The Return of Doug Mirabelli

DISCLAIMER: This great piece from Tim Healy of the Hardball Times is worth sharing, as it's been 11 years since the trade occurred. Tim, if you are reading this, thank you for letting me use this! 

As the weeks turn into months and the months into years and the years into decades, all those regular-season afternoons and nights start to blend together. Another day, another game, another win or loss. Repeat.
May 1, 2006, was a little different for the Red Sox. It was a Monday, and they were set to play the Yankees on ESPN. It was Johnny Damon’s first time back at Fenway Park since leaving Boston for the Bronx as a free agent the previous offseason. The stage was a bright one, as far as the spring goes.
The Red Sox won, 7-3, but the game was far more memorable for what happened in the hours leading up to it. That day, 10 years ago this weekend, marked backup catcher and knuckleball whisperer Doug Mirabelli’s return to the Red Sox.
The December prior, the Red Sox sent the 35-year-old Mirabelli — long Tim Wakefield’s personal catcher — to the Padres for second baseman Mark Loretta. They acquired Josh Bard from the Indians (in the Coco Crisp deal) a month later to replace Mirabelli.
April 2006 was a period of adjustment — Mirabelli adjusting to San Diego, Bard to Boston, Wakefield to Bard. It wasn’t going well. Bard had 10 passed balls in five Wakefield starts, including two in their first inning together and four in Bard’s final start on April 26 in Cleveland, the middle stop of a three-city road trip for the Red Sox.
Then-Sox general manager Theo Epstein was on that road trip. The game against the Indians motivated him to move on perhaps the most famous trade for a backup catcher in the history of baseball — a trade he now considers the worst he’s ever made.
“No offense to anyone involved in the deal, but I point to that trade because it was the worst process I’ve ever had,” Epstein said. “We were faced with a challenging situation, Bard not being able to adjust quickly to handling the knuckleball.
“Instead of being patient and coming up with a creative situation, we got caught up in some of the panic that was enveloping our clubhouse. I got too close to the situation and made a really reactionary move.”
As the Red Sox finally returned to Boston that Sunday night, with a chance to sleep in their own beds before the Yankees came to town, Epstein was on the phone with then-Padres GM Kevin Towers. By the next morning, they agreed: Mirabelli back to Boston, Bard and relief prospect Cla Meredith to San Diego.
This is the story of that day.

You can find the rest of this story at this link here.