Everyone is still gnashing their teeth over the disastrous additions to the 2019 bullpen, but any long term Mets fan can quote any number of equally bad or worse performers coming out of the pen.
The Mets annals are chock full of disastrous trades and free
agent signings the club has executed over its 57-year history. Everyone has a “favorite”, but that’s a
discussion for another day. This time
around we’re going to talk about one of the very best trades the Mets ever made
(and I’m ducking while saying this).
In the 1998 off season, when General Manager Steve Phillips wasn't trying to have his way with the front office staff, he sent a sore-armed
Todd Hundley packing as part of a three-team deal that brought former Dodgers’
outfielder Roger Cedeno and former Orioles’ closer Armando Benitez to New York
with Charles Johnson moving from Los Angelese to Baltimore. During their first season with their new
employers Hundley hit 24 steroid-aided home runs but batted a mere .207. Johnson hit 16 HRs and played his usual stellar
defense while hitting .251. However, the
real winners here (for once, it seems) were the Mets. Dr. StrangeGlove II, Cedeno, hit .313 with 66
SBs and newly arrived Armando Benitez moved out of necessity from setup guy to
closer when Franco hit the DL, pitching in 77 games with a 1.85 ERA, and holding
opposing batters to a lowly .171 BAA.
Wow!
So what happened between that great start and the end of
Benitez’ Mets career in 2003 to turn him from beloved stud closer into one of
the most reviled players ever to don the orange and blue?
Benitez was always a cardiac kid who walked far too many
people and relied much too heavily on his fastball when his splitter was his
best pitch. Yes, he did strike out a ton
of people, but you always knew the roof could cave in at any moment. Still, for his Mets career he pitched to a
2.70 ERA with 160 saves and averaged nearly 12 K’s per 9 IP. (Of course, we walked 4.4 over that same span
as well).
Prior to becoming a Met, Benitez was involved in a couple of
well-documented incidents with the crosstown rival NY Yankees in which he
drilled Tino Martinez, the second of which turned into an especially ugly brawl
during which the entire Yankee bench went after him with Graeme Lloyd and
Darryl Strawberry (then with the Yankees) landing the best blows. Benitez brought it on himself, taunting Martinez
as he took first base and after narrowly escaping into the clubhouse, he earned
himself an eight-game suspension. His
temper was one of the reasons the Orioles felt he’d never be mature enough to
make it as a closer and thus led to them giving him away to the Mets as part of
that deal.
During his 1999 and 2000 seasons it was almost a honeymoon
period for Benitez and the Mets fans, though his great regular season work was
overshadowed by his post-season implosions.
First came a bad pitch to Jay Bell during the Arizona playoffs that he
slammed for a double that gave the Diamondbacks a 3-2 lead. Fortunately the memorable Todd Pratt walkoff
homer had most people forgetting what made those heroics necessary.
Next came the NLCS against the Braves, a team against whom
Benitez did not yield a single Atlanta baserunner during the entire 1999
season. In Game 6 of that series it was
Benitez who picked a fine time in the bottom of the 10th after the
Mets had gone ahead to yield a run on a walk and two hits before giving way to
Kenny Rogers who didn’t know when or how to hold ‘em. It was then the hatred of Benitez took root.
History repeated itself in the same ugly fashion in 2000
when he was given a 4-1 lead to protect in the 9th, only to serve up
a three-run homer to JT Snow to tie the game.
The Mets eventually got the win, but it was the guy he replaced – John
Franco – who was the bullpen savior that night.
The Mets did make it to the World Series that year, but
Benitez again served up the go-ahead baserunner, this time in the form of a
Paul O’Neill leadoff walk in the bottom of the 9th, a game the
Yankees would eventually win in 12.
From there the hatred festered and grew. In 2001 after the September 11th
delay, the Mets fought valiantly to get back into the playoff race and again it
was the Braves who stood in their way.
Benitez entered a late September game staked to a 4-1 lead. He quickly retired the first two batters and
it appeared the Mets would move to within 2.5 games of Atlanta. However, Benitez fell apart, giving up a
two-run homer to Brian Jordan, then a walk and two consecutive singles allowed
the game to be tied which the Mets then lost in extra innings.
In a scary déjà vu moment in Atlanta shortly thereafter,
Benitez was this time handed a 5-1 lead.
He quickly gave up three runs before handing it over to his partner in
crime that night, John Franco, who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory,
coughing up a walkoff grand slam to Brian Jordan.
After that the Mets no longer made any pretense of trying to
shield Benitez from the media and fan acrimony.
He was regarded as a prima donna and exceedingly immature. The only question is why the Mets tolerated
him as long as they did when it was clear he was not capable of responding on
the big stage when he was needed most.
In June of 2003 the Mets mercifully traded him away (ironically to the
Yankees where he’d caused his early-career problems). After leaving the Mets, Benitez bounced
around with stints in Seattle, Florida (twice), San Francisco and Toronto. He was never the same pitcher.
5 comments:
Armando was primarily a victim of being a contemporary of crosstown rival and All Time Great Reliever Machine Mariano Rivera.
The flaws cited in the article are duly noted.
But he saved 139 out of 157 regular season Mets games (89%). That rate this year might have won the Mets the division.
And afterwards, in Florida in 2004, he was superb - he saved 47 of 51 with a 1.29 ERA!
His greatest fault was not being able to be Mariano Rivera. Because he was mostly great for several years.
You can, as they say, look it up.
Many Mets have fell to the self induced pressure of playing in the same city as the Yankees.
It is the same with Angels and White Sox players.
Mix his wildness with his intense hatred of playing second fiddle to Rivera and you have a deadly cocktail to drink every outing.
I also think he tended to wear down towards the end of the season. That meant he would have blown saves at the worst time if the year.
As far as game 1 of the 2000 WS, Franco gave up a run in the 8th that made it a one run game in the ninth. And if Timo Perez didn't slow down rounding second...
Biggest Benitez moment I remember was when was on the Giants pitching against the Mets with a one run lead in extra innings. Jose Reyes led off, got on base, stole second and moved to third on an out. He then proceeded to dance around third faking a run to home. Benitez was distracted, and balked Reyes home. Visibly upset, Benitez then gave up the game winning homer to Carlos Delgado.
But he had 89% Mets saves. I think this year’s Mets were under 60%.
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