Reese Kaplan -- The Mets Have Had Their Own Clubhouse Cancers

During the 2023 season many things obviously went wrong for the Mets between injuries, slumping players and apparently what was perceived as leadership.  One of the issues that was debated off and on was the phrase "toxic clubhouse" and the culprit most often attributed to creating that atmosphere was none other than slugger Pete Alonso.  

Now I'm not here to debate the merits of whether or not the player caused issues with his teammates nor am I here to crucify his now former manager for not making the clubhouse one to be rivaled by other teams.  No, the issue at hand is the topic of a clubhouse cancer, a player whose personality, violent temper, criminal activities and other issues made his talents on the field not worth the price paid to enjoy them.

The Mets have had several players in their time who could be brought forward with these types of issues, but today we'll only look at two classic examples.  Back in 1985, one year before the Mets last won a World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals debuted an amazing rookie outfielder who would easily win the National League's Rookie of the Year award by pilfering (and this is not a misprint) 110 bases at the tender age of 23 while hitting a respectable .267.  

For the next dozen years after that he was pretty much unstoppable as a base stealer and he kept up the hitting, finishing with a .264 average.  Unfortunately his 13 years after starting off with three consecutive over-100 totals in stolen bases was cut short and marred significantly by his non-baserunning issues.

He was a hot head and well known for his inability to channel that aspect of his personality.  Between declining stolen base numbers and off-the-field behaviors Coleman was made available in trade and the Mets bit, acquiring him as a free agent after the Cardinals had seen plenty of him and let him walk away.  

In the offseason during 1990 the Mets lost outfielder Darryl Strawberry to free agency and chose to substitute high profile speed for the now missing home run power.  On paper it was a questionable decision but fans seemed ready to watch the man who during his last Cardinals season swipe 77 bases become an offensive weapon at Shea Stadium. 

To summarize his Mets offensive production is difficult to say they got good value.  Over three seasons he did in fact steal 99 bases, but that is a total and not a single year mark like he'd done for St. Louis.  He fought hamstring issues and other body-related tempering of his prodigious base running talent.  However, it was the other incidents that demonstrated the kind of player he was.  

First there was the ignorance when he was questioned about Jackie Robinson and he said he had no idea who that was and why they were honoring him in baseball.  Then there was the gang-of-players sexual assault in Florida which resulted in criminal charges against Coleman and others.  He later had a physical altercation with his manager Jeff Torborg who for perhaps the only positive thing done during his tenure as skipper suspended him for the rest of the season.  No, it got worse.  In the clubhouse while swinging a golf club in a confined space he hit pitcher Doc Gooden, injuring him.  Think about that for a moment.  It would be like Luis Guillorme taking out Jacob deGrom in his Mets prime through immaturity.  

That all was pablum compared to the incident at Dodger Stadium when he tossed lighted firecrackers from his car into a crowd, injuring fans including causing retinal damage to a young child.  The Mets had seen more than enough and again suspended him for the rest of the year and cut him loose where he floundered for 4 more years including lasting just over a year in Kansas City before partial season stops in Seattle, Cincinnati and Detroit before retiring at age 35, 

The other poster child as a clubhouse cancer happened just after the whole Coleman saga.  This time around it was power hitting outfielder Carl Everett who started off his minor league career with multiple temper outbursts which unfortunately carried over to the majors.  The Mets acquired him from the Marlins after two cups of coffee and his combination of speed and power must have looked alluring.

Unfortunately his incidents with umpires were only the tip of the iceberg.  While no one is going to make a major issue over his denial of the existence of dinosaurs nor his belief that the moon landings were fake.  However, when he started pontificating on the unacceptability of homosexuality and how he would soon retire or "set him straight" if he ever encountered a gay teammate, he was crossing a boundary that seemed quite a bit more antisocial.

It was, however, when the non-playing staff at Shea Stadium noticed multiple bruises all over the body of one of his five year old daughter.  He was then found to have inflicted an unnecessarily severe level of corporal punishment when the case came to court.  The Mets had seen enough and sent Everett packing.  His short stay in New York was a warm up to bumping umpires including a head butt in 2000 while playing for the Red Sox which resulted in his suspension from the game.  After his playing career ended Everett was arrested for pulling a handgun on his wife and then again later for an assault on a family member.   

The Mets have had others who did things that were reprehensible, including the assault by K-Rod in the clubhouse, but that incident appeared to be a one-off thing that still resulted in the end of his New York baseball career.  

This history lesson sets the stage for avoiding another similar fate with a current free agent who some advocate the Mets sign to help them in 2024 and beyond.  We'll next look at the down side of having a player's on-the-field abilities result in wearing blinders to what happens in the clubhouse.