$1 Arm: How A Major League Pitcher Got Traded To The Yankees For A Single Dollar

Some trades are big while others are small, as most are forgotten about unless it was a really good or really bad trade. Nonetheless each player has their own value – and that goes for any sport, with baseball being quite possibly the most unique of all though.

David McKay’s career is one that many would see as the road less traveled when it comes to remembrance. He was drafted 433rd overall in the 2016 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals and unlike many who spend their entire lives trying, he did make it to The Show. By the end of his career, he would have been traded twice for zero players and just $2 dollars in total as the return.

After being drafted by Kansas City, McKay would make an impact with the Royals’ Rookie Level team, the Burlington Royals, and would then split the 2017 season, making it to single-A ball as the highest level. He would accumulate a 6-5 record with a 7.21 ERA in 88.2 combined innings.

On March 20th, 2018, the Royals would trade McKay to the Seattle Mariners for just $1 in cash considerations. Despite McKay being traded for the same amount as a Hotwheels toy car, Seattle did view him as a potential major leaguer. He would define all odds and make his MLB debut on March 30th, 2019, after posting a solid spring training pitching line. 

Overall, though McKay would balance between the majors and the minor leagues at Triple-AAA for Seattle across the beginning of the 2019 season before being placed on waivers mid-season after just 7 Major League appearances. McKay would be picked up by the Detroit Tigers on August 6th, 2019, and make his Tigers debut just over a week later against his former team in Seattle.

McKay would appear in a career-high 18 games for Detroit (overall 25 across the 2019 season), and later be DFA’d in September of 2020, and sent to the Tigers’ alternate training site, where he would not pitch at all in 2021.

Come March 13th of 2022, and David McKay inked his name to a minor league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. Not even a full month later on April 4th, McKay would be dealt to the AL East rival, the New York Yankees, with the Yankees sending $1 dollar in cash considerations back to Tampa. 

New York would add McKay to their 40-man roster immediately and optioned him to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre a day later. New York would promote McKay to the majors on May 22nd, where he would later appear in 2 games for New York, pitching a shutout inning in each appearance for a 0.1 WAR.

The Yankees would later DFA McKay on June 21st, with a trade back to Tampa occurring a day later. New York sent McKay back to Tampa for cash considerations, although it is not unclear if it was for a single dollar or not.

McKay would make an appearance for Tampa and continue to bounce around the Majors throughout the 2022 season and later in the independent leagues.

On July 16th, 2024, David McKay would announce his retirement from professional baseball entirely, and would transition into working as a realtor. 

David McKay’s scoreless stat line is the only time in his big league career where he posted a sub 5.00 ERA with any team. Overall, in 30 appearances and 33.1 innings, McKay would post a career 6.21 ERA with 37 strikeouts to 22 walks. 

The career of David McKay may not be the more memorable or the most successful, but it is definitely one of the most unique careers that any big leaguer would have as he was traded twice for a singular dollar each time for a combined $2, which isn’t even enough to afford a bottle of water at any Major League ballpark.

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