They Wore Pinstripes? Esteban Loaiza

So recently, I started to have fun looking at Baseball Reference pages of older Yankee teams, and I get a kick out of it whenever I see a forgotten recognizable name on the roster. I’m going to look back at some of these acquisitions. First up: Esteban Loaiza.

Esteban Loaiza was a special case. The Yankees got him in the 2004 trade deadline – less than a year after he was voted second in AL Cy Young. Loaiza’s 2003 was pretty special in many ways. Before that season, his best year was with the Pirates in 1997, going 11-11 with 4.13 ERA, good for a 105 ERA+. But overall, he was quite mediocre in 8 ML seasons, compiling a 69-73 record with 4.88 ERA. During that span he had a slightly league-below average 95 ERA+ while allowing 10.6 hits and 1.2 HR’s in 9 IP. So there you go, nothing special.

All that changed when he signed with the Chicago White Sox as a free agent during the 2002-03 offseason. No, he didn’t get a guaranteed ML contract – White Sox pretty much picked him up with a Spring Training invite with a $500,000 contract if he made the team. From there, he just became a totally different pitcher. Not only did he have a shiny 21-9, 2.90 ERA, his peripherals also jumped significantly. He struck out 8.2 hitters in 9 IP after not cracking 6.3 his entire career. He also allowed fewer hits (7.8 in 9 IP) and homers (0.7 in 9 IP).

Many attributed his success to his new pitch, the cutter. Loaiza had learned the cutter from ex-Yankee Gil Patterson (then-Blue Jays pitching coach) when he was with Toronto but avoided throwing it because he thought it may be harm his elbow.

In 2004 though, the out of nowhere career path stalled. After starting decently with a 3.71 ERA in first 12 starts, Loaiza fell into a funk the next 9 starts leading up the to trade deadline, pitching to a 6.63 ERA in 55.2 IP while allowing .923 OPS against, elevating his season ERA to 4.86. At the time, the South Siders had a pretty mediocre rotation. Their staff ace was Mark Buehrle, who finished the year with a 3.89 ERA (121 ERA+) in 245.1 IP. Besides him, there were underachieving Loaiza, Jon Garland, Scott Schoeneweis, and guys like Felix Diaz (6.75 ERA in 18 games) and Jason Grilli (7.40 ERA in 8 starts) getting looks.

Meanwhile, in Bronx, the Yankees also needed rotation help. The 2004 Yankees started with the rotation of Mike Mussina, Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez, and Jose Contreras, with Jon Lieber and El Duque joining later. That collection of pitchers looked pretty darn good on MVP Baseball 2004 but weren’t all they were cracked up to be. Here’s where they stood by July 31, 2004:

Mussina: 9-6, 5.20 ERA, .803 OPS against. Was on DL for sore right elbow.

Brown: 8-1, 3.91 ERA. Had just gotten off 15-day DL after suffering lower back strain. Cooled off (5.13 ERA in previous 7 starts) after being named the AL Pitcher of the Month in April.

Vazquez: 12-6, 4.16 ERA. Pitched in the All-Star Game after a nice 10-5, 3.56 ERA but cooled off afterwards (7.36 ERA in 4 starts)

Contreras: 8-5, 5.64 ERA. Allowed a whopping 22 home runs in 95.2 IP, which is good enough for a 2.1 HR/9 rate. Yeesh.

Lieber: 7-6, 4.75 ERA. Had missed the entire 2003 season with TJ surgery. He pitched nicely down the stretch (3.75 ERA in next 11 starts) but at the time, he was, well, middling.

Hernandez: 2-0, 2.37 ERA. Only had 4 starts on the season at the time. He had a nice year to rebuild his stock after missing the entire 2003 season but I don’t think he had that rotation savior status.

The Yankees just couldn’t really count on anyone in the staff. George Steinbrenner & Co. were looking at Randy Johnson for the longest time while the lefty ace himself was “believed to pushing a trade to the Yankees“, according to Tyler Kepner. However, the Diamondbacks weren’t really impressed with what they saw in the Yankees farm system and the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement. The Yankees were also looking at Mariners RHP Freddy Garcia but he was traded to another team that needed a rotation upgrade: the White Sox.

“We couldn’t match that deal,” Cashman told The Associated Press, adding that New York’s prospects were not as close to being ready for the major leagues as Chicago’s are.

Instead of crafting a familiar prospects-for-veteran trade, Cashman and White Sox GM Kenny Williams got creative. They started to talk a SP-for-SP swap. Esteban Loaiza intrigued the Yanks and for White Sox, it was Jose Contreras.

Jose Contreras, nicknamed El Titan de Bronze, saw his record get shattered by inconsistency up to the trade deadline. After being signed by New York in late 2002 to a 4-year, $32-million deal, the righty mostly pitched out of bullpen in 2003 because the rotation was already crowded. After Roger Clemens, David Wells and Andy Pettitte left, they slotted Contreras into the rotation with big expectations for 2004. Instead, they got a pretty awful 7.11 ERA in his first 8 starts. He settled down a bit for the next 8 with a 6-1 record with 3.46 ERA. However, he got demolished by Red Sox and Orioles in the two starts before deadline to the tune of 15 ER’s in 14 IP, raising his season ERA to 5.64. It’s one thing to be inconsistent – being shelled by division rivals made him stick out even more.

Just a minute before the 4 p.m. deadline, New York and Chicago finalized the deal. Yankees would get Esteban Loaiza and White Sox would get Jose Contreras and $3 million. “The deal was done, but the paperwork didn’t go through until 3:59,” Cashman said. “That’s when the fax went through — and I have proof of that.”

At the time, swapping Contreras for Loaiza did not seem like a bad idea. In fact, both players had appealing upsides. For the Yankees, they were getting a starting pitcher who had a Cy-caliber year the previous season while the White Sox got a pitcher with great stuff who had yet to fully tap into his potential. For the Yanks, Loaiza meant a lottery ticket with a possible big short-term success who would help them into the postseason and maybe beyond. The Mexican righty was actually having a good year before falling into the mid-season funk. If he were to regain his 2003 form, it would have been a big add for consistency all-around.

Loaiza did show consistency in Bronx – on being bad, that is.

After joining the Yankees, he was booted to the bullpen after five starts, in which he logged 24.2 IP, allowing 37 hits, 20 ER (7.30 ERA), 6 HR’s and a whopping .976 OPS against. In his first appearance out of the bullpen, Loaiza allowed 6 ER’s in 3 IP against the Indians in that infamous 22-0 buttwhoopery in the Bronx. Instead of regaining his Cy Young-caliber form, he was looking much worse than how he was as a journeyman No. 5 starter.

Loaiza did have one decent start though – it came against the Blue Jays (opposing starter being none other than Roy Halladay, the 2003 AL Cy winner) in September 21, 2004. In 5.1 IP, he allowed only 2 hits and 2 ER’s while striking out 5. That also happened to be Loaiza’s 100th career victory, so that’s also that. He made two more appearances in the regular season, allowing 9 ER’s in 6.1 IP against Boston and Toronto.

Despite his shortcomings as a Yankee, Loaiza did get to pitch in postseason. In three relief appearances, he allowed only 1 ER in 8.1 IP but that one earned run made him the losing pitcher of the Game 5 of 2004 ALCS. After tossing three scoreless innings in Game 7, Loaiza’s time in pinstripes was history.

On the flip side, Contreras turned out to be a solid get for Chicago. For the rest of 2004, he had a pretty mediocre 5.30 ERA in 13 starts but he blossomed like a butterfly the next season. For the World Series-winning 2005 Sox, Contreras went 15-7, 3.61 ERA in 204.2 IP. That alone was good enough for Yankees to regret the trade. He was never as solid as he was that season again but White Sox got a heck of a rotation bounty for their World Series title run.

In the end, Yankees tried for an upgrade and ended up with a starter worse than Contreras. That series of trades/free agent signings to bolster the rotation was truly something to watch – it just seemed like none of the big investments truly worked out to their potential. While the Yankees didn’t have any trouble winning 90+ games in that era, the lack of rotation and playoff success was a demon that fan base endured annually.