Rays, Padres and Nationals go trade crazy, swap Wil Myers and 10 other players

On the heels of a Winter Meetings that had so much player movement it felt more like a fantasy draft than a baseball conference, most people assumed that the big moves would be over for a while. After all, weren't teams ready to hunker down and host holiday cookie swaps instead of blockbuster deals until the new year? 

Apparently not. As MLB.com's Corey Brock reported, the Rays, Padres, and Nationals played 52 card pickup with their rosters and sent 11 players around.

Though the clubs have yet to confirm, here is who each team will receive with their original team in parenthesis: 

Padres get:

Wil Myers, OF (TB)
Ryan Hanigan, C (TB)
Gerardo Reyes, RHP (TB)
Jose Castillo, LHP (TB)

Rays get: 

Steven Souza, OF (WSH)
Rene Rivera, C (SD)
Jake Bauers, 1B (SD)
Burch Smith, RHP (SD)
Travis Ott, LHP (WSH)

Nationals get: 

Joe Ross, RHP (SD)
Player to be named (Trea Turner, SS) (SD)

It's the largest trade of players since Nov. 19, 2012, when the Blue Jays and Marlins swapped Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Henderson Alvarez and 9 other players. 

But these trades have nothing on the largest one in Major League history. For that, we'd have to go back to 1954 when the Yankees and Orioles combined to trade a whopping 17 players.

After the Yankees had missed the playoffs in 1954 despite winning 103 games, and with an aging rotation and shortstop in Phil Rizzuto, they were looking to upgrade.  

Meanwhile, the Orioles were looking to improve the offense and fill their Minor League coffers after their second consecutive 100 loss season. O's GM Paul Richards said that the deal "might put us two years ahead on our farm system. Think how long it would take for our farm system to come up with five young players like we're getting." 

Here's how the complete trade went down: 

Yankees received: 

Don Larsen (RHP)

Bob Turley (RHP)

Billy Hunter (SS)

Mike Blyzka (RHP)

Darrell Johnson (C)

Jim Fridley (LF)

Dick Kryhoski (1B)

Orioles received: 

Harry Byrd (RHP)

Jim McDonald (RHP)

Willy Miranda (SS)

Hal Smith (C)

Gus Triandos (1B)

Gene Woodling (LF)

Bill Miller (LHP)

Kal Segrist (2B/3B/1B)

Don Leppert (2B)

Theodore Del Guercio (OF)

-

The Yankees came out ahead in this one. Turley won 17 games with a 3.06 ERA in '55 before taking home the Cy Young in '58 and Larsen had one pretty good start that you may remember: 

Unfortunately for the Orioles, not much panned out beyond Triandos. While the first baseman hit 130 home runs, attended three All-Star Games, and wracked up 12.9 rWAR in his time with the O's, the rest of the haul combined for -2.1 rWAR. While the Orioles wouldn't post a winning record until '60, the Yankees would go on to win two of the next four World Series. 

As for Larsen, he was included in another notable trade. On Dec. 11, 1959, he was traded in a package of players to the Kansas City Athletics for future home run champ, Roger Maris.