Today, we are reliving the December 5, 1990 trade that brought Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar to the Toronto Blue Jays from San Diego in exchange for Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff. On paper it looks pretty fair, but I’d say the Jays got the better end of this one.
Now, the before and after shots from 1991 Upper Deck:
1991 Upper Deck - Fred McGriff (Before)
1991 Upper Deck - Fred McGriff (After)
1991 Upper Deck - Joe Carter (Before)
1991 Upper Deck - Joe Carter (After)
1991 Upper Deck - Tony Fernandez (Before)
1991 Upper Deck - Tony Fernandez (After)
1991 Upper Deck - Roberto Alomar (Before)
1991 Upper Deck - Roberto Alomar (After)
There you go.
That trade was HUGE up here when it happened. I can’t say I was a big Blue Jays fans (blasphemy for a Canadian at the time) but I was a Fred McGriff fan. And even though I knew Carter was one of the game’s best outfielders and Roberto was the brother of then can’t-miss phenom Sandy Jr and had to have been pretty good too, I was still sad to see McGriff go knowing I wouldn’t see as many highlights on the Jays-centric broadcasts that went across Canada.
Yeah I remember that. As a Jays fan it was always tough to watch how much success McGriff went on to have, but the 2 championships and John Olerud made up for it.