When it rains, it pours, and it sure did pour for the 2009 Mets. The team only won 70 games, finished fourth in the NL East, and was plagued by injuries to most of their star players.
They also missed an opportunity to keep an all-star reliever locked up for multiple seasons during his prime because they didn’t give him a chance to prove himself.
That reliever was Darren O’Day.
O’Day was signed as a free agent out of college by the Angels in 2006, and appeared in 30 games for them in 2008, posting an ERA of 4.57 in 43.1 IP. He tore the labrum in his throwing shoulder in September of that year, and although surgery was not necessary, his sub-par numbers and injury risk factor were enough to leave him unprotected in the Rule 5 Draft.
In December of 2008, the Mets picked up O’Day in the Rule 5 and invited him to Spring Training. His performance that spring was solid enough to earn himself a spot on the 2009 Mets, a spot he did not hold onto for long.
O’Day walked one and gave up five hits with two unearned runs in his first three innings of work for the Mets, spread out across four games, and apparently the front office had seen enough. Nelson Figueroa was called upon to make a spot start in place of the injured Mike Pelfrey on April 19, and O’Day was designated for assignment to make room.
Oddly enough, Figueroa was designated for assignment as well the following game, before re-signing with the team later that month and going back to the minors. He was claimed off waivers by the Phillies in 2010.
O’Day, on the other hand, was claimed off waivers by the Texas Rangers a couple days after his designation. In 64 games for the Rangers in 2009, he posted a 1.94 ERA, striking out 8.73 batters per nine innings on average and adding 1.2 WAR on the season, a very respectable number for a reliever.
O’Day had similar numbers in 2010, with an ERA of 2.03 over 72 games, adding 1.1 more WAR to his already impressive resume. He did struggle in 2011, and was sidelined with a couple of injuries, but he traveled to Baltimore in 2012.
O’Day found a home with the Orioles, posting an ERA under 2.30 for four seasons in a row from 2012 to 2015, making the All-Star team in the latter of those years.
The Mets had a bullpen that headlined new pickups Francisco Rodriguez and J.J. Putz, both of which had higher ERA’s and lower WAR than O’Day in 2009, which they ultimately decided to stick with.
