Cleveland Indians: 5 most foolish trades in team history

3. Roger Maris to KC

Clevelanders barely knew Roger Maris by the time the Indians traded him to the Kansas City Athletics. Marris, 23, was in his second season with the Tribe when the deal went down, as the Indians packed the future slugger with Dick Tomanek and Preston Ward for Woodie Held and Vic Power.

Held was a versatile player, but he never hit above .267 in an Indians uniform. As for Power, well, Power was in his name, but not in his game, at least compared to Maris. He hit 37 homers in his 3.5 years with the Tribe. He earned All-Star berths in 1959 and 1960 for batting .289 and .288 respectively.

The Yankees treated Kansas City like their own personal farm team and harvested Maris shortly after he got to the Athletics. Maris went to break Babe Ruth‘s single-season home run record, by blasting 61 bombs for the Bronx Bombers as the Yankees went on to win yet another World Series.

Power, meanwhile hit .268 (.679 OPS).

Maris didn’t go onto the Hall of Fame career you might expect for someone who did something so legendary, but he had a great MLB career, earning a trip to four All-Star games and winning three rings. And while he wasn’t tapped for Cooperstown, he remains one of the most historically significant players of the era.