Tom Brennan - New Mets Bench Coach John Gibbons, and His 1984 Debut Year

SOMETIMES PLAYERS ARE MORE NOTABLE AFTER THEIR PLAYING CAREERS

John Gibbons, long-time MLB manager, was just nabbed as the Mets' bench coach.  Nice.

He was also a first round catcher draft pick of your NY Mets. 

In 1980, he was selected 24th overall.

In 1984, at age 22, he debuted with the Mets, and of course went just 2 for 31.  Mets debut like that - it is a rite of passage.

Clearly wasn't ready?  Not ready, although Gibbons had a great AA season in 1983, hitting .298/.375/.515.

But a few spring 1984 injuries set him back, at a time where real catching talent was badly needed by the Mets team. Seems the setbacks were career-altering.

Unfortunate, because Mike Fitzgerald, Ron Hodges and Junior Ortiz caught that 1984 season for the Mets.  The trio managed to rip a Ruthian 4 HRs and drive in 55 runs in 625 PAs that year, quite a paltry level of output at the dish.

No majors for Gibbon in 1985.

In 1986, at age 24, Gibbons put up a totally killer slash line for the Mets:

.474/.545/.842.  

Problem there, though, was he was only up to the plate 22 times that year.  

In 1986, the Mets catchers were far superior to the 1984 cohort.

Kid Carter was successfully absorbing most of the catcher at bats, with Ed Hearn capably gobbling up the rest.  

Gibbons was clearly blocked.

Thus ended Gibbons' MLB playing career. 1986, age 24, that was it.

After being in the Mets minors in 1987, he played for 3 other organizations in the minors from 1988-1990, before he hung up the spikes.  He was a good minor league hitter.  Surprising to me that he failed to catch on (no pun intended) at the big league level with someone else.

Even shirtless Patrick Mazeika played more in the big leagues.

But it got me looking at Gibbons' debut year of 1984 again.   

Maybe not for Gibbons, but lots of good happened for other Mets that year.  

Doc Gooden exploded on the scene at age 19.

Sid and Ronny had shown up on the scene, too.

Orosco was in the pen.

Strawberry, Hernandez, Backman, Foster, Brooks, and Mookie had fine seasons.

Kevin Mitchell at age 22 also snuck in 14 PAs; the Mets of course did not keep the super-promising offensive weapon for very long, only to see him win an MVP award elsewhere thereafter.

40 year old Rusty Staub had 18 RBIs in 72 at bats in his role as pinch hitter extraordinaire, fanning just 9 times in 79 plate appearances.  

Speaking of not fanning, Mets' pitchers went to the plate 399 times and fanned just 103 times. Take out the Bulldog, Walt Terrell, and the rest fanned just 70 times in 322 PAs, a pace that many actual hitters today would gladly take, including in the 2023 Mets minors.  

Gooden, at age 19, fanned just 14 times in 83 plate appearances!  And hit .200, while the older first round hitters Gibbons and Billy Beane went a combined 3 for 41? Huh?

How many 19 year olds in the Mets minors these days could have gotten promoted to the majors in 2023 and fanned just 14 times in 83 PAs?  

Simple answer: None.

Baseball Reference shows the 1984 Mets' "Pythagorean W-L" calculation. While the Mets went 90-72 that year, that calculation says they should have gone just 78-84  as they scored 24 fewer runs than they allowed. Remarkable outperformance by the Metsies, to win 90 rather than 78.  

But wait a second, with all those good players, how did they only score 652 runs?  

Short answer: These are the Mets.  Let me elaborate.

Besides the 3 catchers hitting like garbage, five other significant players (Ortiz, Heep, Gardenhire, Santana, and Chapman), had 1,043 plate appearances and compiled just 6 HRs and 55 RBIs.  

So those five and the 3 catchers in 1700 PAs had 10 HRs and 110 RBIs.  

Clear enough?  Typical Mets second string crapola. 

Why therefore did the Mets not win the pennant that year?  

Crappy back up players... 

...and the Cubs caught lightning in a bottle.  

They acquired star pitcher Rick Sutcliffe from Cleveland, where he was a sucky 4-5, 5.15 in mid-June; the Cubs gave up Mel Hall and Joe Carter, a very heavy acquisition price to pay and one the Mets really couldn't match, even if they had tried.   

The Mets led the Cubs by 1 game going into Sutcliffe's first mid-June Cubs start.

Sutcliffe immediately went unconscious. 

As a Cub, over the rest of the season? 

Insane. 16-1, 2.08, Cy Young.  

He started 4 times against the Mets, and the Cubs won all 4 of them.  

The Cubs went 62-36 after the trade, and the Mets finished 6 games out.

Had it not been for Sutcliffe's unconscious Cubs pitching for the last 2/3 of 1984, Dwight Gooden would have won both the rookie of the year AND the NL Cy Young award that year, at age 19. Mind-boggling.

Of course, if the Mets thought 16-1 by an opposing pitcher from mid-June on in 1984 was sickeningly mind-blowing, the next year in 1985, when the Cards barely edged the Mets out for the pennant, arch-villain John Tudor after Memorial Day was a sickening 20-1. Tudor drove me (as a Mets fan) certifiably nuts that year.

Moving back to marginal player Gibbons, he soon turned manager and was the 1998 Eastern League manager of the year for the Mets' Binghamton team.  

And later, he was 793-789 as a major league manager with the Jays. 

None as a Met.

1984 utility guy Gardenhire? 1200-1280 as a manager (Twins & Tigers). 

None as a Met.

(My brother told me his last garden hire quit after he got poison ivy, but let me stay out of the weeds and not digress...)

It was an exciting 1984 year for the Mets who, as in many seasons, were done in by paltry output from too many anemic, crapola second string players.  At least, though, this team had a bit of an excuse - it never expected Gooden to explode as he did, especially as the season went on, and prior season’s 1983 squad compiled a crapola 68-94 season, so ownership probably expected the Mets wouldn't make it that close.

The big Mets explosion, though, finally happened in 1986...when John Gibbons had the best slash line on the team.

Draft-wise, in 1980, the Mets had 3 first rounders: 

No-brainer Strawberry at #1, Gibbons at #24 and...Billy Beane at #23.  

Beane and Gibbons were basically bust picks, output-wise, but each had substantial alternate careers after their playing days ended, with Gibbons managing nearly 10 years in the majors later, and Billy Beane becoming Oakland's club head.

Beane was 1 for 10 as a Met in 1984.

In total, he had 301 MLB at bats, hitting with little success.  

His last season, he was up 79 times, no HRs, 11 RBIs, and NO WALKS, hitting .241.  

His team that year, the only year he played for them? Oakland. 

Quite fortuitous, as it turns out.

Lastly, it was interesting who was the #22 overall selection (by another team) that year: 

Terry Francona.  

Terry has a 1905-1627 record as a MLB manager. 

None as a Met.

Francona had a decent MLB career, with 1,827 plate appearances, hitting .274, and once even threw a clean 1-2-3 inning, with a K.

Some amazing picks at #22, #23 and #24 that year, huh?

As players, not so much, but in their subsequent roles, most definitely.