Remember 1969: Who Won? A series reviewing Mets trades 2002 - 2009

Mets Trades through the years:   Who Won? 

Moving back now into the early 2000’s, we’ll start with one of the biggest trades ever pulled off.    I’ll work with most of the decade with 2002 through 2009 for this edition.    

Quick Trivia before starting:  (I would not have answered this correctly)   Pedro Feliciano never pitched in the Major Leagues for anyone other than the Mets (sorry Yankees).  But he was actually obtained in a trade.   What club was did he come from?    Post in a comment if you actually remember that, because I don't.    Read on to find the answer.

November 2008 through October 2009

(1)  New York Mets traded Aaron Heilman, Endy Chavez, Joe Smith, Jason Vargas, Maikel Cleto, Ezequiel Carrera and Mike Carp to the Seattle Mariners for Sean Green, J.J.Putz and Jeremy Reed   (Dec 11, 2008)

(2)  New York Mets traded Scott Schoeneweis to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Connor Robertson  (Dec 12, 2008)

(3)  New York Mets traded Ramon Castro to the Chicago White Sox for Lance Broadway  (May 30, 2009)

(4)  New York Mets traded Ryan Church to the Atlanta Braves for Jeff Francoeur  (Jul 10, 2009)

(5)  New York Mets traded Greg Veloz to the Washington Nationals for Anderson Hernandez  (Aug 06, 2009) 

(6)  New York Mets traded Billy Wagner to the Boston Red Sox for Chris Carter and Eddie Lora  (Aug 25, 2009)

Notes:   What was actually a massive three team twelve player trade, the Mets got clobbered with this trade, which seemed like a good idea at the time.   The Mets had completely lost trust in Heilman by the end of 2008 and they needed bullpen help.   At the time, I actually thought that Green and Putz would be excellent pick-ups, but it didn’t turn out well as neither pitched well or stuck around after 2009.  Just trading Chavez for Reed as centerfield options was also a bad move.   Joe Smith has had a very good career and is still active.  Maybe they should bring him back as a free agent and see if they can level out this trade.

Ryan Church for Jeff Francoeur was a win for the Mets at time.   One little piece of trivia is that Ryan Church made the last out in Shea Stadium history.

Holding on to Wagner would have been a better idea than Chris Carter.   

Another trivial tidbit:   With a name as common as Joe Smith, there might have been a lot them in the Majors, but Joe Smith the pitcher was only the second one.  The first one hit .156 in 32 at bats for the 1913 Yankees before being out of baseball for good before he turned 20 years old.  

Bill Wagner was also a light hitting catcher from 1914 to 1918.   Not exactly the HOF type career of our lefty reliever. 

Last note - Eddie Lora might have been one of the worst players the Mets have ever received in a trade.   He was 3 for 43 (.088, but all hits were XBH - 2 doubles and a homer!) for Kingsport in the Applachian League in 2010.   That was the end of his career.   

November 2007 through October 2008

(1)  New York Mets traded Guillermo Mota to the Milwaukee Brewers for Johnny Estrada  (Nov 20, 2007)

(2)  New York Mets traded Lastings Milledge to the Washington Nationals for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider  (Nov 30, 2007)

(3)  New York Mets traded Corey Coles and Ryan Meyers to the Chicago Cubs for Angel Pagan  (Jan 05, 2008)

(4)  New York Mets traded Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Deolis Guerra, and Kevin Mulvey to the Minnesota Twins for Johan Santana   (Feb 02, 2008)

(5)  New York Mets traded Anderson Hernandez to the Washington Nationals for Luis Ayala  (Aug 17, 2008)

Notes:  A pretty good year of trades, getting rid of headache Milledge picking up a couple of useful players from the Nats and of course picking up Johan Santana needs no further discussion.     Mets won the 2008 year! 

November 2006 through October 2007

(1)  New York Mets traded Heath Bell and Royce Ring to the San Diego Padres for Jon Adkins and Ben Johnson  (Nov 15, 2006)

(2)  New York Mets traded Henry Owens and Matt Lindstrom to the Florida Marlins for Jason Vargas and Adam Bostick  (Nov 20, 2006)

(3)  New York Mets traded Brian Bannister to the Kansas City for Ambiorix Burgos  (Dec 06, 2006)

(4)  New York Mets traded Drew Butera and Dustin Martin to the Minnesota Twins for LuisCastillo  (Jul 30, 2007)

(5)  New York Mets traded Sean Henry and Jose Castro to the Cincinnati Reds for Jeff Conine  (Aug 20, 2007)

Notes:   Another net losing year for the Mets.   Heath Bell went on to be one of the best relievers in baseball with the Padres.   Jason Vargas, in his first stint with the Mets had a 12 ERA in 2 starts in 2007 before not pitching in 2008 and being one of the six players going to Seattle in late 2008.    Vargas had a pretty decent career in the AL with the Mariners, Angels and Royals before coming back to the Mets later.

Castillo, while not a fan favorite, and known more for the drop than anything, actually had a decent couple years with the Mets.   

I had completely forgotten that Conine played at all for the Mets, and he probably has too after his .195 average in the last 21 games of his career.

November 2005 through October 2006

 (1)  New York Mets traded Mike Cameron to the San Diego Padres for Xavier Nady  (Nov 18, 2005)

 (2)  New York Mets traded Mike Jacobs, Yusmeiro Petit and Grant Psomas to the Florida Marlins for Carlos Delgado  (Nov 24, 2005)

 (3)  New York Mets traded Gaby Hernandez and Dante Brinkley to the Florida Marlins for Paul LoDuca  (Dec 05, 2005)

 (4)  New York Mets traded Jae Seo and Tim Hamulack to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Duaner Sanchez and Steve Schmoll  (Jan 04, 2006)

 (5)  New York Mets traded Kris Benson to the Baltimore Orioles for John Maine and Jorge Julio  (Jan 21, 2006)

 (6)  New York Mets traded Jorge Julio to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Orlando Hernandez  (May 24, 2006)

 (7)  New York Mets traded Robert Manuel to the Cincinnati Reds for David Williams  (May 25, 2006)

 (8)  New York Mets traded Geremi Gonzalez to the Milwaukee Brewers for Mike Adams  (May 26, 2006)

 (9)  New York Mets traded Kaz Matsui to the Colorado Rockies for Eli Marrero  (Jun 09, 2006)

 (10)  New York Mets traded Jeff Keppinger to the Kansas City Royals for Ruben Gotay  (Jul 19, 2006)

 (11)  New York Mets traded Xavier Nady to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Oliver Perez and Roberto Hernandez   (Jul 31, 2006)

 (12)  New York Mets traded Evan MacLane to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Shawn Green  (Aug 22, 2006)

 (13)  New York Mets traded Victor Diaz to the Texas Rangers for Mike Nickeas  (Aug 30, 2006)

 Notes:   2006 was the Mets best season between their World Series appearances of 2000 and 2015, but unlike those years, there wasn’t a trade that really helped get over the top, although it could be argued that Delgado, LoDuca, and Sanchez were all valuable pick-ups that really helped them that year.  

 The Cameron for Nady deal was pretty much a draw for that year.   Nady was having a good year as the right fielder before being traded to Pittsburgh in July for pitching help after Sanchez went down after a car accident.

 John Maine had a couple decent/average years with the Mets while Benson was about done by the time of that trade. 

 Green was better in 2007 than the end of 2006, but the Mets won that trade as well.

2006 trades saw two pitchers with some of the worst lines ever in Mets history.  A small sample size, but Tim Hamulack threw to a 23.14 ERA in 6 games before being traded to the Dodgers and David Williams collected a 22.85 ERA in 4.1 innings after coming over from the Reds.  

 Overall, the 2005-2006 trading year was very productive for the Mets.    They were rewarded by winning 97 games.     

November 2004 through October 2005

(1)  New York Mets traded Mike Stanton to the New York Yankees for Felix Heredia  (Dec 3, 2004)

(2)  New York Mets traded Vance Wilson to the Detroit Tigers for Anderson Hernandez  (Jan 6, 2005)

(3)  New York Mets traded Ian Bladergroen to the Boston Red Sox for Doug Mientkiewicz  (Jan 26, 2005)

(4)  New York Mets traded Jason Phillips to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Kaz Ishii  (Mar 20, 2005)

(5)  New York Mets traded Matt Ginter to the Detroit Tigers for Steve Colyer  (Apr 02, 2005)

Notes:   None of these trades really helped nor hurt the Mets.   Heredia threw just a couple innings for the Mets in April 2005 before going down with an aneurysm in his shoulder.  The three games he did pitch for the Mets proved to the last games he ever pitched in the majors.    Stanton pitched to an ERA of over 7.00 with the Yankees that year.   This was the last trade made with the Yankees to date. 

It will take a little more research, but I'm guessing that the 23 letters in the last names of the Bladergroen-Mientkiewicz trade are probably the record for a one for one swap in Mets history.  

 This was the first year of Omar Minaya as the General Manager. 

  November 2003 through October 2004

(1)  New York Mets traded Jaime Cerda to the Kansas City Royals for Shawn Sedlacek  (Jan 26, 2004)

(2)  New York Mets traded Timo Perez to the Chicago White Sox for Matt Ginter  (Mar 27, 2004)

(3)  New York Mets traded Roger Cedeno to the St. Louis Cardinals for Wilson Delgado and ChrisWidger  (Apr 03, 2004)

(4)  New York Mets traded David Weathers and Jeremy Griffiths to the Houston Astros for RichardHidalgo  (Jun 17, 2004)

(5)  New York Mets traded Karim Garcia to the Baltimore Orioles for Mike DeJean  (Jul 19, 2004)

(6)  New York Mets traded Scott Kazmir and Joselo Diaz to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for VictorZambrano and Bartolome Fortunato  (Jul 30, 2004)

(7)  New York Mets traded Justin Huber to the Kansas City Royals for Jose Bautista (Jul 30, 2004) 

(7)  New York Mets traded Ty Wigginton, Jose Bautista and Matt Peterson to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger  (Jul 30, 2004)   

(8)  New York Mets traded Scott Erickson to the Texas Rangers for Josh Hoffpauir  (Jul 31, 2004)

(9)  New York Mets traded Tom Wilson to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Tony Socarras  (Aug 17, 2004)

(10)  New York Mets traded Dan Wheeler to the Houston Astros for Adam Seuss  (Aug 27, 2004)

Notes:   Other that the Kazmir for Zambrano trade, there wasn’t much else of note in this year of trades.   Perhaps the the Ty Wigginton trade should not have happened either.   Benson threw to about a 4.5 ERA across two seasons before being traded to Baltimore.   Wigginton was a useful utility player for another 8 or 9 years.    Keppinger didn’t do much with the Mets before he was traded later to the Royals,  although he lost a year an injury. 

November 2002 through October 2003

(1)  New York Mets traded Rey Ordonez to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Russ Johnson and JoshPressley  (Dec 15, 2002)

(2)  New York Mets traded Roberto Alomar to the Chicago White Sox for Royce Ring, Edwin Almonte and Andrew Salvo  (Jul 01, 2003)

(3)  New York Mets traded Jeromy Burnitz to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Victor Diaz, KoleStrayhorn, and Joselo Diaz  (Jul 14, 2003)

(4)  New York Mets traded Armando Benitez to the New York Yankees for Jason Anderson, Anderson Garcia, and Ryan Bicondoa  (Jul 16, 2003)

(5)  New York Mets traded Graeme Lloyd to the Kansas City Royals for Jeremy Hill  (Jul 28, 2003)

(6)  New York Mets traded Rey Sanchez to the Seattle Mariners for Kenny Kelly  (Jul 29, 2003)

Notes:    This was probably the first time in history that one team has traded two light hitting defense first shortstops named “Rey” within 8 months of each other.    They probably should have held on to Ordonez and not signed Sanchez at all. 

 The Mets certainly didn’t get the Hall of Fame years from Alomar, but he didn’t do much after they traded him away either.   

Aye Mate, this was a busy couple years for the Mets making deals with Australian born players as Justin Huber(2004) and Graeme Lloyd in 2003 were both dealt away and P.J. Bevis was brought into the organization in 2002.  

November 2001 thru October 2002

(1)  New York Mets traded Robin Ventura to the New York Yankees for David Justice  (Dec 07, 2001)

(2)  New York Mets traded Alex Escobar, Jerrod Riggan, Matt Lawton, Billy Traber and Earl Snyder to the Cleveland Indians for Roberto Alomar, Mike Bacsik and Danny Peoples  (Dec 11, 2001)

(3)  New York Mets traded David Justice to the Oakland Athletics for Mark Guthrie and Tyler Yates  (Dec 14, 2001)

(4)  New York Mets traded Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Desi Relaford to the San Francisco Giants for ShawnEstes  (Dec 16, 2001)

(5)  New York Mets traded Kevin Appier to the Anaheim Angels for Mo Vaughn  (Dec 27, 2001)

(6)  New York Mets traded Benny Agbayani and Todd Zeile to the Colorado Rockies for Alex Ochoa, Craig House and Ross Gload  (Jan 21, 2002)

(7)  New York Mets traded Lenny Harris, Alex Ochoa and Glendon Rusch to the Milwaukee Brewers for Jeromy Burnitz, Jeff D'Amico, Lou Collier and Mark Sweeney  (Jan 21, 2002)

(8)  New York Mets traded Corey Brittan to the Colorado Rockies for Kane Davis  (Feb 21, 2002)

(9)  New York Mets traded Lou Collier to the Montreal Expos for Jason Bay and Jim Serrano  (Mar 24, 2002)

(10)  New York Mets traded Gary Matthews, Jr. to the Baltimore Orioles for John Bale  (Apr 03, 2002)

(11)  New York Mets traded Bruce Chen, Dicky Gonzalez and Luis Figueroa to the Montreal Expos for Scott Strickland, Matt Watson and Philip Seibel  (Apr 05, 2002)

(12)  New York Mets traded Bobby Jones, Jason Bay and Josh Reynolds to the San Diego Padres for Jason Middlebrook and Steve Reed  (Jul 31, 2002)

(13)  New York Mets traded Jay Payton, Mark Corey and Rob Stratton to the Colorado Rockies for John Thomson and Mark Little  (Jul 31, 2002)

(14)  New York Mets traded Shawn Estes to the Cincinnati Reds for Raul Gonzalez, Pedro Feliciano, Brady Clark and Elvin Andujar  (Aug 15, 2002)

(15)  New York Mets traded Mark Little to the Arizona Diamondbacks for P.J. Bevis  (Aug 16, 2002)

Notes:   Never before or since have the Mets been so busy trading for and then trading away the same player in so short a time, starting with Justice after a just a week.   Mark Little lasted a little over two weeks, Lou Collier had a couple months, Jason Bay (early in his career) was in the Mets organization for about four months, and Shawn Estes actually made it through most of the year.   Alex Ochoa actually never really came back to the Mets as the two separate trades on Jan was actually a larger three team trade with Colorado and Milwaukee.  None of these players, however, were on the roster less time that Jose Bautista in July 2004.   

2002 was the end of a five year run with Steve Phillips as the GM when they made 65 trades.   They completed a record 15 deals in each of the years 1998, 1999, and 2002.  

Overall, the trades of 2002 were pretty much even for that year and the next.   It seems like most of the players involved were near the end of their careers and while a few of them had a decent season or two left, nobody was really a star.  Ventura had a pretty good year with the Yankees and Mark Guthrie threw pretty well for the Mets.     Trading Bay away before his MLB career got started probably hurt the most from this year’s deals.

The best deal for the future of the Mets was obtaining Pedro Feliciano for Shawn Estes. 

In my research, I look at every player's Baseball-Reference page just for my curiosity and to find any small trivia that seems interesting.   Up to Trade 14 in 2002 I have not found any players listed in any trade that did not have a page in B-R.    As I was copying the name Elvin Andujar, I said to myself - "cool name".   Turns out the guy may never have existed, as he does not have a page in B-R.   I have found others that never maded it out of A level ball, but this was a first.  It is still a cool name, but I know nothing about him.