Orioles acquire Kevin Millwood in trade with Rangers

Posted on December 9, 2009

Kevin Millwood of the Texas Rangers pitches against the San Francisco Giants during the game at AT&T Park on June 21, 2009 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

In a move that I hope makes my friend and Baltimore Orioles fan D. Ross Cameron happy the Birds acquired right-handed pitcher Kevin Millwood this afternoon in exchange for reliever Chris Ray. This move appears to be a salary dump by the Rangers, who are always doing weird stuff with their roster, as Millwood is is owed $12 million in 2010.

Millwood had a decent year in 2009 going 13-10 with a 3.67 ERA after suffering through a 9-10 (5.07 ERA) record in 2008. Millwood has been a long-time workhorse throughout his career and enters the 2010 campaign with a career record of 155-121. Millwood has spent the last four seasons in Texas and has always been someone that I needed to photograph during spring training at the Ranger’s wonderful complex in Surprise, AZ. Millwood has always proven difficult to track down, however and the Rangers always hid him on the back fields and only allowed him to pitch in “B” games and minor league games until the final week of camp

I first photographed Millwod back in 1998 (see above) when he was with the Atlanta Braves and pitched against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park. At the time he was the young up-and-coming star pitching in the same starting rotation with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Denny Neagle. Millwood went 17-8 in 1998 and followed that up with an 18-7 record in 1999 before eventually being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2002 for catcher Johnny Estrada.

As a Giants fan the big thing I will always remember about Millwood is that he no-hit the orange and black while pitching for the Phillies at The Vet in 2003. It is games like that one that have kept big league clubs throwing huge piles of cash at Millwood for many years. In fact, through 2009 Millwood has earned over $76 million during his career for pitching in the majors. Crazy!

A little advice to all of you photographers covering Grapefruit League ball in March of 2010: If you need to get Millwood in action pitching in the Orioles orange and black look for him on a back field. You will not see him on the mound in a regular spring training game for several weeks.