Dodgers News: Frank McCourt vetoed 2008 trade for CC Sabathia

In 2008, the Los Angeles Dodgers were on the verge of acquiring CC Sabathia from the Cleveland Indians, but owner Frank McCourt balked.

Entering the fourth of July weekend in 2008, the Dodgers were a mediocre, sub-.500 team, riddled with injuries, but still in the thick of the pennant race because nobody else in the National League West had decided to run away with the division.

General manager Ned Colletti was looking to make a splash that would catapult his team into lead contention. And apparently, he nearly completed a deal that would have brought the previous year’s Cy Young Award winner, CC Sabathia, to the Dodgers.

“I had an eight-player deal that I thought we could walk to the end, may have taken one more player from our end,” Colletti revealed on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight podcast with Buster Olney. “[Chris Antonetti from the Indians] at least led me to believe we had a legitimate chance to get CC Sabathia.”

The proposed deal would have sent Sabathia, third baseman Casey Blake, and utility-man Jamey Carroll to Los Angeles. The Dodgers would have sent five prospects the other way, including Carlos Santana.

Talks between Colletti and the Indians had reached the point that Colletti and manager Joe Torre met with owner Frank McCourt to try to convince him to pull the trigger on the deal.

McCourt ultimately balked, and the deal fell through.

“I ran the deal past him, and also the financial considerations of it,” Colletti said. “And he was concerned about giving up five prospects, and he vetoed the deal. He wouldn’t let us do it.”

While the Dodgers did end up making a series of additions via the trade market that would lead the team to the 2008 National League Championship Series, Colletti felt Sabathia would have really changed the dynamics of that team.

Sabathia was set to become a free agent after the 2008 season, so he would have been a rental player. He was eventually traded to the Brewers where he led the club to their first postseason appearance since 1982. He went 11-2 with a microscopic 1.65 ERA in 17 starts after the trade. The burly left-hander signed with the Yankees over the following offseason to a seven-year, $161 million contract.

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The Dodgers eventually did acquire Casey Blake from Cleveland in a smaller deal for Carlos Santana. They needed a third baseman to fill in for the injured Nomar Garciaparra. They also acquired Manny Ramirez from the Red Sox, a player who would burn them in the end, but was a major factor in the team reaching the postseason in 2008.