Now that Scott Rolen and David Eckstein have been reunited in Toronto, in Minnesota Adam Everett can take infield practice with Mike Lamb, and in South Beach a collection of former Devil Rays can play poker and talk about that time they almost won 70 games - it got me to thinking; which pair of teammates that switched teams had the best follow-up season? The only rule I applied to the moves was the two players weren't traded in the same deal, I thought of three recent occurrences.
In 2004 Pedro Martinez and Doug Mientkiewicz won the World Series as Red Sox, that off-season they signed with the New York Mets and saw their combined VORP go from 48 to about 63, an increase of 15, largely because Mientkiewicz rediscovered his doubles stroke and Pedro was excellent in his first season in New York.
Ramon E. Martinez and Tom Goodwin shared the Giants bench in 2002 before jumping with manager Dusty Baker to the Cubs - Goodwin wouldn't post a WARP over 2 in his time in Chicago, Martinez would finish between 1.9 and 2 both years.
Finally this one is separated by a season, but both Javier Vazquez and Jose Conteras were rotation mates in New York before being traded during the 2004 and 2005 seasons and then rejoining each other, again via trade, in Chicago before winning a World Series title.