Traveling men

A trade can be a blessing, a chance for a player to get a fresh start or find a path to the postseason.

By MARC TOPKIN
Published July 22, 2007

A trade can be a blessing, a chance for a player to get a fresh start or find a path to the postseason.

Or it can be a curse, sending a player somewhere he doesn't want to go and casting his life on and off the field into disarray.

Reliever Jay Witasick knows this better than any Ray, having been dealt a half-dozen times, including four in less than three years. "To me, trades are good," Witasick said. "At least the baseball part. It's the outside junk, moving from apartment to apartment, packing up and making sure you have enough clothes until you get the rest of your stuff, not having your car ... it just gets to be a nightmare."

With plenty of trade talk coming before the July 31 deadline for nonwaiver deals, we asked some of the Rays involved in previous deadline deals to share their stories:

Brendan Harris

From Cubs to Expos on July 31, 2004; from Nationals to Reds on July 13, 2006; from Reds to Rays on Jan. 2, 2007.

Harris was playing for the Cubs' Triple-A Iowa team at the time of the 2004 trade:

"We were watching ESPNews, it was just about the deadline, and they said only a few trades had been announced, so we're like, 'Okay, that's it, let's go out for BP.' I went out, but I forgot my glasses and came back running in, and the manager's like, 'Hey, come here.' I'm thinking I'm late or something, and he says, 'You can take off your stuff - you just got traded.' He said he didn't know any specifics, that it was either Minnesota or Montreal (as part of a four-team deal). About 15 minutes later, he says, 'It's Montreal, and that's all I know, start packing your stuff.'

"Then their farm director called, and I'm still hoping I'm going to the big leagues, but he says, 'You're going to Edmonton, Triple A, and they're in Nashville right now. And, oh, then they're in Iowa.' So I went to Nashville for one day, then came right back and stayed in my apartment for the next four days and just drove to the visitors' side of the stadium."

Ty Wigginton

From Mets to Pirates on July 30, 2004.

Wigginton was with the Mets in Atlanta at the time:

"We're taking batting practice, and I finish my first round, and (manager) Art Howe walks down by the cage and says, 'Go head up to my office. Act like you're getting a new bat or something and I'll meet you up there.' It was just because all the media was out there. So I discreetly snuck into the dugout, hung out there then headed up to the clubhouse.

"The Pirates called a little later, and I had a 10 a.m. flight to Milwaukee the next day. I had a bunch of buddies in Atlanta who were in from Charlotte (for the game), so I called my wife, and she called them all, and we met somewhere for dinner and hung out and actually watched the Mets game on TV."

Gary Glover

From White Sox to Angels on July 30, 2003; from Blue Jays to White Sox on Nov. 7, 2000.

Glover was with the Sox in Kansas City at the time of the 2003 deal:

"They called me back from the bullpen when I got down there in the first inning, and I'm trying to figure out what the heck just happened. The manager (Jerry Manuel) says, 'The GM needs to see you in the office, and good luck to you.' I'm like, 'All right' ... I figured I either got traded or released, and I wasn't thinking I was traded because things weren't going real smoothly at the time. ... So it was a complete shock for me."

Scott Kazmir

From Mets to Rays on July 30, 2004.

Scott Kazmir was with Double-A Binghamton at the time:

"I was on the trainer's table about to go out to the field to warm up. (Manager) Ken Oberkfell grabbed me and said, 'You're not pitching today, and you're not pitching for us.' We all went into the office, and they told me I got traded to Tampa Bay. If you know Oberkfell, you'd think he was joking, so I figured he was messing with me and started cracking up. (Being traded) never even crossed my mind that it was an option. He said, 'It's no joke, and keep your phone on, somebody will be calling you.' I'm just sitting back - are ... you ... kidding ... me ... ?"

Trade winds

Sixteen of the current 25 Rays were traded at some point in their careers - and some with interesting footnotes:

Serendipity

Ty Wigginton and Scott Kazmir will always have July 30, 2004, to talk about. As the Mets made two big deals for starting pitching, they shipped Wigginton and two others to Pittsburgh for Kris Benson and traded Kazmir to the Rays for, as you may have heard, Victor Zambrano.

On the move

RHP Jay Witasick has been dealt six times, including twice to the A's. In January 1996 he went from St. Louis to Oakland in a multiplayer deal for RHP Todd Stottlemyre and in July 2005 from Colorado to the A's in a deal for OF Eric Byrnes. In between he was traded to the Royals (for RHP Scott Chiasson), to the Padres (for RHP Brian Meadows), to the Yankees (for INF D'Angelo Jimenez) and to the Giants (for OF John Vander Wal).

Give thanks he decided

LHP Casey Fossum's life was on hold for all of Thanksgiving week 2003, waiting to see if Sir Curt Schilling would grandly accept a deal to go from Arizona to Boston. When he did, Fossum was in the package headed west.

Two-a-days

Essentially, C Dioner Navarro was part of a three-way deal among the Yankees, Diamondbacks and Dodgers. But technically, he was traded twice Jan. 11, 2005 - from the Yankees to Arizona in a package for Randy Johnson, then with three minor-leaguers to the Dodgers for OF Shawn Green.

[Last modified July 21, 2007, 23:32:21]