Remember 1969: Who Won? Mets trades in History: 1999

 

Mets Trades through the years:  Who won?

The year leading up to the World Series was actually a better year, with the 1999 Mets winning 97 games, coming up 2 games short of the World Series in the NLCS. 

1999 was year the second time the Mets pulled off 15 trades, although I have added one more, so we’ll call this the biggest year of deals in Mets history.   And it really wasn’t a bad one.   There were a couple trades that were key to their pennant winning 2000. 

November 1998 thru October 1999

(1)  New York Mets traded Mel Rojas to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Bobby Bonilla (Nov 11, 1998)

(2)  New York Mets traded Jorge Fabregas to the Florida Marlins for OscarHenriquez (Nov 20, 1998)

(3)  New York Mets traded Todd Hundley and Arnold Gooch to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Roger Cedeno and Charles Johnson  (Dec 01, 1998)

(4)  New York Mets traded Charles Johnson to the Baltimore Orioles for Armando Benitez  (Dec 01, 1998)

(5)  New York Mets traded Butch Huskey to the Seattle Mariners for Lesli Brea   (Dec 04, 1998)

(6)  New York Mets traded Willie Blair to the Detroit Tigers for Joe Randa  (Dec 04, 1998)

(6a)  New York Mets traded Joe Randa to the Kansas City Royals for JuanLeBron  (Dec 10, 1998) (note:  listed as a “minors” deal)

(7)  New York Mets traded Ralph Milliard to the Cincinnati Reds for Mark Corey  (Feb 04, 1999)

(8)  New York Mets traded Jonathan Guzman to the Kansas City Royals for Shane Halter  (Mar 23, 1999)

(9)  New York Mets traded Allen Watson to the Seattle Mariners for Justin Dunning and Mac Suzuki  (Jun 18, 1999)

(10)  New York Mets traded Terrence Long and Leo Vasquez to the Oakland Athletics for Kenny Rogers  (Jul 25, 1999)

(11)  New York Mets traded Craig Paquette to the St. Louis Cardinals for Shawon Dunston  (Jul 31, 1999)

(12)  New York Mets traded Jason Isringhausen and Greg McMichael to the Oakland Athletics for Billy Taylor  (Jul 31, 1999)

(13)  New York Mets traded Brian McRae, Rigo Beltran and Tom Johnson to the Colorado Rockies for Darryl Hamilton and Chuck McElroy  (Jul 31, 1999)

(14)  New York Mets traded Derek Wallace to the Kansas City Royals for JeremyJackson  (Aug 13, 1999)

(15)  New York Mets traded Dan Murray to the Kansas City Royals for Glendon Rusch  (Sep 14, 1999)

Notes:   Bobby Bonilla round 2 must have seemed like a good idea to somebody at the time, but the trade was a wash, as in both players were washed up by then. 

Trades listed as (3) and (4) were really a single three team trade.   While Hundley had a few decent years left after leaving the Mets, Cedeno had a very nice year in ’99 and was the centerpiece of the trade to get Hampton and Bell before the 2000 season.    Benitez really stabilized the bullpen in their World Series year.  

In retrospect, trading Isringhausen wasn't the best strategic move. 

I guess they decided they couldn’t keep both Payton and Long.   Long showed some promise for two or three years for Oakland, but flamed out fairly quickly.   Rogers pitched OK for the second half 1999 and didn’t stick around for the World Series. 

I don't understand the Joe Randa deal and subsequent deal 6 days later that sent him to the Royals that was said to be a "minors" deal.   Randa had been in the majors a couple years by then and went on to have a very solid career with KC accumlating over 1500 career hits along the way.    Wonder what might have been had the Mets taken a longer look at him?     They had just signed Robin Ventura as their third baseman 3 days before trading for Randa.   

Glendon Rusch proved to be a good back end of the rotation starter for a couple years.

 Darryl Hamilton was a valuable bench player for his two and a half years in New York.

The 'other' Beltran actually had his best year with the Mets.   He was a trailblazer from the University of Wyoming at Laramie.   (Blazed the trail for a guy named Brandon Nimmo) 

 A little trivia piece that I had forgotten long ago was that Bobby Bonilla was actually one piece of a pretty glittery trade from Florida to the Dodgers with Piazza and Todd Zeile going to Miami.