November 1975
through October 1976
(1) New York Mets
traded Rusty Staub and Bill Laxton to the Detroit Tigers for Mickey Lolich and
Billy Baldwin (Dec 12, 1975)
(2) New York Mets traded Gene Clines to the Texas Rangers for Joe Lovitto (Dec 12, 1975)
(3) New York Mets traded George Stone to the Texas Rangers for Bill Hands (Feb 24, 1976)
(4) New York Mets traded Bob Gallagher to the San Francisco Giants for Leon Brown (Mar 16, 1976)
(5) New York Mets traded Tom Hall to the Kansas City Royals for Bryan Jones (May 07, 1976)
(6) New York Mets traded Jack Heidemann to the Milwaukee Brewers for Tom Deidel (Jun 22, 1976)
(7) New York Mets traded Wayne Garrett and Del Unser to the Montreal Expos for Pepe Mangual and Jim Dwyer (Jul 21, 1976)
Trivia: Neither Joe Lovitto nor Bill Hands pitched for the Mets. Lovitto was released in his first spring training, and I don't know about Hands, but I suspect he just retired when he was traded to the Mets. There is an interesting line in a local paper that announced his death about 5 years ago from a friend: "No one hated the Mets more than Bill Hands". That must have been from his days with the Cubs.
Bryan Jones never got above Class A, and Tom Deidle got to AA. Jim Dwyer was a distinguished 2 for 13 with 2 walks with the Mets, while Pepe Mangual got 123 plate appearances and managed a .259 OBP.
George Stone is the answer to the question "Who should have started Game 6 of the 1973 World Series?"
Those were some bad trades.
November 1974
through October 1975
Notes: The best trade of the year was one of their all-time best, acquiring John Stearns to catch for the next 10 years. Stearns would be considered a life-time Met except for the one game he played for Philly before the trade.
Ray Sadecki had a decent run in New York for a few years, but this was a well timed deal as he only won 6 more games after this trade. Torre, at the end of his very good, border-line Hall of Fame playing career, was OK in his three years with the club.
Dyer and Boswell each had longer careers than their numbers deserved. Dyer hung around to play in 14 different years while accumulating 3.7 WAR - roughly 0.3 WAR per year. It is good to be a good fielding back up catcher. Boswell averaged 0.5 WAR for his 11 years in the bigs.
Mike Vail gave Mets fans some of the biggest hope to have a great player for a long time in 1975, but alas, his 1975 could never be replicated as he finished his career with just 2.0 WAR.
The full list:
(1) New York Mets
traded Ray Sadecki and Tommy Moore to the St. Louis Cardinals for Joe Torre (Oct 13, 1974)
(2) New York Mets traded Duffy Dyer to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Gene Clines (Oct 22, 1974)
(3) New York Mets traded Ken Boswell to the Houston Astros for Bob Gallagher (Oct 29, 1974)
(4) New York Mets traded Tug McGraw, Don Hahn, and Dave Schneck to the Philadelphia Phillies for John Stearns, Del Unser and Mac Scarce (Dec 03, 1974)
(5) New York Mets traded Ted Martinez to the St. Louis Cardinals for Mike Vail and Jack Heidemann (Dec 11, 1974)
(6) New York Mets traded Ike Hampton to the California Angels for Ken Sanders (Mar 22, 1975)
(7) New York Mets traded Joe Nolan to the Atlanta Braves for Leo Foster (Apr 04, 1975)
(8) New York Mets traded Mac Scarce to the Cincinnati Reds for Tom Hall (Apr 15, 1975)
Closing note: Sorry about the longer post this time. I am trying to get through the 70's in a hurry before the bell-bottoms and leisure suits come back. That and the fact that this series is getting close to the close. I'm getting ready to write about something else.
3 comments:
Ike and Tina Hampton both left town in that trade.
Quite a collection of misfits, other than the two big trades. Getting the hefty Lolich prepared us for getting Big Sexy decades later.
Pepe Mangual. I believe one sports writer wrote of his play in center field: "He could get to any fly ball hit to center...and drop it!"
Bob W.
Getting Mike Vail for a lightweight like Ted Martinez is a win. The rest are incredibly bad deals.
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