Remember1969: Who Won? Deals of History 1975-1976

 

Mets Trades through the years:  Who won?

November 1975 through October 1976

We continue a bad decade of trades.   Some were more 'meh' than others, but the non-meh ones were bad ones.    

Notes:   I am not sure a GM could have a worse year than Joe McDonald's 1976.   Rusty went on to have 4.5 good years in Detroit, while Lolich was one and done with the Mets.   Note to aspiring general managers out there:  Trading a very good (and extremely popular) outfielder in his prime at age 30 for a 38 year old pitcher with 15 years on his arm is probably not the best way to build a team.   While Lolich was 8-13 in his one year in New York, he did have a 3.22 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP - not bad by today's standards, but fourth best on the '76 Mets both categories.   

The really sad part of these trade is that 1976 was a pretty good team on paper that won 86 games and finished in 3rd place.    Seaver, Matlack, and Koosman all had very good years.  They were a couple offensive guys short of an excellent year.   Wow, that sounds familiar to Mets fans.  

The bad and the ugly: 

(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

Here goes much of the remaining parts of the '69 team.   

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.