With the winter meetings less than 2 weeks away, a great
many people are preaching the foibles of handing out free agent contracts to
people who often don’t measure up to the dollars paid for the duration of the
deal. It’s easy to cite any number of
deals which have led to a team’s regret, including Kenny Lofton, Pablo
Sandoval, and of course, the poster child for bad FA contracts, Jason Bay.
So the alternative is to trade players to another team in
order to fortify positions of need, dump salary, enrich the farm system or rid
themselves of a troublesome personality.
During the current regime there’s not much frame of reference for
success in this approach beyond the salary dump of R.A. Dickey early into Sandy
Alderson’s reign. Even if you are not a
Travis d’Arnaud fan and are ready to write off throw-in Wuilmer Becerra, the
fact remains they got the Blue Jays to pay up for Dickey’s Cy Young award and
in return they got perhaps a future Cy Young caliber pitcher in Noah
Syndergaard.
However, just as the trade route is sometimes flush with
silks and spices, other times it’s a rocky road that leads to franchises
sliding backwards. Towards that end, let’s
take a look at some of the checkered trading history of the NY Mets:
1B
At a time in the seventies when there was precious little to
watch at Shea Stadium, one must-see moment was every single AB of Dave
Kingman. The former pitcher turned
slugger was the ultimate all-or-nothing hitter (before it became trendy to put
that characteristic on your resume). He
was a 35+ capable home run hitter who was known for the majesty of his towering
shots as much as he was for his prodigious whiffs. The Mets decided at one point they were tired
of his act and sent him packing to San Diego for chronically injured future
manager Bobby Valentine and journeyman reliever Paul Seibert.
2B
Well, here you had quite a few contenders of players who the
Mets traded away who went onto fame and fortune elsewhere (not even including
the Irishman who they let walk away as a free agent). While you could make arguments for several
names, the one that jumps out among all others is Jeff Kent who never fit in
(much like Greg Jefferies). In return
for the borderline HOF caliber player they got a washed up Carlos Baerga. Ugh!
SS
While Kevin Elster had an outlier of a season for the
Rangers in which he smacked 24 homers and drove in 99, he departed as a free
agent and never before or after came anywhere close to that total, reminiscent
of the one-season wonder, Brady Anderson.
No, the one that got away in this case is long time Cardinal Jose
Oquendo. He was a flashy fielder who was
thought to have not enough offensive ability to last in the majors. He put together a 12 year career, retiring
young at 31. In return for him the Mets
received Angel Salazar and John Young. I’ll
wait while you run to baseballreference.com to figure out who they were.
3B
There were a few contenders here as well, but considering the
black hole this position has been prior to David Wright’s arrival, only one
really stood out. It is a little more complicated,
but the Mets traded Robin Ventura to the Yankees for David Justice. However, before playing a single inning for
the Mets they turned around and shipped him to Oakland for Mark Guthrie and Tyler
Yates. In his first year for the Yankees
Ventura delivered 27 HRs and 93 RBIs. The 36 year old Guthrie was actually quite
good in his single season for the Mets – 68 games and a 2.44 ERA in middle
relief – but Ventura’s bat was sorely missed.
LF
This one hurts twice.
I considered a great many players including the Kevin Mitchell for Kevin
McReynolds deal. I ruled that one out
despite Mitchell’s later MVP season in San Francisco because McReynolds was
solid if unappreciated while with the Mets.
However, the one that burned them the worst at this position was undoubtedly
when they chose to include a prospect in the deal to the San Diego Padres who
hit 17 HRs, drove in 83 and batted .283 in A ball. His name was Jason Bay. In exchange the Mets got luminaries Steve
Reed and Jason Middlebrook. Considering
Bay was a Rookie of the Year and a three-time All Star, I’d say he most
definitely qualifies as the one that got away.
Of course, later they compounded the issue by choosing him over Matt
Holliday when both were competing free agents.
We all know too well how that went.
CF
Here there were several contenders for bad trades, including
Mookie Wilson and Angel Pagan. Many
would argue that miscreant Lenny Dyskstra who was sent to the city of brotherly
love as part of a multiplayer deal to land a washed-up Juan Samuel and you
could have a case. After all, Dykstra
had 3 All Star appearances and once finished 2nd in the MVP
voting. However, you have to go back to
the early days of the franchise when they sent a .151 hitting outfielder to the
Kansas City Royals for an established major leaguer. Amos Otis was a five-time All Star and won
three Gold Gloves. The man they received
in return lasted a single forgettable season, Joe Foy, who provided a slash
line of .236/6/37.
RF
Here there were any number of contenders, too, including the
trading away of youngster Ken Singleton, but in my book the worst was when they
shipped fan favorite Rusty Staub for a single year of the 35 year old portly
pitcher Mickey Lolich.
C
Here’s on position where the Mets have had some truly good
players, including Jerry Grote, Gary Carter and Mike Piazza. While this nominee won’t cause as much agita
as other deals, they gave up prematurely on Bill Sudakis, sending him to the Rangers
for Bill McNulty who was a .039 hitter in the majors prior to the trade and
never sniffed the big leagues again.
Sudakis turned in a solid 15 HRs and 43 RBIs in just 235 ABs for the
Rangers. That definitely ranks as a
loser of a deal.
SPs
Well, here it gets ugly real fast. There is, of course, Tom Seaver and Nolan
Ryan, then David Cone, Scott Kazmir, and World Champion Collin McHugh. We picked up in return for this killer
rotation Jim Fregosi, Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Jeff Kent (good but not yet great
and sent packing before he flourished), Victor Zambrano and Eric Young,
Jr. That’s enough to make you cry.
RPs
Well, they gave up early for personality rather than
performance reasons on Frankie Rodriguez.
They traded Jeff Reardon, Roger McDowell, Heath Bell and Randy
Myers. Now the last one is somewhat
debatable since Franco endured 14 years as the resident tomato farmer and
delivered a 3.10 ERA over the span along with 276 saves. However in just 8 years Randy Myers produced
291 saves. For the others the Mets got
Juan Samuel, Jon Adkins, Ben Johnson, Danny Herrera and Ellis Valentine.
Conclusion
So this trip down memory lane was not to throw gasoline on the fire. It is a cautionary tale that just as FA contracts are fraught with risk, so too are other personnel decisions. Non-tendering players like Justin Turner can come back to bite you and questionable rationale for trades can hurt, too. As the Mets go into the winter meetings they have very few appealing trade chips they can offer up to other teams. Some of them most definitely have the prospect of biting them in the butt. The never-given-a-full-season-to-start Wilmer Flores is probably exhibit number one. Close behind, take a look again at what Amos Otis did at age 22 and then reflect once more on the noise we’re hearing about giving up already on Dom Smith. If Seth Lugo, Rafael Montero or Robert Gsellman get dealt away and flourish, so be it. Hopefully if they do the return is better than a speedy one-trick-pony who played every day but couldn’t even stay in the majors once he was dealt away. The club is going to have to use every trick in the book to try to acquire talent with limited funds and dubious appeal to free agents. Consequently we might actually see trades take place. Perhaps Sandy Alderson should keep Omar Minaya on speed dial before pulling the trigger, however.
10 comments:
The title should have been A Litany of Horrors. Thank goodness we got Piazza and Hernandez when they did, to balance it out a bit.
I loved Dave Kingman. I went to a doubleheader once at Shea against the Giants. Kong was still a Giant. I sat in the upper deck in left, in fair territory. Kong hit a homer that for a few seconds looked like it might become our souvenir. BOOM!
I love watching his homer in Wrigley that went 3 houses down the street and bounced up and hit a woman' front door. "Knock, knock, who's there?" Kong, ma'am. 550?
Funny that he never fanned more than 156 times. Mark Reynolds? 223.
I don't see your point here, other than pointing out that some trades don't work out. But to balance it out, one should mention the ones that worked out very well.
Just off the top of my head, I can think of Keith for Neil Allen, Olerud for Robert Person, and the deals that brought us Gary Carter and Mike Piazza.
Some do, some don't.
But your opening paragraph re:FAs hints at a question I raised a week or so ago at another site.
Many fans clamor for giving big bucks/long term FA contracts ($15 mil+ per year for 3+ years) to current FAs such as Moustakas and Cain.
My question, still unanswered, is: what deals of that magnitude in the past 10 years have borne fruit beyond the 1st 2 years? Not just for the Mets, but all over MLB.
Anyone got some to mention?
Bill -
Maybe Reese will surprise you and do as you ask.
Reese - I do find your posts as a reality check to what has been done under the Alderson administration.
I thought he was off to such a great start when he trade Beltran for Wheeler.
Bill's favorite candy seemingly is not Reese's Pieces. My favorite is Goobers. Yankee fans? M&Ms.
In 2010 David Wright struck out 161 times to top Dave Kingman's worst. He got rewarded with a contract extension :)
Actually I see this article as we haven’t suffered much at all... yes we’ve lost some Jems along the way but every team would have that happen... but I out side of SP and 2b we haven’t lost any hall of famers
What it tells me is we choose to trade too late to maximize value...
Better to trade some one too soon than too late...
Worse part of sandy’s Regime was not trading Reyes and Wright
Restock and the extra losses would have given us higher draft choices (whether he would have selected better is another argument)
My I erect a statue to Eddie Corona? I've been shouting that from the rooftops for years. In Wright's case in particular he was young, relatively healthy at the time and the Mets were in the Madoff mess. They could have saved themselves a ton of money and replenished with a boatload of prospects. I always thought I was the lone wolf howling in that regard. :)
Reese -
don't bother trying to write a post on the great trades Sandy has done since 2011.
I just did the research and there just is not enough to write about.
Mack - enough good material about Sandy for a tweet?
Eddie is right - another guy in that group? Matt Harvey right after the World Series. My brother was just about screaming, "Trade him now, he'll never be worth more." Bingo.
Reese, can you imagine that the Mets' strikeout record of 161 is only 72% of the major league single season record? One I liked was Ryan Howard, who never fanned 200 times, but did fan 199 - twice.
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