6 players to be named later who became all-stars

Baseball’s non-waiver trade deadline is Tuesday afternoon, and there might be some transactions that aren’t quite completed on the day of the deal.

There will be some moves that include a player to be named later. For instance, in the trade that sent Cole Hamels to the Cubs on Friday, the Rangers received two minor leaguers and a player to be named later.

Sometimes teams have a list of players to choose from and a deadline to make their pick, but sometimes the player is named later for other reasons.

These players to be named later sometimes go on to do great things.

I would be remiss in this celebration of players to be named later if I didn’t mention Harry Chiti, a catcher who played parts of 10 major league seasons.

Chiti in 1962 was the player to be named later in his own deal, and while he wasn’t an all-star this transaction made him a legend. From his SABR bio:

Traded by the Orioles to Cleveland after the 1961 season, Chiti was sold to the expansion New York Mets on April 26, 1962. Harry Dominic Chiti, Jr., played in his last major league baseball game on the afternoon of Sunday, June 10, at Wrigley Field. Five days later the Mets attempted to return him to the Indians and were advised by the organization to send him directly to Jacksonville, a Cleveland affiliate. It was Chiti himself who later claimed that the Mets had owed Cleveland a “player to be named later,” and he had been returned to Cleveland as that player, thus becoming a player who had been traded for himself.

Here is a group of players to be named later who later became all-stars:

Most people remember that Oritz was non-tendered by the Minnesota Twins in 2002, with the club unwilling to pay him a raise in arbitration. He signed a minor league deal with the Boston Red Sox and is on his way to Cooperstown.

But before Minnesota let him go, Ortiz was traded as a 20-year-old in Class-A by the Mariners, who got third baseman David Hollins in a late-August attempt at a playoff push. Seattle, filled with stars, fell short of the postseason that year. But at the time nobody knew what Ortiz, then named David Arias, would become.

“Minnesota did a nice job identifying David as the player they wanted,” former Seattle general manager Woody Woodward told the Boston Globe in 2015. “We needed a third baseman and Hollins came over and did a nice job for us. We had a lot of good hitters on the major league side, so it was hard to project David down the road on our club, but when he got to Boston ... he’s had a great career.”

Ortiz hit .286/.380/.552, a 141 OPS+, in a 20-year MLB career with 541 home runs and 632 doubles. A great career indeed.

The Pittsburgh Pirates were on their way to winning the first of three consecutive National League East division title in 1990 and in August bolstered their rotation by adding 29-year-old left-hander Zane Smith. Three minor leaguers went to the Montreal Expos in the trade, the last Alou, coming about a week after the trade. Alou was injured in 1991 but in his age-25 season in 1992 the outfielder began a stretch that saw him as an above-average hitter for each of his next 15 seasons.

Alou hit 332 home runs, 421 doubles, and amassed 2,134 hits in a career that saw him make six all-star teams and slug .714 with three home runs in the 1997 World Series for the winning Marlins.

The wait was long for Scutaro, both as the player to be named later in a 2000 trade between the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers, and to become an all-star. Scutaro was the throw-in sent to Milwaukee a month after the deal that sent slugger Richie Sexson and others to the Brewers for pitchers Jason Bere, Bob Wickman, and Steve Woodward.

Scutaro, 24 at the time of the trade, didn’t make the majors until 2002, but lasted in the big leagues for 13 years as a utility infielder. He made his lone all-star team in 2013 with the Giants, one season after he was a big trade deadline acquisition for San Francisco and provided this RainGlobe-commemorated moment:

The White Sox drafted the left-handed pitcher in the supplemental first round in 2004, then made deals involving Gonzalez in two consecutive winter meetings. The first was in December 2005, when Gonzalez was the player to be named later to the Phillies in deal that sent Jim Thome to Chicago.

Gonzalez was set to be a PTBNL twice in a little over a year, traded back to Chicago the next offseason. But the White Sox GM let the news slip early:

Williams let slip during the announcement that the other player in the deal is pitcher Gio Gonzalez — traded by the White Sox to Philadelphia a year ago in the Jim Thome deal.

“It’s 11 o’clock at night, what do you want?” Williams said.

Gonzalez made the all-star team in 2011 with the A’s, then again the next season with the Nationals. He finished sixth in NL Cy Young voting just last season.

Schmidt was a struggling rookie in 1996 with the Braves, but the right-hander entered the season as the 11th-best prospect in the sport per Baseball America. This was the 1990s Braves at their peak, already with a packed rotation including Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. Atlanta added to it by trading for Pirates starter Denny Neagle in a 3-for-1 deal. Schmidt was the final piece, sent to Pittsburgh as the player to be named later two days later.

Schmidt had some success in Pittsburgh but thrived later with the Giants, making the all-star team in 2003, 2004, and 2006. He pitched in parts of 14 major league seasons before a shoulder injury cut short his career.

When CC Sabathia was traded to Milwaukee in July 2008, the headlining prospect in the deal with Matt Laporta. But the 4-for-1 trade was completed that October when Brantley, then a 21-year-old in Double-A.

Brantley reached the majors by the next season, and made his third all-star team this season, his 10th with the Indians. He’s been healthy this season too after limited to just 103 games in 2016-17 combined with injuries.

OK, this one is a reach, as Turner is only in his fourth major league season. But the Nationals shortstop is hitting ... with 13 home runs and 24 stolen bases, and he did make the Final Vote in 2018, narrowly missing the all-star team. Turner was drafted by the Padres 2014, but then included in a huge three-team December trade that sent Wil Myers to San Diego and Steven Souza Jr. to Tampa Bay. But because of the rules at the time, Turner couldn’t be dealt until a year after he signed, so he was technically the player to be named later and sent to the Nationals in June 2015, and played 58 games in Double-A with the Padres knowing he was eventually headed elsewhere. Awkward.

Turner isn’t an all-star just yet but at just 25, so there is plenty of time for him to join this group.