After looking at the performance of individual free agents, let's now turn to how well teams have down throughout their history in acquiring free agents.

For this study I have culled more than free agent transactions. Also, included are the players who "jumped" their contracts with a team in one league to join another team in different league. The team that loses the player gets their team totals decremented by what the player does with his new team. Also, teams that grant free agency to their players get their totals decremented accordingly. Finally, the short-lived free agent compensation picks (remember how Tom Seaver ended up on the White Sox) are also taken into account, helping their new team and hurting the old.

OK, this is a quickie, but before I reveal the winner, see if you can figure out who it is. Here's a hint, it's not the Expos/

The franchises are sorted by the net Win Shares Above Baseline (WSAB) for that franchise (or lost after leaving that franchise) for players acquired in a free agent transaction. The total WS and WSAB for the teams free agents prior to joining and after leaving the team are also listed. For fun, I threw in the Federal League clubs from the 1914-15 season, many of whom benefited from contract jumping:

Other entries in the Trade Series:

Mike: I'll Take Manhattan: Baseball's Most Lopsided Trades: Parts I, I (revised), II

A Quick One (Happy Mike)

Lee Even Stevens: Parts I, II—The Sexy Version

Cain and A-Rod—A Bling-Bling Rivalry: Parts I, II

Kansas City Blues: Parts I, II

Baseball's Most Lopsided Trades—The Revenge of Glenn Davis

Awe-Phil?: Parts I, II, III

Gone With the Draft

Organizational Skills, Part I, II

The Best of Drafts, The Worst of Drafts

Free to Be... Bonds and El Tiante, Part I, II

Studes: The Best and Worst Teams of the Trade

Smoltz for Alexander

The Biggest Deals of All Time

Sources:

Sean Lahman's Baseball Database

Retrosheet's Transaction Data