During the Mets 57-year history there have been any number
of transactions the club has made that have blown up in their face. You need look no further than the thus far
unrewarding Robinson Cano acquisition (including 5 years of financial
obligation) while Jared Kelenic is on fire in the Mariners’ minors. Today, however, I’d like to take a different
tack and look at what deals the club has made that were clearly in the win
column.
The rules for this exercise in positivity are simple. The players acquired should have come over in
trade and not been mere free agent acquisitions. To quality you have to look at a lopsided history
that clearly favors the Mets. A deal like
Carlos Beltran for Zack Wheeler would not be on this list as Beltran was a
productive player for several years after departing the Mets while Wheeler has
yet to string together two in a row.
In the 1960s perhaps the Tommie Agee and Al Weis acquisition
from the White Sox would be a good qualifier.
They did give up a couple of credible pieces in Tommy Davis and Jack
Fisher, but both were pretty much done after two years with Davis having
averaged just .267 as his last few years as a starting player and Fisher having
gone from a 2.99 ERA to north of 5.00 in his second and final season. Agee was a mainstay for the Mets for several
years and Al Weiss played a memorable part in the 1969 World Series.
In the 1970s the Mets sent one of their young star pitchers,
Gary Gentry, to Atlanta just in the nick of time. After making a single start, he was off to
the disabled list. He was accompanied by
Danny Frisella, who forgot how to be a quality reliever once he got to Fulton
County. He, of course, was tragically killed
at a young age in a dune buggy accident.
In return the Mets got starter George Stone who kind of came from out of
nowhere to pitch to a 12-3 record with a 2.80 ERA. He never did so again, but he helped the
surprising 1973 squad go to the World Series.
The longer term benefit of this deal was the arrival of Felix Millan who
anchored second base for nearly five years.
In the 1980s the club went from the bottom to the top
through a combination of good young ballplayers who came through the farm
system and through some shrewd acquisitions.
While a case could be made for Gary Carter transforming the team, the
fact is to get him the Mets had to give up some quality players in Hubie Brooks
who would play for another ten years, Mike Fitzgerald who served the Expos well
for seven years, Floyd Youmans whose promising career was cut short by both
substance abuse issues and shoulder problems, and Herm Winningham who spent 9
years in the big leagues with speed being his primary weapon. However, his teammate Keith Herandez was an
even more lopsided deal in which the Mets gave up alcohol-abusing Neil Allen
and minor leaguer Rick Ownbey to get the All Star first baseman. Allen struggled for several more years but
never again could handle closing duties while Ownbey only made it up again for
a 4-start trial for the Cardinals.
The 1990s Mets teams were mostly bad but there were some highlights,
including the steal of the century when the Mets obtained three-year stellar
first baseman John Olerud from the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Robert Person
whose subsequent best season north of the border included a 5.51 ERA. All Olerud did for the Mets was average .315
with 21 HRs and 97 RBIs per year for his 1997 through 1997 stint in
Queens.
In the 2000s the year opened with the deal that brought Mike
Hampton and Derek Bell to the Mets, both of whom were instrumental in the charge
towards the World Series. However, the Mets
gave up Octavio Dotel in that deal who lasted a lot longer than either of these
other two talents. Some might point to
the Al Leiter deal but the Mets gave up A.J. Burnett who was just as valuable
to the Marlins. Although they gave up
some quality in Mike Jacobs and Yusmeiro Petit (who is STILL pitching), the
Mets obtained cleanup hitter Carlos Delgado who delivered 38 HRs and 114 RBIs
in his inaugural NY Mets campaign.
However, just as strong a case could be made that Johan Santana’s acquisition
was the real winner with only Carlos Gomez (ironically now again a Met) the
only piece leaving town who amounted to much.
I’d give the nod to Delgado.
This decade has been earmarked by a great many salary dump
deals and a lot of inertia on the trade front.
The R.A. Dickey deal which brought Noah Syndergaard and former Met
Travis d’Arnaud would certainly be a good consideration given that Dickey never
again approached his Cy Young level of performance.
So which Mets trades were the best heists by the GMs in
place at the time?
13 comments:
Dave Kingman was sold to the Mets for $150,000 in 1975...WOW!
Of course, they traded him for Bobby Valentine and Paul Siebert 2 1/2 years later. Big mistake.
A lot more bad big trades than good ones over the course of time...fortunate in two of their biggest trades that they did step in to get Hernandez and Piazza from clubs who stupidly no longer wanted them.
I don't remember who we gave up, but the deals that brought us Bobby Ojeda, Ron Darling, El Sid, Walt Terrell, and Hojo were pivotal to our mid-80s success, in particular the 1986 team that was indisputably our greatest.
Another biggie, in a different way, was trading a mediocre pitcher (I think his name was Bill Denehy) for Gil Hodges, who led us to the memorable '69 Championship.
Don't forget the Clendenon deal it was the final piece for the 69' championship one that becomes more distant for most fans which is a shame but you had to be there to really get it...oh those 1960's quite a decade. Also the Cone deal for Hearn is right up there and please lets not forget the Willie Montanez deal for Matlack and Milner as that had to be the start of everything that our 80's club became....NOT! Now lets go Vargas!
Sid Fernandez came for Carlos Diaz and Bob Bailor. A win for the Mets.
HoJo came to the Mets for Walt Terrell. That's probably a push as they both went onto good careers.
Walt Terrell and Ron Darling came to the Mets for former face of the franchise, Lee Mazzilli. Maz played 8 more years but none with particular distinction while Darling was a Mets mainstay and Terrell turned into HoJo. That is clearly a win.
Almost forgot Ojeda. He became a big win for the Mets as Calvin Schiraldi played a pivotal role in Game 6. He was obtained for Calvin Schiraldi, Wes Gardner, John Christensen, and La Schelle Tarver
A hundred wet lashes to me for forgetting the Ed Hearn for David Cone deal...wow, that was highway robbery for sure.
However, I totally disagree on Clendenon as they gave up Steve Renko who went onto win 134 games in his career and was ace of the Expos staff.
Steve Renko - wow. I totally have no active memory of his career, I only remember the name. 280 career decisions.
Amazingly one year (1974) he led the majors with 19 wild pitches - a few years later, he had just 1. In fact in his last 10 seasons, spanning almost 1200 innings, he only had 17 wild pitches.
Fermented grains will do that to you, Tom :)
I do, however, remember Sgt. Bilko.
Steve Renko was a Met? Didn't he throw a knuckle-screw?
Renko was a Russian agent. His real first name was Vladimir.
Reese the issue is Clendenon helped us win a WS so no contest on the Renko part.
Granted, I was 8 years old when Clendenon was doing his thing, but the numbers show he hit .252/12/37 in over 200 ABs with the Mets...decent but hardly superstar stuff. Now if you want to say his 1970 campaign of .288/22/97 was star quality. I'll agree to that, but not in 1969. He was done after another unimpressive half-season in 1971 whereas Renko was a starter for many years. At best it's a push. The Heard/Cone thing is more what this article was trying to capture.
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