Mar
4
2012

Mets Trades Of The Past: Tim Teufel

An article by Barry Duchan

Ask me who the Mets traded for Keith Hernandez and I’ll immediately tell you Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. Who’d they trade for Sid Fernandez ? Bob Bailor and Carlos Diaz. I remember most Mets trades like they were yesterday. But when I thought about Tim Teufel, an important member of the 1986 World Champion Mets, who was even better in 1987 when he batted .300, I remembered he came from the Twins, but couldn’t for the life of me recall who the Mets gave up to get him. So I looked it up.

Turns out the Mets gave up 3 young players who were still regarded as prospects- Billy Beane, Bill Latham, and Joe Klink. Beane was a former first-rounder who never panned out with the Mets, but obviously he was the key player in the deal for Minnesota, because they gave him a fair amount of playing time in 1986. He hit all of .213 with no power, pretty much sealing his fate as a failed prospect. Beane, of course, later became one of the fast rising young executives in baseball and has been firmly entrenched as the Oakland A’s GM for quite awhile now. Latham and Klink were young lefthanded pitchers. Latham was probably considered the better prospect, but Klink had some success in the major leagues as a lefty specialist a few years later, while Latham had no more than a cup of coffee.

Teufel had been the Twins’ regular second baseman, yet the Mets were pretty well-set with Wally Backman. The thing is that Backman was a failed switch-hitter who was terrible from the right side, so the Mets figured they would be better off with a Teufel-Backman platoon and they were right. Teufel was never a star, but had a lot of key hits for the Mets, and was one of the quiet, unsung heroes of the team. This was clearly a good deal for the Mets and a gamble for the Twins that didn’t pay off. Not only did none of the prospects the Mets sent them help much, but Teufel’s successor at second base, Steve Lombardozzi, never amounted to much either.

So, this was a fairly low profile deal that turned out quite nicely for the Mets.

About the Author: Barry Duchan

I've been following the Mets since 1962. Have to admit I was a Yankee fan as a kid, but I found it to be so much more interesting to see how a young team could build itself up rather than following a team where the season didn't really begin until October. I remember them all - Casey, Marv, ChooChoo, Don Bosch, The Stork, etc. As the years went on, I became more and more of a Mets fan, and a Yankee hater once Steinbrenner and Billy Martin entered the picture. After retiring, I relocated with my family from Long Island to Chapel Hill, NC in 2005. I spend a lot of my time now checking out all the various Mets blogs. Fortunately, I still get to watch almost all of the Mets games (except those that are blacked out here).

8 Comments + Add Comment

any March 4, 2012 at 2:39 pm

keep that platoon idea in mind when you see Bay trying to do something vs. RHP this season.
Peter R. March 4, 2012 at 3:02 pm

I always liked Teufel. Very underrated as a player and along with Gary Carter they distanced themselves from the raucous partying lifestyle of the other 86ers. I think he’ll have a leg up to replace Collins as manager whenever that day comes.
- Kay March 4, 2012 at 5:10 pm
  
  I always liked Teufal and I agree I think he’s going to be the next in line.
  
  As far as staying away from the craziness that was 86 guys read this:
  
  http://articles.philly.com/1986-07-20/sports/26095948_1_teufel-and-darling-york-manager-davey-johnson-ojeda-and-aguilera
  - Donal March 5, 2012 at 10:40 am
    
    Ya, but Darling and Tuefel managed to stay out of trouble for the most part. On that team, one drunken fight is pretty tame.
    
    I still maintain that Tuefel is set up to be Collins’ successor.
Sloatsburg Mets Fan March 4, 2012 at 4:40 pm

For a franchise that is known for their incredible scouting and efficiency, the Twins don’t usually do too well in trades with the Mets. Even if Johan’s arm falls off tomorrow, the Mets fleeced the Twins and even in the Viola trade, the key piece, David West never amounted to anything. On second though they did get a very good closer out of that…
RealityChuck March 4, 2012 at 5:10 pm

Teufel made an error that cost the Mets the first game of the ’86 series. The ball went between his legs. What impressed me was that after the game, he stayed in the locker room and took questions as long as people asked, and he took responsibility for the error, saying he should have made the play. A class act.
srt March 4, 2012 at 5:11 pm

Just goes to show how deep that ’86 team was.
One of the only holes Cashen thought they had going in was a right handed bat to team up with Backman at 2nd base.

And I could not have named who we gave up to get him either.
Metsie March 5, 2012 at 12:36 pm

I don’t have a problem with Teufel himself…
But many people back then think we didn’t need him and all he did was cost Backman playing time!

Granted many people said about backman what they used to say about castillo as far as PA are concerned…
But Backman was a better fielder than Teufel and Davey took an awful lot of grief giving Tuefel starts over Backman!

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