ANOTHER METS STRATEGIC MONUMENTAL MISCUE
OK, OK, so we've touched on some huge Mets strategic blunders in the first 3 volumes of this series: passing on drafting the great Reggie Jackson; trading the great Tom Seaver; and trading the great Darryl Strawberry.
I passed over a few biggies, you say?
Like the Nolan Ryan trade?
Well, maybe we'll circle back and extend this series.
The fourth MONUMENTAL METS MISTAKE was:
Signing Bobby Bonilla but not also signing Barry Bonds
Look, I know the Mets are STILL paying him...that’s on Jeff and Fred.
I don't think the signing of Bobby Bo was a horrible idea.
It was a GOOD idea.
After all, he had 406 RBIs in his prior 4 seasons with the Buccos.
And he was just turning 29.
As so often is the case, the super-durable Bonilla came to the Mets and promptly became...LESS DURABLE!
Bo averaged just 125 games per season in his first 3 Mets years, and knocked in an average of 75 runs per season.
Good enough per-game production, Would have been fine if he average 160 games and 100 ribbies, but he missed a lot of games those 3 years.
Bo averaged just 125 games per season in his first 3 Mets years, and knocked in an average of 75 runs per season.
Good enough per-game production, Would have been fine if he average 160 games and 100 ribbies, but he missed a lot of games those 3 years.
So half way through the fourth, 1995, season, in which a resurgent Bonilla had 18 homers and 53 RBIs in 80 games, finally getting his act together, the Mets did what?
Traded him to Baltimore!
What did he do there?
46 RBIs in 61 games with the O's in 1995. Not bad!
And 212 RBIs the next two seasons with the O's!! Wow!
And wait, it gets better:
The Mets got Damon Buford and Alex Ochoa!
Buford played 44 games with the Mets and drove in 12 runs.
Ochoa in 605 Mets plate appearances drove in 55.
He was a decent hitter in his career, but not a Bobby Bo.
The year after the Mets signed Bobby Bo?
Barry Bonds became a free agent.
Bonds, already a two-time MVP, wanted to be -
you guessed it -
a Met.
The Mets passed.
Probably due to fear of spending more.
The budget, you see.
Bonds instead signed with San Francisco in 1993.
As a Giant, for the rest of his career, he hit like no Met ever:
586 HRs, .312/.477/.666.
Performance-enhanced or not, passing on this extremely great player in 1993 changed this Mets team's destiny for decades to come.
They could have been dominant - they were not.
One more Monumental Mets Blunder article is coming - stay tuned.
8 comments:
How would the NY fans and media treated Barry Bonds if his PED-enhaced body and head were posting record-setting numbers? I think most fans put winning ahead of ethics, but I could be wrong.
I asked Ilhan Omar, Reese...she said it's all about the W's, baby.
Large free agent deals are such a crap shoot.......I would venture a guess that most of them are a disappointment, much like
Bonilla's deal and career with the Mets.
Bonds would have been interesting since we didn't know about the PED's when he was available, but he is the figurehead for that
era in baseball now and I am glad he isn't associated with our team.
I know that you have to spend money to put a winning product on the field, but I think emphasizing the draft/player development and spending sensibly are a better formula. It appears that Brodie's overall emphasis is focus is in line with this thinking.
John, Bonds was arguably the best player in baseball at the time, and young. He was passed up due to Wilpon fears to spend. That one REALLY cost them.
I wonder, if we'd have won 5 more World Series with him, certainly possible, if you would have still felt OK with not having Bonds, warts and all.
Liked Bonilla.
Met him once in the ST clubhouse... huge, linebacker size shoulders
Mack, sadly for Bonilla, what most Mets fans think of first is his never-ending contract pay outs.
Career .280, 287 HRs, 1173 RBIs. That's 45 HRs and 203 RBIs more than David Wright. He was big and quite good.
And he sure showed us the Bronx, huh?
Getting him back the second time was more the mistake than the first. It seemed worth the gamble in 1992 considering the Mets had no power in 1991.
They traded Bonilla in 1995 because they were having a fire sale (similar to 2017). Ochoa was supposed to be a five-tool guy, one of the O's top prospects. Just never panned out (although he did hit for the cycle early on).
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