Johnson for Langston

May 25, 1989. The Mariners had just lost at Fenway Park, 10–0, and Mark Langston had turned down a three-year, $7.1 million contract the same day. He could be a free agent after the season. Seattle sent him, and a player to be named later, to the Expos for Randy Johnson, Brian Holman, and Gene Harris. On July 31 the player to be named was Mike Campbell. Woody Woodward, running baseball operations in Seattle, said the club had looked at a lot of packages and had to get pitching.

Johnson had been a second-round pick in 1985 and had reached Montreal in 1988. He was 25, and already the tallest pitcher the game had had, at 6-foot-10. He had not settled into a rotation. Langston was the pitcher a contender could use that summer. Dave Dombrowski, then with the Expos, said the deal gave Montreal a quality left-hander to put with Dennis Martínez, Kevin Gross, and Bryn Smith.

Langston did pitch well in Montreal and left as a free agent. Johnson stayed in Seattle and became one of the great left-handers of the next two decades. The day of the trade, the surprise in the papers was that a signed ace had been exchanged for three pitchers who had not yet proved they were major-league starters. The name that mattered was not yet the name on the back of the card.