seven years ago yesterday, the dodgers traded joel guzman to the devil rays for julio lugo. i have only this 2005 bowman heritage relic card to remember him by.
guzman was part of those jacksonville sun and las vegas 51s teams that featured the future - russell martin, james loney, chad billingsley, joel hanrahan, delwyn young, andy laroche, etc. for me, guzman was the guy that, out of all of those others, was going to make it. as a 20-year old in 2005, guzman hit 16/75/.287 in aa, and was hitting 11/55/.297 in 2006 at aaa las vegas when he was dealt away. i believe guzman's stock dropped due in part to the emergence of matt kemp. anyway, julio lugo played in 49 games for the dodgers, hit .219, and then left to become the primary shortstop on the team that won the world series in 2007.
guzman, meanwhile, had a short stay with tampa bay and then bounced around the minors. he is currently playing in mexico, according to baseball reference.
more recently (three years ago to be precise), ned traded away blake dewitt at the deadline. here's a 2008 topps heritage relic card
dewitt went to the cubs in exchange for ted lilly and ryan theriot. lilly stuck around (although he was recently dfa'd), but theriot bolted after the 2010 season ended. like lugo, he went on to play for the world series champions the following year. then he did lugo one better and played for the champs in 2012 as well!
a small and handpicked sample, i know, but drew butera might find himself an in demand free agent this winter...
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