There’s no doubt that David Stearns is one of the top General Managers in baseball. He has himself a pretty convincing case for executive of the year after building up the Milwaukee Brewers to be 96-game winners and NL Central Champions in 2018. But even the best front office execs can’t bat 1.000 on every single one of their transactions, and looking back now, it’s safe to say that the Jett Bandy trade is one of the few Stearns moves that didn’t work out.
During Stearns’ second winter at the helm in the Cream City, he shipped long-time backup Martin Maldonado to the Angels (along with minor leaguer Drew Gagnon) in exchange for Bandy and his five years of club control.