Reese Kaplan -- Remembering the OTHER Pat Mahomes

It seems you can’t turn on coverage of the NFL without hearing people falling all over themselves in praise of Kansas City Chiefs’ young quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.  This past Sunday, in fact, he was up against arguably the greatest quarterback of all time and outgunned Tom Brady 352 yards to 340 yards in a game that came down to mere seconds on the clock.

What some folks may not remember is the stint his Dad had while as a member of the New York Mets in 1999 and 2000.  Signed in December of 1998 as a free agent along with such others as Andy Tomberlin, Josias Manzanilla and Craig Paquette.  Lest you think it was all journeyman, that was the same off-season in which the Bobby Valentine-led club inked Rickey Henderson, Robin Ventura and Orel Hershiser. 

This under-the-radar move wasn’t going to impress too many people as the elder Mahomes had a undistinguished career up until that point.  In parts of six seasons with the Twins and Red Sox Mahomes had compiled a 5.88 ERA with a ghastly 1.627 WHIP and was walking nearly as many as he was striking out with averages of 4.7 and 5.3 respectively per 9 IP.  He seemed destined to be little more than organizational filler in the mold of a Chris Beck.

Much to everyone’s shock, Mahomes turned in his best-ever season for the Mets in 1999, appearing in 39 games, pitching to a career best 3.68 ERA and got the WHIP down to a more respectable 1.272.  Unfortunately walks were still a big issue for him and the following year he regressed to mean, with a 5.46 ERA (just off his 5.47 career mark) and an even worse WHIP of 1.723. 

Although Mahomes did manage to appear in over 300 major league games over parts of 11 seasons, in an article penned in 2015 by Seth Rubin of Banished to the Pen identified statistically that he held the dubious honor of being the most mediocre pitcher of all time.  Many factors went into the evaluation, including fWAR and FIP.  The fact is he was simply not that good, save for the one respectable season under the tutelage of Bob Apodaca who was let go for Dave Wallace midway through that 1999 season.  Under Wallace alone Mahomes was back to his usual unimpressive ways. 

In an interview Mahomes did give kudos to one ballplayer in particular who took young Patrick under his wing when he was a youngster visiting the clubhouse.  In a somewhat surprising anecdote, Mahomes talked fondly about Alex Rodriguez:

“When Patrick was 6, in 2001, his father played for the Texas Rangers. Alex Rodriguez was a first-year Ranger, having signed a $252-million deal to move from Seattle. “Alex would take Patrick down to the cage, and he’d take batting practice, and then he’d break down the tape with Patrick and teach him about his swing. Patrick loves A-Rod,” Pat Mahomes said. “Being around those clubhouses was great for him. It taught him the value of hard work in sports, and how professional athletes should act.”

Perhaps the highlight of Mahomes’ career was a post-season appearance in which he struck out Jose Hernandez in Game 5 of the NLCS: