One dollar can get you a hot fudge sundae, McDouble or McChicken Sandwich on McDonald's one dollar menu, or it can get you a .225 hitting back-up catcher. The Atlanta Braves used that one dollar to acquire catcher Wil Nieves from the Brewers.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports Brewers GM Doug Melvin called Atlanta to see if it wanted Nieves, who had been playing for Class AAA Nashville after star catcher Brian McCann went down with an oblique injury Tuesday.
Officially the Braves sent "cash considerations" to the Brewers for Nieves. Melvin quietly let it slip Nieves was worth only $1. Atlanta also took care of the $250,000 left on Nieves' contract, but that wasn't in the deal.
Nieves has played 282 big league games over parts of eight season. He's a career .221 hitter for the Padres, Yankees, Nationals and Brewers. Nieves brother Melvin hit as many as 24 homers for the Tigers in 1997.
You can officially add Nieves name to the list of odd baseball trades.
• The Reno Silver Sox traded Tom Fortugno to the Milwaukee Brewers organization in 1989 for a bag of 144 baseballs and $2,500 cash.
• The Minnesota Twins sent Dave Winfield to Cleveland two weeks into the 1994 MLB strike for a player to be named later. Since the season canceled, the Tribe front office staff took Twins executives out to dinner and picked up the bill as compensation.
• John McDonald was part possibly the most even trade in baseball history. McDonald was traded from the Blue Jays to the Tigers for future considerations. Detroit ended up shipping McDonald back to the Toronto after the 2005 season as those future considerations.
• Dickie Noles was traded from the Cubs to the Tigers for a player to be named later. After the 1987 season Noles was sent back to Chicago. Commissioner Peter Uberroth actually investigated the trade to see if the Cubs had cheated by helping the Tigers in the pennant stretch.
