Every Major League Baseball team makes bad trades here and there.

Some of them have a horrible trade or two in their history.

Very few have an inexcusable trade.

The Pirates have one — and it’s haunting them to this day.

July 23, 2003 — Aramis Ramirez and Ken Lofton to the Chicago Cubs for pitcher Matt Bruback, shortstop Jose Hernandez and a player to be named later, who turned out to be third baseman Bobby Hill.

That would have been a bad trade if Ramirez wasn’t even included.

Pirate fans have never been able to forget about that deal because Ramirez has never left the National League Central.

For years, Ramirez tormented the Pirates while playing for the Cubs. Now it’s even worse — he’s hurt them with the Brewers, who are leading the division and have gone back to their recent tradition of beating the Bucs on a regular basis.

Let’s look at how that ill-fated trade worked out.

Bruback was a minor league pitcher at the time who wound up in San Diego’s farm system the following year. He never reached the major leagues.

Hernandez was never more than a journeyman major league player. He hit .223 with three homers and 21 RBI in 213 at bats for the Bucs for the remainder of the 2003 campaign. He was gone by the following season.

Hill hit .266 with three homers in 2004, .269 with no homers in 2005 as a utility player with the Pirates. He was gone after that.

Ramirez, of course, plays on. At age 35, he’s showing little sign of slowing down as he’s got eight homers and a .269 batting average while battling hamstring issues.

Ramirez made his major league debut with the Bucs as a 19-year-old in 1998 and failed to get a hit in his first 22 at bats. He developed into a young star who was virtually given away at the still young age of 25.

This guy will likely wind up in the Hall of Fame.

Don’t think so? Only five players who were exclusively third basemen — Mike Schmidt, Eddie Mathews, Chipper Jones, Graig Nettles and Matt Williams — have hit more than Ramirez’s 362 career homers and Ramirez will pass the bottom two on that list before long.

He carries a healthy .285 career batting average and his 1,307 RBI are among the most ever by a third baseman. He will likely surpass Nettles, Ron Santo and Gary Gaetti on the career RBI list this season.

While Ramirez has gone on to a stellar career, the Pirates have employed Chris Stynes, Ty Wigginton, Joe Randa, Jose Bautista and Andy LaRoche as Opening Day third basemen since.

Pedro Alvarez may approach Ramirez numbers at some point. That remains to be seen.

The money they’ve poured into the draft and their attempts to secure current standout players for the long term show the Pirates management team is now committed to winning.

Every time I see Ramirez step into the batter’s box, it’s a painful reminder of when they weren’t.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle