25 years ago: Seattle traded Ken Griffey Jr.

February 10, 2000. 25 years ago today, the Seattle Mariners traded Ken Griffey Jr. to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for four players: outfielder Mike Cameron, right-hander Brett Tomko, infielder Antonio Pérez, and right-hander Jake Meyer.

The near-universal feeling at the time was part shock — the Mariners actually broke down and traded Griffey — and partly a belief that the Reds had just completely robbed Seattle.

Hindsight, of course, tells a different story.

First, some context is important, thanks in part to MLB.com’s Manny Randhawa in 2022:

With the 1999 season coming to a close, Seattle’s front office approached Griffey about a contract extension. He had one year remaining under contract with the team, but the team was looking ahead to an offseason where they would be bidding to retain both Griffey and Álex Rodríguez. There was no chance Rodríguez would consider an extension — as Randhawa notes, he was barely 25 at the time and already looking like one of the game’s brightest stars; A-Rod would end up signing a $252M deal with the Rangers — so the hope was that Griffey would be amenable to a deal now.

The two sides agreed to the framework of a deal — eight years, $140M — but Griffey wanted to wait until the season ended to sign.

Weeks later, the situation had changed. Griffey’s family had returned home to Orlando so his oldest son could start school and he was reportedly “miserable” without them around. Griffey now wanted to play closer to home, and following a change in Seattle’s front office (GM Woody Woodward retired and was replaced by Pat Gillick), he told the team they could explore a trade.

Having been in the league for 10 years, Griffey had earned the right to veto a trade and had some control over where he would ultimately go. Four teams were believed to be on his approved list — the Reds, the Mets, the Braves, and the Astros. Atlanta and Houston both held spring training in the Orlando area at the time.

Cincinnati always looked like the favorite to complete a deal.

First, there was the obvious family connection. Griffey Jr. had grown up in the Reds clubhouses because Griffey Sr. spent 12 of his 19 MLB seasons in Cincinnati. The senior Griffey played right field for the Reds World Series-winning clubs in 1977 and 1978. Griffey batted .303/.370/.434 over his dozen seasons as a Red and hit 71 of his 152 career home runs with the club, making three All-Star teams.

Griffey Sr. also happened to be the Reds bench coach at the time.

Second, Reds general manager Jim Bowden had long coveted Griffey Jr. Bowden himself told Randhawa that interest had extended back to when the Mariners first drafted Griffey in 1987. Bowden claims he had called Woodward “nearly 60 times” about trying to trade for Griffey over the years. Each attempt was unsuccessful, Woodward didn’t “want to be the GM who traded Griffey.”

Bowden went to the 1999 Winter Meetings hoping to complete a trade with Seattle. This time was different, as it had leaked publicly that Seattle was willing to move Griffey. There was skepticism about whether they could afford the $150M or so needed to extend Griffey if they completed a trade and Reds ownership wasn’t ready to sign off. Bowden was told to stand pat.

Seattle would shift their focus to the Mets and eventually would agree on a three-player package in return for Griffey: outfielder Roger Cedeño and right-handed relievers Octavio Dotel and Armando Benitez.

The Mariners just needed Griffey to agree. Some miscommunication ensued (Griffey was led to believe he had just 20 minutes to make a decision, which wasn’t intended) and he said no.

In the subsequent weeks, Bowden and the Reds had received a lot of criticism from fans and the Cincinnati media for failing to complete a deal. First, the public story was that talks had fallen apart over the Reds’ unwillingness to include infielder Pokey Reese in a deal. Then the blame focused on Bowden before finally turning towards ownership being “too cheap” to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them.

Bowden wasn’t deterred and kept pushing. Cincinnati was bidding against only themselves but by early February, a deal had been reached.

Within 30 hours of announcing the trade for Griffey and introducing him to the Cincinnati media at a news conference, the Reds extended the superstar with a nine-year, $112.5M contract.

Griffey was joining a Reds team with playoff aspirations. Future HOFer Barry Larkin was entrenched at shortstop as the team leader, but the lineup also featured Sean Casey, Dante Bichette, and the aforementioned Pokey Reese (who had just won his first Gold Glove the year prior). Griffey hit just as expected that year, slashing .271/.387/.556 with 40 homers and 118 RBI. Cincinnati finished 85-77, ten games behind the division-winning Cardinals.

It would be the only time during Griffey’s time with the Reds that the team would finish above .500.

2001 began a string of injury-plagued seasons.

A torn hamstring allowed him to play only 111 games in 2001.

A torn knee tendon and hamstring injury limited him to 70 games in 2002.

A dislocated shoulder and torn ankle tendon kept him to just 53 games in 2003.

Two hamstring tears shelved him for all but 83 games in 2004.

He would miss more time in 2006 (ankle) and 2007 (broken hand).

Griffey’s Cincinnati tenure came to an end in July 2008. Cincinnati traded Griffey (and cash to cover half of his remaining salary) to a Chicago White Sox team chasing the AL Central title for a pair of players, right-hander Nick Masset and infielder Danny Richar.

Griffey batted .270/.362/.514 with 210 home runs, accumulating 12.9 WAR, during his nine years with the Reds.

The 2000 Mariners finished the regular season 91-71, just a half-game behind Houston in the AL West but good enough for a Wild Card spot in the postseason. Rodríguez and HOFer Edgar Martinez anchored an offense that included John Olerud, Jay Buhner, and Rickey Henderson.

Mike Cameron also had an immediate impact.

Before coming to the Mariners in the Griffey trade, Cameron had spent parts of four seasons with the White Sox and a year in Cincinnati where he hit a combined .240/.332/.413 in just over 1,500 plate appearances. Still, he had four years of team control remaining and had just posted a 5.5 WAR season with the Reds, hitting .256/.357/.469 with 21 home runs.

Cameron blossomed in Seattle and over his four seasons with the Mariners, he hit .256/.350/.448 with 87 homers and 106 stolen bases. He made the 2001 All-Star team and won a pair of Gold Glove Awards in center field.

Cameron accumulated 18.4 WAR in that stretch and cost Seattle just $17.7M in salary — less than the $18.5M AAV their extension offer to Griffey would have paid.

Brett Tomko spent two seasons with the Mariners, splitting time between the rotation and bullpen. He pitched 127 innings over 43 appearances (12 starts), posting a 4.82 ERA and 1.488 WHIP with 81 strikeouts and 55 walks.

In December 2001, Seattle traded Tomko (along with Tom Lamkin, Ramón Vázquez, and cash) to San Diego for Alex Arias, Ben Davis, and Wascar Serrano.

Seattle assigned Antonio Pérez, barely 20 years old at the time of his inclusion in the Griffey trade, to High-A Lancaster for the 2000 season, where he hit .276/.376/.527 in 474 PA despite being nearly three years younger than most of the league. They’d push him to Double-A the next season, but he would only appear in five games after fracturing his wrist.

In October 2002, Pérez’s Seattle tenure ended with another significant trade when he was sent alongside manager Lou Piniella to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Randy Winn.

Jake Meyer wouldn’t spend long in the Seattle organization before the club released him in early April 2002. He made 62 appearances totaling 91 IP, in which he allowed 51 earned runs with 95 strikeouts and 45 walks.

Collectively, Tomko, Pérez, and Meyer would accumulate -0.4 WAR for the Mariners (Pérez eventually saw 495 PA with the Rays, Dodgers, and A’s between 2003 and 2006; Meyer never reached the majors at all).

Popular belief at the time of the trade was that the Reds had won, as they had stolen Griffey from the Mariners.

Nobody could have predicted at the time how Griffey’s career would evolve from there.

Hindsight, however, shows us the Mariners might have won the trade after all. Griffey’s 12.9 WAR cost the Reds almost $112.5M, while Cameron’s 18.4 WAR cost the Mariners $17.7M.

Former Mariners GM Woody Woodward may have been right to retire when he did.