Tom Brennan: MONUMENTAL METS' MISTAKES: VOL 2

MONUMENTAL METS MISTAKES VOL. 2

As noted the other day, my brother Steve suggested, and he and I collaborated on, writing articles about five specific transactions the Mets should’ve done or...should’ve not done, that were Monumental to the (lack of) success of this franchise over its nearly 60 years of existence.

Everyone can make mistakes – but you want to avoid Monumental Mistakes like these five if you want to have a successful franchise.

Previously, we addressed Monumental Mistake # 1:

Not drafting Reggie Jackson, and drafting "answer to a trivia question" Steve Chilcott instead. 

Today? 

Monumental Mistake # 2:

Trading the Great Tom Seaver.

The Mets’ Tom Seaver joined the worst franchise in baseball history over a five year period (1962-66), won NL rookie of the year in 1967, earned a Cy Young in his 25-7 season in 1969 and a second Cy Young a few years hence, and led the NL in earned-run average three times by the end of 1973.

He was the face of the NY Mets franchise, and arguably baseball’ best pitcher.

After 7 enormously successful seasons (1967-73, in which he went 135-76 for a mostly weaker than average hitting team, averaging 262 innings per year and with an overall 2.38 ERA), the Mets and Seaver agreed to a one-year $172,500 contract, an amount that looking back, and all things considered, seems ridiculously low. 

If we read the CPI charts correctly, based on CPI, the equivalent of a dollar in 1967 would be about $7.50 in 2019, so Seaver’s $172,500 contract X 7.5 = about $1.3 million.  Or about 1/30^th of what he would be paid today, in real terms.

The Mets were getting an incredible bargain.

Seaver then signed a three-year extension in 1975 that paid him $225,000 per year, keeping him the highest paid pitcher in baseball. He won his 3rd Cy Young in 1975 and led the NL in Ks in both 1975 and 1976.

But a new Collective Bargaining Agreement was reached in 1976, resulting in free-agency for the first time and the rapid beginnings of a seismic upward salary shift in baseball.

Other good, but mostly lesser, players started getting huge increases, leaving Seaver sliding down the salary scale by comparison.  What did the Mets do to remedy the matter?  Nothing.

Mr. Scrooge, disguised as Mets’ chairman of the board, M. Donald Grant, refused to renegotiate his contract with the great Tom Seaver, the heart and soul of the team and best player this franchise has ever had.

Noted sports writer Dick Young of the Daily News, who couldn’t tie Seaver’s shoes, took Grant’s side in frequent articles against Seaver, and things went downhill.  

Ultimately, 10 1/2 years into this one-in-a-lifetime pitcher’s career, a man on an undoubted Hall of Fame trajectory, Seaver was foolishly fire-saled to the Cincinnati Reds in mid-1977 over Grant’s refusal to reward the player known as The Franchise. The players gotten in return were the types of players losing franchises play.  

The Mets did not recover from this fiasco until 1984.  Understand, Seaver, even if he had been renegotiated a reasonable upgrade contract, would have been dirt cheap by today’s standards.  But a contract, I guess, is a contract.  Consequences be damned.

The loss of fan goodwill was incalculable. I recall going to a Labor Day weekend double header between a dreadful Mets team and the superior Montreal Expos on September 3, 1979, beautiful, perfect weather...and maybe 2,000 fans present. 

Tumbleweed blowing through.

Meanwhile, in the first 4 of Seaver’s 5 seasons with his new team, the Cincy Reds, he went 70-33 (.680).  Ouch!

How do you compound such a Monumental Mistake?  

Here’s how…you do it AGAIN.

The Mets thankfully reacquired Seaver in 1983, when he went a so-so 9-14 with a solid ERA for a relatively weak hitting Mets team that had the beginnings of something special: a rookie star in Darryl Strawberry, a solid speedster in Mookie Wilson, an acquired great Keith Hernandez in mid-season 1983, and an upcoming minor league super-phenom named Dwight Gooden.

Keeping Seaver to guide Gooden would have been helpful, like, say, Joe DiMaggio staying around to help the arriving Mickey Mantle. But no, Seaver went to the White Sox.  

Monumental Mistake revisited.

In the Windy City, he put up a terrific season of 15-11 in 1984 and another gem at age 40 in 1985 of 16-11.  

Did that loss of the great one impact the Mets?  

Yes, and most likely in a huge, post-season sort of  way.

The Mets missed making the playoffs in 1984 and 1985, falling 6 games behind the Cubs in 1984, the same Cubs franchise that Seaver grabbed by the throat in 1969...Seaver very possibly gets them into the 1984 playoffs had he not left.

In 1985, the Mets lost out to the Cards on the second to last day of a brilliant season, when having a 16-11 Seaver in the team’s pitching equation probably puts them in the playoffs too.

Then, in the 1986 championship season, Seaver sadly was closing out his career elsewhere, instead of spraying champagne in the Mets’ clubhouse. He was still reasonably effective in 1986, too, with a 4.03 ERA that final year.  What a moment that would have been.

And perhaps Seaver as the Elder Statesman could have put a needed damper on the partying mentality of the Mets that eventually short-circuited what could have been a 1980s Mets dynasty.

Seaver would have made them far more successful, perhaps guided them to a few more World Series, and gave fans like me, a fan since 1962, and Steve Brennan, a fan since birth, so much more positive things to reminisce about, made us feel so much more satisfied in being a Mets fan all these DECADES.

But the front office dumps let the immortal Seaver go...twice.  Not one, but twice.

MONUMENTAL METS MISTAKES.

In the next (3rd) edition of Monumental Mets Mistakes, we move on to the Mets failure to do what it took to retain their first offensive superstar, the “Black Ted Williams”, Darryl Strawberry.

Until then, my friends.