Reese Kaplan -- The Mets Have Had Plenty of Bad Acquisitions

One could seemingly author a rather thick tome regarding the players the Mets have acquired in their quest to win ballgames and put more people into the seats at the ballpark, increase their market share in broadcast media and to win some of the local headlines back from their crosstown rivals in the Bronx.  Sometimes things work out well (such as the Friday piece on Bartolo Colon).  Other times, well, not so much.

Today rather than looking at list of who the Mets gave away in ill fated trades, but instead looking at the new faces to walk through the clubhouse door and don the orange and blue as a member of the Mets. The arrival of J.D. Martinez likely triggered this line of thinking and we certainly hope he enters the much smaller win column than the staggering long collection of people who simply did not perform as expected.

Ask any Mets fan who was the worst acquisition the team ever made and super nice guy but totally ineffectual Jason Bay would very likely head that list.  There is no point in reiterating how much he cost nor whose jobs he took by continuing to play to justify the bad contract.

While the Mets developed the longtime arch rivalry with the Atlanta Braves, it must have looked like major stealth of hand when the Mets waved enough moola at former star pitcher Tom Glavine to come to Queens.  From 2003 through 2007 Glavine actually started 164 games for the Mets and did so with a marginally winning record attributable in part to his age 37 through 41 ERA of 3.97.  He surely dd not make it to Cooperstown on his Mets tenure.

For awhile it seemed as if the Mets specialized in obtaining star Cleveland Indians ballplayers and watching them disintegrate in New York.  The dubious duo of Carlos Baerga and Roberto Alomar played well before and after their Mets experience but in New York they were shells of what they had demonstrated elsewhere.

Former star third baseman Jim Fregosi had a fortunate short tenure with the Mets as the no name young pitcher they gave up to acquire him started throwing more strikes than balls en route to his own Hall of Fame career.  Yes, they sacrificed Nolan Ryan.

Mr. Firecracker himself, Vince Coleman, was a speedy baserunner but apparently a terrible human being.  The speed was good.  The speed with which they got rid of him was not.

A similar fate on another base thief was Roger Cedeno.  He put up terrific numbers in his first year as a Met, but then they traded him away.  They reacquired him for big money and he´d gained enough weight to demonstrate a plodding one trick pony doesn´t win many races.

Mr. July, Bobby Bonilla, was so despised after not only his first but then inexplicably his second contract with the Mets that he becomes a millionaire every summer as the club put together a long term buyout of his deal.

It may date all the way back to the poor experience with the $20.1 million man, Kaz Matsui, that kept the Mets out of the front line for Japanese ballplayers.  Aside from hitting a home run in each of his first games each season, there is nothing much to say about Matsui in a Mets uniform except the joy that happened when he took it off for the last time.  Jose Reyes probably agrees as he was moved off shortstop for the wunderkind who make people wonder what the front office saw.

In the bad contract era, Luis Castillo parlayed a partial solid season into an overpaid deal during which he never again approached a solid level of play.  Oliver Perez couldn´t find the plate as a Pirate nor as a Met, yet the front office felt they wanted him around for a long time that will never be remembered fondly.

Manager Bobby Valentine had his promising career curtailed by injury, but the Mets were willing to take a chance on a thin promise of permanent recovering by sending Dave Kingman to the Padres to obtain him.  Ummm...not a good deal.

Joe Foy batted a robust .236 for the Mets after they obtained him from the Royals.  That was not too impressive.  On the other hand, the rookie sent to the midwest was named Amos Otis.  ´Nuff said.

Relief pitcher Billy Taylor was a late bloomer who put together a string of successful closing years for Oakland, but at age 37 he didn´t seem like fair value for up and comer Jason Isringhausen.

We can list any number of bad contracts the Mets have made over the years, including Guillermo Mota, Jed Lowrie and others.  However, one little known trade the Mets made was acquiring solid if unspectacular Kris Benson and his stripper/murder suspect/gun brandishing ex-wife.  

The Mets sent a minor leaguer they had obtained to get Benson.  That guyś name was Jose Bautista.  Ummm...his 14-12 with a 4.23 ERA didn´t come close to matching the nearly 400 HRs Bautista hit during his career that included six straight All Star appearances and three Silver Sluggers.

And how can any list of weird Mets acquisitions be complete without mentioning the former Cincinnati Reds slugger, George Foster.  He was bad for the Mets though not as awful as people remember.  His best season was 1983 when he hit 28 HRs and drove in 90 with a meager .241 batting average.  By most folks’ standards that would be a commendable season but given his otherworldly numbers for the Big Red Machine it was colossally disappointing. 

I have charitably left out the other half of the Midnight Massacre as it was not any of the incoming players’ fault for not being Tom Seaver.  Still, with J.D. Martinez now becoming a part of the everyday lineup, folks are hoping more for a one year Bernard Gilkey type of performance than another Jed Lowrie.  (Look it up — 30 HRs and a .317 average in his initial 1996 season at Shea).  It certainly would be nice to see the Mets come out on the plus side in one of these proven player deals.