Philly Front Office

I was racking my brain trying to think of something transactional to talk about with the Cincinatti Reds. I thought only giving out three $100m contracts in history would be good, but NINE teams have been stingier than them! What the hell? I thought about Homer Bailey, but his career is more sad than anything else. I thought about profiling Johnny Bench and I probably will in the future. But then I saw something I wasn’t prepared for, I had no idea Hall of Famer Frank Robinson played for the Reds. When I think of Frank Robinson, I think of him and Brooks Robinson in the orange and black of the Baltimore Orioles. What a fool I was!

Friday, July 4 at 1:05a – Jesus Luzardo v. Andrew Abbott (L)
Saturday, July 5 at 4:05p – Ranger Suarez v. Nick Lodolo (L)
Sunday, July 6 at 1:35p – Zack Wheeler v. Chase Burns (R)

at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia

Best Years with the Reds

Turns out, Frank Robinson wasn’t just a Cincinnati Red for a little while, he was a damn legend there. The Reds signed Robinson as a 17 year old. He made his Major League debut only 3 years later and he came out HOT. Not only did he win ROY in 1956, but he was legitimately in the running for MVP (won by Don Newcombe) while finishing 3rd in WAR behind only Hank Aaron and Duke Snider (6.5 WAR). He never looked back.

Robinson would go on to play 10 years in Cincinnati, accumulating 63.8 WAR, hitting 324 HRs, 1000 RBI, and hitting over .300. He was an All-Star 6 times and received MVP votes all but once. Crazy. He was great every year, but there were 3 truly spectacular seasons: 1961, 1962, 1964. He won MVP in 1961 but had a big gripe about finishing 4th the other 2 years (Willie Mays has an even bigger gripe).

In 1961, Robinson finished with 7.7 WAR, 76 XBH, and a 1.015 OPS. Even though he won MVP, he was even better the next season with an 8.7 WAR and league leading 134 runs, 51 doubles, .421 OBP (he hit .343 and walked more than he struck out), .624 slugging, 1.045 OPS, and 173 OPS+. He was nothing short of phenomenal, but the Dodgers Maury Wills stole 104 bases, so he won (Willie Mays had a 10.4 WAR and led the league in HRs with 49).

Then, after a 5.1 WAR season at age 29, the Reds traded him to Baltimore for Jack Baldschun, Milt Pappas, and Dick Simpson¹. Wait, what?

Revenge With the Baltimore Orioles

To say Frank Robinson played the 1966 season with a chip on his shoulder is an understatement. He won the goddamn Triple Crown with a .316 average, 49 HRs, and 122 RBI. I mean, he led the league in everything that year: 7.7 WAR, 122 Runs, .410 OBP, .637 Slugging, and a 198 OPS+. He even led with 7 sacrifice flies for good measure. He was the unanimous MVP. The icing on the cake though was sweeping the Dodgers in the World Series where Frank was named WS MVP. The Reds went from 89-73 the season before to 76-84 without Robinson.

Winning basically everything possible in 1966 I’m sure felt pretty good, but it lacked the hands on revenge that a good story truly needs. Don’t worry, Frank delivers a narrative just as well as he hits baseballs. Robinson was solid the next few years and would take Baltimore back to the World Series in 1969 (sadly losing to the Mets). In 1970 though, Baltimore was a juggernaut winning 108 games. 7 Orioles would receive MVP votes with Boog Powell winning the award and Frank Robinson finishing 10th. In the NL though, 22 year old Johnny Bench burst on to the scene for the Cincinnati Reds by leading the league in WAR, HRs, RBI, and winning MVP as a 22 year old. The makings of the Big Red Machine days in Cincinatti yielded 102 wins and 6 players with MVP votes themselves. Both teams won the pennant by sweeping their league championship series. The 1970 World Series was set with Frank Robinson facing his old team.

The Reds would take the lead in the first two games at home, but would cough it up both times. Robinson hit a HR in game 3 before the Orioles eventually broke the game open. After Losing Game 4, the Orioles beat the Reds in Game 5 with a Frank Robinson HR in the 3rd putting the game out of reach and securing the ultimate revenge.

WHY?

So the Reds traded away Frank Robinson for basically nothing. They had drafted Johnny Bench that same year and already had Tony Perez and Pete Rose. The Big Red Machine already had its key cogs before getting rid of Robinson! Not only do the Reds probably win the World Series in 1970 with Robinson switching teams, but the Reds dynasty probably gets started a little sooner. The Reds missed out on 32.4 more WAR put up by Robinson with the Orioles.

For his career, Robinson finished with 107.3 WAR, 2943 hits (damn, just missed), 586 HRs, a .294 average (that would have been .300+ had he retired after leaving Baltimore, and a career OPS+ of 154. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982…as a Baltimore Oriole.

Frank Robinson SABR Profile

Frank Robinson Baseball-Reference

1. In case you were wondering, here is the total WAR for each as a Red:
   – Simpson -.4
   – Baldschun 0
   – Pappas 5.8 ↩︎