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A look at Cubs trades in the pre-expansion era: 1961

November 4, 2024 by Bleed Cubbie Blue

“The other” Frank Thomas bats for the Cubs in 1960 | Photo by Hy Peskin/Getty Images

A companion series to last year’s.

Last year’s offseason series here was a look at Cubs trades from 1962-2023. You can read all those articles here.

So, this year I’m going to do the rest of the trades in Cubs history in the Modern Era, since 1901. Unlike last year, when I began in 1962 and ended in the present day, this year I’m going to work backwards from 1961 to 1901. I figure many of you are more familiar with more recent teams, and this will allow you to get engaged in this series as I work towards earlier years with less familiar players. (Though the Cubs did also get some Hall of Famers by trade in the early to mid 20th Century!)

This will also allow me to highlight in some of the early articles exactly how bad the Cubs were at trading in the 1950s. You think the Lou Brock deal was bad? (NARRATOR: “It was.”) Some of the deals made in the decade prior to that Brock trade were just about as bad. After that you’ll see some trades made by the Cubs earlier in the 20th Century that worked out really well for the team, helping lead to some NL pennants.

Here are the ground rules for this series, as posted last year:

Note: For the purposes of this series, I am not going to look at free agent signings, waiver claims or deals for “cash considerations” (what used to be called “player sold”) — just trades where at least one player was included on both sides of the deal. It’s not limited to only MLB players either; if minor leaguers were included, or the primary focus, that qualifies. Certainly the [Ryne] Sandberg deal was most important for Sandberg, who had played in just 13 MLB games before he became a Cub.

If there are too many trades in any one season, I’ll probably focus only on what seem to be the most important. Also, these are trades made in the calendar year indicated, some before the season, some during, some after.

Of course, back in the pre-free agent era, a “free agent signing” was simply a signing of a player who’d been released by another team, not the big-money FA deals we see often today. In any case, this series will focus solely on trades.

Last part of this introduction: There were some Cubs trades prior to 1901, but not many, and since the business of baseball was so different in the 19th Century, I’m going to end this series with 1901. If you’d like to know about the very first Cubs trade, it’s in my book “Chicago Cubs Firsts” — pick up your copy at that link!

Here goes! These are all the trades made by the Cubs in calendar year 1961.

March 31: Acquired Daryl Robertson and Andre Rodgers from the Braves for Moe Drabowsky and Seth Morehead

The acquisition or Rodgers, who had been a backup for the Giants for several years before being traded to the Braves in October 1960, was seen as insurance for Ernie Banks at shortstop. Banks had suffered a couple of knee injuries and eventually moved to first base. Rodgers was the Cubs’ starting shortstop from 1962-64 and was a decent player, but no Banks, obviously. Robertson had hit well in the Braves minor league system, but, perhaps predictably, wasn’t quite as good for the Cubs in their system in 1961 and played in only nine games for the Cubs in ‘62 before being included in another trade.

This was a bad trade because Drabowsky, who had mediocre results as a Cubs starter from 1956-60 (4.02 ERA in 130 games, 90 of which were starts), eventually became a really good reliever for the Orioles from 1966-70, pitching in two World Series for Baltimore. He had a 19.9 bWAR career, and the Cubs got little value from Rodgers and Robertson.

April 1: Acquired Jim McAnany from the Angels for Lou Johnson

Sigh.

Johnson never really got a chance with the Cubs, and this was likely because there were perceived “quotas” of Black players in those days. The Cubs had three Black starters in Banks, Billy Williams and George Altman, and… well, that’s just how things were back then.

Johnson played in only one game for the Angels, but several deals later found himself with the Dodgers, for whom he had three really good years from 1965-67, including a key home run in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series.

The Cubs reacquired Johnson in 1967 and eventually traded him to Cleveland for Willie Smith, so that one worked out.

McAnany went 3-for-16 in 18 games for the Cubs in 1961 and 1962.

Another bad trade. This deal has the distinction of being the first player-for-player trade in Angels franchise history.

May 9: Acquired Mel Roach from the Braves for Frank Thomas

This was the Cubs’ only in-season trade in 1961, a 90-loss season.

“The other” Frank Thomas had hit reasonably well for the Cubs in 1960 (.238/.280/.399 with 21 home runs in 135 games) and had hit two home runs in 15 games in ‘61 before this deal.

Roach, a utility player who had hit reasonably well for the Braves, batted just .128/.190/.179 in 23 games for the Cubs and was traded after the season (see below).

Thomas went on to have a 34-homer season with an .824 OPS for the 1962 expansion Mets. The Cubs reacquired him in 1966, but he went 0-for-5 as a pinch-hitter and was released.

November 27: Acquired Bobby Locke from the Indians for Jerry Kindall

Kindall had played parts of five seasons for the Cubs (1956-58 and 1960-61). He was a decent fielder at second base, but couldn’t hit much. He had a 1.4 bWAR season for Cleveland in 1962, but otherwise didn’t do much after the deal. After his playing career, Kindall was the baseball coach at the University of Arizona for more than 20 years, from 1973-96. Among the MLB players he coached were Terry Francona, Scott Erickson, Trevor Hoffman, J.T. Snow, and Craig Lefferts.

Locke never played a game for the Cubs; in April 1962 he was traded to the Cardinals for Allen Herring, who never played in the major leagues.

November 30: Acquired Ely Churchich and Louis Holdender from the Indians for Mel Roach

Perhaps one of the most meaningless deals in Cubs history. Roach had, as noted above, done little for the Cubs and Cleveland traded him to the Phillies before the 1962 season. He hit just .190/.225/.229 in 65 games for the Phillies, then retired.

Neither of the minor leaguers acquired for Roach ever played in the major leagues. In fact, only Holdener, a catcher, played in the minors past 1962, three years at Triple-A Salt Lake City in the Cubs system.

These were all either bad or useless deals and so I’ll give the Cubs a D- for them.

Filed Under: Cubs

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