12 years ago today, the Jays traded Brad Fullmer to the Angels for someone named Brian Cooper.
Cooper was a RHP, he was 27 at the time. He had pitched in portions of 3 seasons for the Angels, had made 21 starts and 6 relief appearances, going 5-10 with a 5.33 ERA in 128 innings, with 57 walks and 58 strikeouts.
Fullmer was 27 as well, in fact January 17th is his birthday, so happy birthday Brad. He says a 2nd round draft pick by the Expos. He played 2 plus seasons with the Expos and had been a bit of a disappointment He wasn't very good with the glove at first base and his bat didn't show quite as well as the Expos hoped. He hit .276/.326/.459 with 25 home runs in 259 games with Montreal.
In March of 2000, Fullmer was part of a three team trade between the Expos, Rangers and Blue Jays. The Rangers sent Lee Stevens to the Expos, the Jays sent David Segui to the Rangers and the Expos sent Fullmer to the Jays.
Stevens did a pretty good job for the Expos, hitting .243/.334/.450 with 57 home runs, in 3 seasons. Segui hit .336/.391/.519 in 93 games and then was traded to the Indians for Ricky Ledee. Segui was always good at getting on base, but didn't have the power you'd like to have from a first basemen.
Fullmer DHed for the Jays, for 2 seasons, hitting .284/.333/.499 with 50 home runs and 187 RBI, in 279 games. He had a very good season in 2000, hitting 32 home runs and driving in 104 runs. If the Jays had a better team, we'd think if Fullmer as one of the better DHes in team history.
The trade with the Angels didn't go well for the Jays.
Fullmer played two seasons for the Angels, and hit .294/.367/.521 with 28 home runs and 94 RBI in 193 games. And he played a starring role in the Angels 2002 World Series win. He hit .294/.351/.471 in 12 playoff games. Brad also stole home, in game two of the World Series, as part of a double steal. Pretty crappy defense there Giants
Brad wrecked his knee in June of 2003 and that pretty much ended his career. After the 2003, he signed with the White Sox as free agent.
It wasn't one of J.P. Ricciardi's better trades. I'm not sure why, but Fullmer was always thought of as a disappointment. Maybe because, as a LHB, he didn't hit lefties at all. Maybe because he really couldn't play defense. But I really don't get why J.P. gave him away so cheaply. Cooper wasn't much of a pitcher, he wasn't a great prospect, but Ricciardi must have thought he saw something in Cooper that was hidden from the rest of us. I can't imagine what he thought he saw. Cooper had as many walks as strikeouts, when we traded for him.
Also on January 17, in 2011, the Jays signed Jon Rauch, without which we would have never had this: