I’m sure that any major league baseball player who is traded is foaming at the mouth when they get a chance to play against their former team. Revenge is a powerful motive on the diamond.
Here are a dozen examples.
Warning! Several of these situations [as real as they are] are hard to believe!
The St. Louis Cardinals traded Randy Arozarena to the Tampa Bay Rays one year after his debut in 2019. While American League and National League teams don’t face each other as often as their in-league opponents, Arozarena, now with the Seattle Mariners, recently got a chance to show the Cardinals what they missed. On September 9, he drove in four runs to lead Seattle to a 5-3 win over St. Louis. Arozarena did this damage against Cardinals left-hander Matthew Liberatore, the player he was traded for in 2020. Since being traded by the Cards, Arozarena has haunted his former team. In his last 10 games against St Louis, he’s batting .350 with two home runs and 12 RBIs.
Carlos as a Red Sox, (photo, David Butler II-Imagn Images. FanGraph Baseball)
The New York Yankees traded catcher Carlos Narvaez to Boston in December in exchange for a prospect and some international bonus pool space. Narvaez has since become Boston’s starting catcher. On June 13 the Venezuelan backstop got some sweet revenge on his former team at Fenway Park. Narvaez came to bat in a 1-1 game in the bottom of the 10th inning with runners in scoring position and two outs, Narvaez drilled a 1-2 fastball off the Green Monster to walk off the Yankees 2-1.
In January 2018, the Milwaukee Brewers traded outfielder Lewis Brinson to the Miami Marlins. In his first series against his former team at Milwaukee’s Miller Park, he blasted three home runs, including two in the first game. After the game, Brinson admitted his return to Milwaukee felt like more than just another game; “I came back to a place I played last year,” Brinson said. “I had a little chip on my shoulder, a little bit.”
Red Sox fans still regret their team trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees after the 2019 season for $100,000. Although his first few games back at Fenway Park didn’t feature any of his trademark home runs, he had two singles and a double in a doubleheader there on April 19, 1920.
In the middle of the 1972 season, the San Francisco Giants traded Willie Mays to the New York Mets. In his first game back in the Bay Area on July 21, the 41-year-old Mays hit a homer in his third at-bat, thrilling the home crowd. Mets manager Yogi Berra originally planned to rest Mays that game, but Mays talked his way into the lineup. Mays said before the game: ‘He didn’t want me to play tonight, but I think I have to play. I think so many people are going to pay their money to come out to see me play.”
Tom Terrific as a Red (photo Blog Red Machine)
In what Mets fans call “The Midnight Massacre,” New York traded Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds in the middle of the 1977 season. At Shea Stadium less than two months after the trade, he started for the Reds and threw a complete game 5-1 victory, striking out 11 former teammates. He also hit a double and scored two runs.
Almost exactly a year after the Seattle Mariners traded Randy Johnson to Houston mid-season, the Big Unit returned to Seattle as a Diamondback and threw a shutout. He struck out 10 Mariners.
Baseball players have long memories, and it’s never too late for revenge. Jeff Bagwell, who grew up in New England and was drafted by the Red Sox, was traded by Boston to Houston in 1990. He finally got to play at Fenway in 2003, facing his old team as an Astro. It was worth the wait, as he nailed a deep home run over the Green Monster.
Seven years after his trade to Cincinnati, Ken Griffey Jr. returned to Seattle with his new team in June 2007. The Mariners honored him in a pre-game ceremony. Later in the series, on June 24, Griffey slugged two homers, including a shot to deep right field off the facing of the second deck.
After winning two World Series with Boston, Manny Ramirez was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the 2008 trade deadline. Manny and his Dodgers didn’t travel to Boston until 2010, but Manny made sure Boston didn’t forget him by demolishing a knuckleball over the Green Monster off Tim Wakefield.
It’s hard to call this next one revenge, but it sure is bizarre.
How did that happen? (photo courtesy Facebook)
Seranthony Dominguez had quite a day on July 29 this year. The veteran reliever began the day as a Baltimore Oriole and was in the bullpen with his teammates during the first game of a doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays, though he did not pitch. In the middle of the doubleheader, the Orioles traded Dominguez to the Blue Jays for a minor-league pitcher. In the second game, the Jays called on Dominguez to pitch against his former team. It appeared that the Jays hastily gave him a Toronto Jersey with an upside-down “8” in his No. 48 jersey. Dominguez struck out two in a scoreless inning.
Danny Jansen became the first player in the history of the league to play on both sides of a game. On June 26, 2024,when the Blue Jays were playing the Red Sox in Boston, Jansen, a Blue Jay, was up to bat with a count of 0-1. Then the rains came down and the umpires suspended the game. In July, the Blue Jays traded Jansen to the Red Sox. The makeup game was played on August 26. Jansen was behind the plate, catching for the Red Sox. Daulton Varsho completed Jansen’s second-inning at bat for the Blue Jays. Jansen technically batted for both teams in the same inning. He went 0-0 for the Blue Jays and 1-4 for the Red Sox.
Revenge on yourself?!
