November 1991
through October 1992
Notes: (mixing it up a bit for this year and putting my notes on top!) Wow, 1992 may have been the worst trade year in Mets history. The two worst ones were the first and the last ones. While Bret Saberhagen won 29 games for the Mets in his 3.5 years in New York (half of them in one very good year), Gregg Jeffries had 1100 hits after leaving the Amazin's.
Jeffries had a pretty decent career for himself with over 100 hits 10 years in a row, including 172 and 186 in the first two years after the trade.
Keith Miller was a very good utility man and had his best major league season in 1992 with the Royals.
And not everybody gets an established player ranking system named after them. At least Bill Pecota had something come out of his career. And he did play every position on the diamond at least once in the majors.
As for the last trade of the year, Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson both had a lot of hype, but David Cone went on to win 113 games over the next 10 years. He was a guy they should have kept. We have already reviewed Kent and Thompson had a few years as a fourth-outfielder type with the Mets.
The list:
(1) New York Mets traded Gregg Jefferies, Kevin McReynolds and Keith Miller to the Kansas City Royals for Bret Saberhagen and Bill Pecota (Dec 06, 1991)
(2) New York Mets traded Blaine Beatty to the Montreal Expos for Jeff Barry (Dec 09, 1991)
(3) New York Mets traded Hubie Brooks to the California Angels for Dave Gallagher (Dec 10, 1991)
(4) New York Mets traded Jeff Gardner to the San Diego Padres for Steve Rosenberg (Dec 11, 1991)
(5) New York Mets traded Chuck Carr to the St. Louis Cardinals for Clyde Keller (Dec 13, 1991)
(6) New York Mets traded Mark Carreon and Tony Castillo to the Detroit Tigers for Paul Gibson and Randy Marshall (Jan 22, 1992)
(7) New York Mets traded Terry Bross to the San Diego Padres for Craig Bullock (Mar 30, 1992)
(8) New York Mets traded Doug Simons to the Montreal Expos for Rob Katzaroff (Apr 02, 1992)
(9) New York Mets traded Julio Valera and Julian Vasquez to the California Angels for Dick Schofield (Apr 12, 1992)
(10) New York Mets traded Tim Burke to the New York Yankees for Lee Guetterman (Jun 09, 1992)
(11) New York Mets traded Rob Katzaroff to the San Francisco Giants for Kevin Bass (Aug 08, 1992)
(12) New York Mets traded David Cone to the Toronto Blue Jays for Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson (Aug 27, 1992)
Notes, part 2: Julio Valera had a 3.1 WAR with California in 1992, while Dick Schofield became one of Tom's guys: a career .232 hitter that came to New York and just couldn't cut it, hitting .202 while getting almost 500 at bats while trying.
Trivia Time: Hubie Brooks was drafted 6 times in amateur drafts before he signed in June 1978 with the Mets a full four years after he was first drafted by the Expos in 1974.
Tuesday's Who Won? will feature what could be regarded as the final clean-out of the 1986 World Championship team. One of my favorite players and current announcer/analyst Ron Darling was traded in 1991. I had completely forgotten that and would not have remembered which team he was traded to and for whom if you had given me 29 chances. True Mets fans most certainly would remember .. anybody???
6 comments:
That Cone for Kent and Thompson trade was great - then they had to muck it up a few years later. Those dastardly Wilpons
IMO, they never should have made that trade to start with. Cone was the keeper, not Kent.
Jeffries was not accepted by the rest of the team, and couldn't play in New York. Another example of what Tom has been discussing.
Cone was going to free agency and was as good as gone after 1992.
This was the year they signed Bobby Bonilla. I think Eddie Murray, too.
The slogan that year was: Hardball is Back.
Bob W.
I can agree with you that he might not have been accepted well by the rest of the team, but I don't see that he couldn't play in New York. He had a terrific with the Mets in 1990 and while not quite as good in 1991, it was not a season that would be classified as can't play here.
In looking at his defensive stats, it almost appears that they played him at the wrong position. His fielding was considerably better as a third baseman than as a second baseman. He played a total of 7 innings at second base after being traded until 2000 when he played 111 innings there for the Tigers with the same poor results.
I suspect that Jeffries did some maturing around the time of the trade. He had a terrific amount of hype as he broke in, and it took him five years to harness the reality. It is impossible to know whether he would have had the same career had he stayed with the Mets, but he was not a bust here, either.
As for Cone, fair statement, and I don't remember the specifics of his situation, but it seems like he was a guy they coulda/shoulda targeted to keep.
I loved Cone - who could forget 19 Ks - and he was 111-75, 3.70 post-Mets, excellent...(pitching for the juggernaut Yanks didn't hurt)...
...but Kent had a better post-trade career. The Mets messed up trading Kent away.
I disagree with you on the Kent trade. I think that was actually a very good trade with Cleveland. If I had the same two players today, I would make that trade in a heartbeat.
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