseball anyway the main point to remember is that a player must pass through waivers to be able to be traded and so on Friday August 5th the Cardinals plays Tony Pena on said waivers all that needs to happen is penya passing through waivers and the deal to send bug to the Cardinals looked more promising than ever however that trade never happened before Tony P could clear waivers there was a team that put a claim on him and that team was none other than the Montreal Expos the Cardinals couldn't make the deal for bogs without Pena and certainly didn't want him going to a division rival so they removed him from the waiver wire for ever killing any potential deal with Boston this ORD deal was even mentioned on the Mets broadcast the following day when Montreal pulled this off ra a purported trade of Tony Peña and Terry Pendleton to the Boston Red Sox for Wade bogs did not come about and we'll tell you why in the Montreal Expos claimed Tony Peña and that thwarted the deal we understand that the St Louis Cardinals Whitey Herzog and D Maxville livid about the Expos claiming Tony pñ but they probably did it to squelch the deal after this all fell through Cardinals general manager Dale Maxville was quote saying if I were the expose I'd have done the same thing I should also mention that Maxville stated that the Cardinals were not close to a deal saying they weren't going to trena anyway but I don't buy that at all why would St Louis A Team competing for a playoff spot put Tony Pena on waivers in the first place if they weren't going to trade him Pena was an All-Star in 1989 was on the last year of his contract and most importantly one of the Cardinals top prospects was a player by the name of Todd zal who was you guessed it a catcher at the time it makes zero sense to put Tony Pena on waivers unless he was going to be packaged in the deal why would a team fighting for first place release an All-Star catcher for no reason it's more than likely that Maxville plays Pena on wavers in anticipation for potential box trade a trade that never occurred thanks to the Montreal Expo was blocking that chance now I bet you're all wondering what was the aftermath of this move the Cardinals ended up missing the Playoffs in 1989 and two seasons later both Tony Pena and Terry Pendleton were off the team the Red Sox would ironically signed Tony Pena to a deal in the off season following the 1989 season he played Four Seasons in Boston helping guide them to a playoff appearance in 1990 bogs also remained with the Red Sox through that entire extension before signing with the New York Yankees after the 1992 season as for the Expos here's the funny part following the claim they made for Tony Pena Montreal would go on to have the worst record in Major League Baseball and finish behind the Cardinals in the standings they tried to stop St Louis from overtaking them but the Cardinals did anyway and the Expo squandered away their playoff hopes to wrap up the video I want to mention one last thing who was the Montreal Expo General man manager that was involved in this none other than Dave dembrowski the current Philadelphia philes general manager dembrowski is one of the smartest and most successful GMS in the past 35 years 1989 was his first full season as a general manager and even from the beginning was he making smart moves a move that was clever in hindsight but never came to fruition