It’s trading time in the MLB and what better way to welcome this important point in the season than to revisit what is turning out to be one of the worst trades in the past three years?

When the Minnesota Twins’ wanted to see more of a young catcher named Joe Mauer in 2003, they decided to send their current starting backstop A.J. Pierzynski to the San Francisco Giants for relief pitcher Joe Nathan and two young prospects.

At the time, Pierzynski was an All-Star catcher and the Giants were in desperate need of catcher after relying on the likes of father-time ridden Benito Santiago for three years.

And sending young prospects that never seemed to pan out for proven players was GM Brian Sabean’s specialty for a long time. It was how Sabean built the 2002 World Series Giants.

What followed, however, was a disastrous situation that seems to only be getting worse for Sabean and the Giants. Pierzynski only lasted one year in San Francisco’s organization with sporadic play and worse yet, being labeled as a cancer in the clubhouse.

Nathan, who wasn’t regarded as closer material in the Giants organization, immediately took over as a dominant closer for the Twins and made the All-Star game in 2004 and 2005. Currently, Nathan is 5-0 with a 1.70 ERA, has converted 15 out of 16 save opportunists and has 53 strikeouts.

The news gets worse for the Giants. One of the two young prospects that San Francisco packaged up for Pierzynski was Boof Bonser, who is 2-2 with a 5.30 ERA as the fifth starter for Minnesota.

The other young prospect?

Rookie left-hander Francisco Liriano, who is one of the baseball’s biggest stories and who is currently 10-2 with a 2.12 ERA and who has 108 strikeouts.

Making matters even worse is that big mouth Pierzynski has a World Series ring after signing with the 2005 Champion Chicago White Sox after being cut by the Giants.

By the way, Mauer was the starting catcher for the AL All-Star team after hitting .373 with seven dingers and 45 RBI in the first half of the season.

To say that the Twins robbed the Giants would be a vast understatement.