Friday Stuff

St. Louis Cardinals Pitchers Edition

Monday

Looking back now, the trade that sent pitcher Steve Carlton from the Cardinals to the Phillies in exchange for pitcher Rick Wise looks like one of the more lopsided deals in history. After all, Carlton went on to win 300 games, strike out 4,000 hitters, win four Cy Young Awards, and get elected to the Hall of Fame, which happened on this date in 1994. And Rick Wise…didn’t do any of that. In fact, he was gone from the Cardinals in two years.

But that’s not how the deal was viewed at the time. It’s also not how it should be viewed in retrospect.

After the 1971 season, Carlton and Wise weren’t viewed too differently. In the prior three seasons, Wise had a record of 45-41 with a 3.38 ERA for a terrible Phillies team. He’d made one All-Star team, had pitched a no-hitter while also smacking two homers in the game, was coming off his best season (17-14, 2.88 ERA, 123 ERA+), and was a year younger than Carlton. From the ages of 23 to 25, which covered Wise’s most recent three years, the two pitchers were pretty comparable.