Top NYY Could-Have-Beens: Jay Buhner

Its honestly somewhat impressive to make a sports transaction so bad that it gets forever memorialized in pop culture.

However, thats what the Yankees did in July 1988 when they traded Jay Buhner to the Mariners along with two minor leaguers for Ken Phelps.

The further we get away from his playing career, its honestly plausible that Buhner will become more famous for his mention in the Seinfeld episode The Caddy than he will be for the playing career that caused his name to be invoked in the first place.

However, make no mistake: The Buhner trade was bad enough for the Yankees that it absolutely deserves the ridicule of one of the most famous sitcoms ever.

Years In Yankees Organization: 1984-88 How They Left: Traded to Seattle Mariners in July 1988 Career MLB Yankees Statistics: 32 games, 99 PA, .198/.253/.319, 3 HR, 55 OPS+, 59 wRC+, -0.2 rWAR, -0.1 fWAR Career MLB Statistics: 15 seasons, 1,440 games, 5,828 PA, .254/.359/.494, 310 HR, 124 OPS+, 123 wRC+, 23.0 rWAR, 22.3 fWAR Born in 1964 in Louisville, Kentucky, Buhner moved to Texas with his family as a teenager.

He came from a fairly sporting family, with Jays younger brother Shawn also spending six seasons in the Mariners organization.

After high school, he attended McLennan Community College, where he began to catch scouts eyes.

The Braves took Buhner in the ninth round of the 1983 MLB Draft , but he elected not to sign.

A couple months later in the January draft which included players who had signed in the normal summer draft the Pirates selected him in the second round, and this time, Buhner put his name on the dotted line.

Buhner hit very well for Pittsburghs Low-A minor league affiliate in 1984, but after the season he was on the move.

That December, the Yankees and Pirates made a five-player trade, the headline of which was Dale Berra coming over to New York, joining his father, Yogi, who had taken over as manager ahead of the 84 campaign.

Considering that none of the other players swapped in the deal spent more than two seasons in either New York or Pittsburgh, you could argue that Buhner coming over to the Yankees was the most consequential part of that trade considering what was to come.

Now in the Yankees organization, Buhner hit the ground running in a hurry.

He put up an OPS of .861 with the Single-A Fort Lauderdale Yankees in 1985, cracking 39 extra-base hits and earning a spot on the Florida State League All-Star team.

A broken arm in spring training limited him to just 36 games at the same level the following year, but another good year there saw him promoted all the way up to Triple-A for 1987.

Named by Baseball America as the Yankees second-best prospect behind Brad Arnsberg prior to 86, Buhner now sat atop the BA Top 10.

With Triple-A Columbus in 1987, Buhner broke out in a big way, leading the International League with 31 home runs.

That got him a brief taste of the big leagues as a September call-up, and led to this entertaining-in-hindsight excerpt from the 1988 Yankees Yearbook (emphasis ours): In the Bronx, Buhner impressed Yankees followers with his strong arm, good range and quick, powerful swing.

Buhner may have a tough time becoming a Yankee regular in 1988, but he is sure to be a prominent fixture in the near future.

Although Buhner would indeed mostly return to the minors for 1988, continued success there helped him get a couple more looks on the big league level in 88.

In the limited action, he showed some of what was to come.

While his numbers on the whole with the Yankees in 1988 arent incredible, he had a couple games like his June 11th game against the Orioles, where he drove home five runs including a grand slam in an 8-6 win.

However as the calendar headed towards the trade deadline, the Yankees found themselves in spitting distance in the AL East race.

As he always was, owner George Steinbrenner was antsy for success, especially having not made the playoffs since 1981.

Sitting at just one game back through July 19th, two days later, the Yankees made a deal for Mariners slugger Ken Phelps, with Buhner among those the Bombers sent to Seattle.

Quite famously, Buhner became a star for the Mariners.

He pretty quickly came around on MLB pitching after getting regular playing time post-trade, putting up a 114 OPS+ with Seattle after the deal.

He also wasted no time putting the screws on the team that traded him, reaching the distant black seats in center field at Yankee Stadium in his first career game against the Yanks.

It was the first of 28 career homers at New Yorks expense, notching a .957 OPS in 409 plate appearances a better OPS than Buhner posted against any MLB opponent (save for the expansion Devil Rays, who he only faced in 21 games).

Over the next 13 years, Buhner became a very good middle-order bat for the Ms, hitting over 300 home runs, becoming an All-Star, finishing fifth in AL MVP voting in 1995, winning a Gold Glove in 96, and putting up a career 125 OPS+ as a Mariner.

With the emergence of Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, and more, the Mariners went through their golden age in the 1990s, and Buhner was right in the middle of that.

Right in the heart of that run was a .458/.500/1.125 performance against the Yankees in the 1995 ALDS.

He also had a big hit in the eighth inning in Game 5, as the Mariners rallied to tie the game before eventually winning it in the 11th inning.

Buhner and Griffey were also the only Seattle hitters to really show up during their ALCS loss to mighty Cleveland.

Injuries eventually began to get to him in the late 90s, leading him to retire after 2001, by which time Ichiro had broken onto the scene and taken his old spot in right.

Fittingly, Buhners final career homer was an ALCS shot against the Yanksagain reaching the black seats, though New York won that playoff series.

The Mariners inducted him into the teams Hall of Fame in 2004, and while theyve never officially retired it, no other Ms player has ever worn Buhners No.

19 since.

The Yankees had their fair share of success in Buhners prime, so its not as if the trade kept them from a player that mightve put them over the top; the biggest issue with it was the return.

Despite a low batting average, Phelps was a solid enough hitter for the Yankees (120 OPS+), but he just never really had a positional fit in the Bronx.

He was mostly a 1B/DH-type, but at the time of the 1988 trade, the Yankees had both Don Mattingly and Jack Clark filling those roles perfectly well.

After just 342 plate appearances, the Yankees ended up trading Phelps to the Oakland Athletics a little more than a year after dealing Buhner for him.

The only consequence the Ms suffered from losing Phelps came in a roundabout way when he ruined Brian Holmans perfect-game attempt in 1990 a minor price to pay for Buhners impact.

With the Yankees getting good but still getting over the top, the trade was memorialized in a January 1996 episode of Seinfeld .

In it, Jerry Stiller as Frank Constanza lambasts George Steinbrenner voiced by noted Yankees fan Larry David who retorts that his baseball people loved Ken Phelps bat.

Even for as good a career as Buhner had, that scene will live long past the memories of the very good outfielders career.

Sources Baseball America Baseball Reference FanGraphs SABR BR Bullpen Previously on Top Could-Have-Been Yankees Doug Drabek Full List (to date).

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