Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Mets history has certainly given us many more bad trades than good, but let’s look on the bright side and reminisce about one of the best trades the Mets have ever made on the 40th anniversary of it happening.

A trade hatched by Frank Cashen, certainly the best general manager the Mets have ever had, at least to this point.

By now, you probably figured out I’m talking about the Keith Hernandez trade, a deal that certainly paved the way for the second World Series championship in franchise history.

The Keith Hernandez trade of June 15, 1983, is explained in detail in one of the finest baseball books I have ever read, “White Rat – A Life In Baseball” by Whitey Herzog and Kevin Horrigan.

As Cardinals’ manager/GM, Herzog made some outstanding deals and a couple of real clinkers. Even worse than the Hernandez deal is an earlier one that may rank as one of the worst trades ever – Ted Simmons, Pete Vuckovich, and Rollie Fingers for Sixto Lezcano, Lary Sorensen, Dave LaPoint, and David Green (then considered the best prospect in the game). But back to the Hernandez deal.

As the 1983 season went on, Herzog felt that Keith Hernandez was dogging it. Herzog said he knew nothing of Keith’s drug use, but he couldn’t believe how lazy Keith was becoming. He wasn’t running out ground balls, and he seemed to be spending most of his time before games smoking cigarettes and doing crossword puzzles.

Other players were complaining to Herzog about Keith’s lack of hustle, and Whitey’s coaches told him that even though the club was in first place, Hernandez was “poisoning” the whole team.

Herzog also thought the Cardinals needed pitching and felt that Hernandez still had excellent trade value and that Hernandez’ salary demands for his next contract were going to be far out of line with his value to the team.

The Cardinals also had a red-hot minor league hitter in Andy Van Slyke, who deserved a chance in the big leagues. So, Herzog decided that moving George Hendrick to first base and Van Slyke to the Cardinals’ outfield and dealing Hernandez for pitching help was the way to go.

When Lonnie Smith came forward admitting to a cocaine habit and possibly insinuating that he was not the only member of the team doing drugs, some suspicion arose concerning Hernandez.

The Cardinals began shopping Keith, but there were few interested parties. All the other teams were scared of his contract, and there was a definite buzz of drug rumors.

Only Frank Cashen of the Mets showed any interest. The deal was to be Neil Allen, who the Cardinals were going to turn into a starter, and the Mets’ most promising young pitcher, Rick Ownbey, in exchange for Hernandez. When Cashen agreed, that was it.

Hernandez’s initial reaction to going to the Mets was negative, and he was pretty sure he would opt out and become a free agent, but the Mets’ young talent and Hernandez’ quick adjustment to New York City changed his mind.

Keith also put his drug problems behind him and became an integral part of a Mets team that won a World Championship and probably should have won a couple more.

Meanwhile, Neil Allen faded quickly, and Rick Ownbey surprisingly never made it at all, making this one of those one-sided deals the Mets were very famous for, only this time it was in their favor.

Keith, of course, went on to become a part of the best team of baseball announcers for the Mets after he hung up his spikes, joining 1986 teammate Ron Darling and Gary Cohen. It cemented Keith Hernandez’s place in Mets lore. The Mets finally retired his No. 17 earlier this season.

The post 40th Anniversary of Mets Acquiring Keith Hernandez appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

As is still the case today, every team gets to send at least one player to the All Star Game. In 1962 and 1963, the Mets sent Richie Ashburn and Duke Snider respectively, although both were well past their prime. But in 1964, for the first time, a Met was selected to start in the All Star Game and that was second baseman Ron Hunt.

Because the game was played at Shea Stadium (a game I attended, I even remember paying $2.10 for a general admission ticket), you might think the fans stuffed the ballot to get one of their hometown favorites into the game, but in 1964, voting was done not by the fans but by the players.

Hunt had to beat out Pete Rose of the Reds who was rookie of the year in 1963, ahead of Hunt who finished second, the Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski who was regarded as one of the best second basemen of all time and is now in the Hall of Fame, and the Cardinals’ Julian Javier among others.

For those too young to remember, Hunt, who was acquired from the Braves before the 1963 season for cash following a solid season in the AA Texas League, fit all those cliches applied to players who didn’t have great tools like power, speed, defense or a sweet swing. No, what Hunt had was grit, toughness, a dirty uniform, and a do-anything-to-win attitude.

Although it wasn’t until after leaving the Mets that Hunt turned getting hit by a pitch into an art form setting records in that category, Hunt was clearly the first Met that fans could legitimately be proud of. Yet Hunt didn’t even start the 1963 season as the Mets’ second baseman. Rather it was Larry Burright who had come over from the Dodgers. Hunt soon seized his opportunity and held the job.

But it seemed to me that the front office didn’t appreciate Ron the way the fans did. In fact, less than 2 weeks after the 1964 All Star Game, the Mets purchased Bobby Klaus from the Reds and immediately installed him at second base, supplanting Hunt who moved over to third. I don’t know what Hunt thought about it but Mets’ fans were shocked.

The Mets could certainly use all the help they could get, but second base was the only position where the Mets were seemingly set. Actually, the Reds had briefly replaced Pete Rose with Klaus, so Bobby must have had some amazing scouting reports that didn’t translate to big league success.

In a short time, Hunt and Klaus switched positions although Klaus never hit enough to really earn any spot in the lineup. He did fill in for Hunt when Ron was injured in 1965, hit under .200 and that was it for his career.

Meanwhile, Hunt continued to be a bright spot on terrible Met teams (All Star again in 1966) until he was traded away along with Jim Hickman in the Tommy Davis deal in November of 1966. Ron went on to have a solid big league career most notably with the Giants and Expos and his knack for getting hit by pitches has become his legacy but Mets fans will always remember him as the team’s first young star.

The post Ron Hunt: A Mets’ Star Is Born appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

On June 7, 1963, one day after his 19th birthday, a tough and scrawny kid who weighed 150 pounds soaking wet, signed with the New York Mets.  His name… Bud Harrelson.

Back in 1963 and 1964 when fringe-major leaguer Al Moran and later, aging veteran Roy McMillan were playing shortstop for the Mets, the minor league system was developing two promising shortstops, one of whom who would hopefully be the long-term heir to the job.

On the Mets’ Raleigh farm team, the shortstop was Wilbur Huckle, a hustling good-hands type who was signed to his first professional contract at age 24.

Meanwhile at Salinas, there was a spindly 150-pounder with a strong arm and good range but who was error-prone and barely hit .220, a 19-year-old Californian named Derrel (Bud) Harrelson.

Huckle went on to play eight years in the Mets’ farm system, never getting called up to the Majors, but still became somewhat of a mini-cult figure because of his name and appearance (red hair and tons of freckles) and his reputation for being the first player to shower and leave the clubhouse after a game.

Harrelson, on the other hand, despite his unimpressive batting statistics, quickly became a hot prospect and of course, eventually one of the key cogs for the 1969 Championship team and 1973 pennant winners.

After spending 1963 and 1964 in the Class-A California League, Harrelson jumped all the way to Triple-A Buffalo in 1965,  where he hit a surprisingly high (for him) .251 and began to be taken seriously by Mets’ fans as a prospect.

Harrelson was even brought up to the big club at the end of the Triple-A season for a quick look. However in 1966, it was back to Triple-A where the Mets had relocated to Jacksonville. There, Bud’s roommate was the newly-signed Tom Seaver. The two Northern Californians became fast friends and Bud began to switch-hit to take advantage of his speed and lack of power.

Although he never really became a good hitter, he did become a smarter one, and his arm, defense, and on-field leadership made him a fan favorite.  If his offensive numbers didn’t measure up to what one might expect from a prospect, his on-field contributions surely did.

In his 16-year career, 13 of which were with the Mets, Harrelson squeaked out a. 236 average and a miniscule. 616 OPS.

However his defense at shortstop was unparalleled despite winning just one National League Gold Glove award.

Harrelson set a since-broken major-league record of 54 consecutive errorless games at shortstop in 1970.

Other memories of Bud : the National Guard Duty that kept him out of the lineup in 1969 and gave the even-lighter-hitting Al Weis his opportunity to shine, the 1973 fight with Pete Rose that brought Bud to national prominence, the trade to the Phillies that reunited Bud with Tug McGraw and produced his best hitting year and so much more, but let me just say that Bud Harrelson was definitely one prospect who made it as promised.

Harrelson, of course, went on to be a Mets’ coach, manager, and eventually Manager and President of the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks.

A born and bred Californian who became a lifelong New Yorker and a member of the Mets’ Hall of Fame, Bud Harrelson is one of the most prominent names in Mets’ history.

The post Hey Mets Fans, This Bud’s For You appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

In their long history, the Mets have had more than their share of young players who were dealt away and became stars with other teams. Nolan Ryan and Amos Otis are probably the two names mentioned most often. And the trading of future MVPs Kevin Mitchell and Jeff Kent were in retrospect, major mistakes, too.

But the very first star the Mets let get away was the defensively-gifted Paul Blair, who became nothing less than the premier center fielder in the American League for 10 years while the Mets were constantly trying to fill the void.

The Mets tried Jim Hickman, Johnny Lewis, Billy Cowan, and Don Bosch among others before landing Tommie Agee to fill the role nicely for a couple of years.

Then, the drought began again with the likes of Don Hahn, Dave Schneck, Jim Gosger and Del Unser getting most of the playing time in center field while Blair and then Otis were still among the best center fielders in the game.

Blair had always been a shortstop, until he got into the minor leagues. The Orioles made him a full-time outfielder, and he quickly became the top non-pitching prospect in their organization. The Dodgers refused to sign Blair out of high school, because they thought he was too small to make it the big leagues. He was signed by the Mets originally, for a $2,000 bonus. He played one year for the Mets’ Santa Barbara club in the California League in 1962, batting .228 while playing both infield and outfield.

The Mets didn’t have many prospects following the 1962 season, so their failure to protect Blair by putting him on the 40-man roster is tough to excuse. Obviously, the Orioles saw something in him that the Mets didn’t and drafted him as a first-year player for $8,000 while the Mets were still searching for anyone who could play center field.

“Fortunately, I played for a manager who was smart enough to realize that saving a run is just as good as scoring one,” Blair once said of famed Orioles skipper Earl Weaver.

“As long as I fielded the heck out of my position, he was going to have me in that lineup regardless of my hitting. So I dedicated myself to making a science out of playing center field.”

Blair went on to have an excellent career. While his hitting was never his strong suit, in 1969, Blair hit .276 with 26 home runs and 76 RBI. Oddly, the exact homer and RBI totals that Tommie Agee put up for the Mets, and with a better average than Agee.

And of course, Blair had a much longer and more consistent career than Agee. So, letting Blair go was a mistake of major proportions. Especially when you figure that if the Mets had kept Blair, there would have been no reason to make deals for Cowan, Bosch, or Agee. So, the Mets could have used what trading chips they had for help in other areas.

“He played very shallow. People talked about how Willie Mays played shallow, and Paul did the same thing. He played with assuredness,” said Don Buford who played alongside Blair in left field for five seasons in Baltimore. “When you talk about the greatest defensive center fielders, he was right in the mix.”

When you consider all the ones that got away from the Mets, no doubt Nolan Ryan will head that list, but Paul Blair should be right behind him.

Blair passed away in 2013 after playing a round of golf with friends and then suddenly collapsing and losing consciousness. He played 13 seasons with the Orioles and four with the Yankees, winning two World Series titles with each team. Blair won eight Gold Gloves and was widely considered one of best defensive center fielders of all time.

The post Paul Blair: The One Who Got Away appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Dave Kingman was one of the most fascinating players in Mets’ history. Because he played in one of the Mets’ major down periods – the mid ‘70’s to early ‘80’s, you  don’t hear his name mentioned much in Mets’ retrospectives, but for a while, he was clearly the Mets’ biggest star and one of their very few drawing cards, at least at home. If remembered at all, it’s as a low-average power hitter who struck out a ton, but Kingman deserves to be remembered for so much more.

Kingman was an outstanding pitcher in High School up through his sophomore year at USC, but coach Rod Dedaux thought he could help the team more as a regular player. Kingman reportedly wanted to stay a pitcher and it seemed at times throughout his career he was angry about something. That might have been it.

Kingman was  drafted by the Giants out of USC and rose to the big leagues quickly, mostly because of his prodigious power. At 6’6 with a long sweeping swing,  Kingman certainly looked the part. His long legs also gave him above average speed on the bases, but his defense was mediocre at best.

Dave always seemed to give the impression that fielding was a part of the game he wasn’t very interested in.  It was ironic that Kingman who was made for the role of designated hitter spent the first 10 years of his major league career in the National League where he was forced to play the field.

Since the Giants always seemed well stocked in the outfield and at first base, Kingman’s last shot at staying with the team as a regular was at third base, but found wanting there, he was sold to the Mets before the 1975 season.

For a cash deal, this proved to be a great pickup for the Mets as “Kong” (a nickname he hated) went on to set a club record for homeruns with 36 in 1975 and broke it the following year.

Although it’s hard to say he was one of  the Mets’ most popular players since reporters characterized him as surly and uncooperative, he was certainly one of the few players  Mets’ fans came out to see on an otherwise dull and uncompetitive team.

Kingman hit some of the longest home runs in history while a Met, but like the greatest Met of all, Tom Seaver,  Kingman  let it be known that he considered himself underpaid and dissatisfied with the direction of the team and that led to a ticket out of town, being traded to San Diego on June 15, 1977, the same day  Seaver was traded to the Reds.

Kingman brought back the underwhelming package of mediocre pitcher Paul Siebert and future Mets’ manager, then fading utility player, Bobby Valentine. Toward  the end of the 1977 season, San Diego let him go and Kingman appeared for both the Angels and Yankees, helping the Yankees win the division.

Following the season, he signed a free agent deal with the Cubs, but eventually wound up back with the Mets during the early years of the Wilpon/Cashen regime in a trade for Steve Henderson. Although Kingman continued to hit some long home runs, once the Mets dealt for Keith Hernandez and seriously began to build a winner , Kingman’s value to the team declined and he was released at the end of the season.

Today, Kingman is remembered more for his sour disposition than his long homeruns, although as a Met he was relatively well-behaved. It was as a Cub that Kingman dumped ice water on a reporter’s head, and as an Oakland Athletic following his second stint with the Mets, he sent a female reporter a package containing a live rat.

Despite hitting over 400 homeruns, no one (least of all, reporters who vote) considered Kingman a candidate for the Hall of Fame. But Mets fans like me will never forget the anticipation every time Kingman came to the plate, unmatched in Mets’ history.

The post Mets Sultan of Swat, Dave Kingman appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Over 50 Years Later, A Look Back To 1967’s Top Mets Prospects

With the proliferation of web sites now dedicated to evaluating minor league prospects, fans have a fairly easy-time reciting their team’s top minor leaguers, usually “in order”.

Back in the ’80’s, there was only Baseball America to provide this glimpse into the future.

In retrospect, there were many more misses than hits, but it’s fun to look back on these lists and reflect — like whatever happened to one-time Mets’ top prospects like Tito Navarro and Rick Ownbey ?

Before Baseball America was born in 1980, prospect hunters looked forward to the annual March issue of Baseball Digest — which was dedicated to providing scouting reports of every rookie listed on every major league team’s 40-man roster.

These reports were usually extremely conservative. For example, several future Hall Of Famers were tagged with “has a chance at the big leagues”.

They listed the prospects alphabetically by team, so you’d have to read the reports in order to make a mental 1 to 10 list.

Thankfully, I’ve saved all of these issues from the sixties.

Just prior to the 1967 season, the Mets were loaded with prospects and had 17 of them listed, although a few players like Al Schmelz and Bart Shirley weren’t even projected for the big leagues at any time.

These lists also were restricted to the 40-man rosters, so #1 draft pick Steve Chilcott doesn’t show up (although he would have certainly rated near the top for potential alone).

Below is my list of the Mets’ top prospects for 1967 with scouting reports courtesy of Baseball Digest.

The rankings are based on how Baseball Digest projected the player’s chances, and the words are verbatim from their published scouting reports:

1. Don Bosch CF – Good speed, fine fielder. Can be a good centerfielder. Sure to make big leagues.

2. Tom Seaver RHP – Good fastball. Curve only fair. Control and fielding OK. First year man with hard fast one. Best of futures on Jacksonville club.

3. Greg Goossen C – Has a power bat. Very good looking young hitter. Crude catcher and needs work. Should improve and have chance for a solid long major league career.

4. Nolan Ryan RHP – Must be considered a major league future at this time. Fastball good and poise better than average.

5. Les Rohr LHP – Has tools including good arm. All he needs is to learn to move ball around and improve curve. Fastball is alive. If he continues improvement, has good future, even majors.

6. Ken Boswell 2B – Hitting improved from beginning to end of ’66. Fairly good fielder now and should get better. Not ready yet, but should be with another year of 3A.

7. Jerry Koosman LHP – Fair fastball. Average curve. Control only fair. Needs to improve curveball and help in control. Needs to pitch more.

8. Joe Moock IF – Pretty good hitter. Good arm. Needs improvement in field.

9. Terry Christman LHP – Has one of best moves to first seen in minors. Also has better than average curve and poise. Fair fastball, curve, and control.

10. Bob Heise IF – Good competitor. Good hustler. Hits better than average with fair power. Throwing fair.

Looking back on this list, of course Bosch was a major disappointment, Seaver, Ryan, and Koosman were severely underrated, and Rohr never lived up to his “raw potential”.

Goossen had a decent major league career after he left the Mets, but was never a star, and Boswell basically became what was expected.

So, even though this was 46 years ago, the list is not unlike the modern Top 10 Prospect lists when viewed in retrospect.

Of course, most teams’ annual prospect lists don’t include two future Hall Of Famers and another who was almost in that class.

This was possibly the Mets’ best group of prospects ever.

The post 1967 Mets: Best Crop Of Prospects Ever? appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

As is still the case today, every team gets to send at least one player to the All Star Game. In 1962 and 1963, the Mets sent Richie Ashburn and Duke Snider respectively, although both were well past their prime. But in 1964, for the first time, a Met was selected to start in the All Star Game and that was second baseman Ron Hunt.

Because the game was played at Shea Stadium (a game I attended, I even remember paying $2.10 for a general admission ticket), you might think the fans stuffed the ballot to get one of their hometown favorites into the game, but in 1964, voting was done not by the fans but by the players.

Hunt had to beat out Pete Rose of the Reds who was rookie of the year in 1963, ahead of Hunt who finished second, the Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski who was regarded as one of the best second basemen of all time and is now in the Hall of Fame, and the Cardinals’ Julian Javier among others.

For those too young to remember, Hunt, who was acquired from the Braves before the 1963 season for cash following a solid season in the AA Texas League, fit all those cliches applied to players who didn’t have great tools like power, speed, defense or a sweet swing. No, what Hunt had was grit, toughness, a dirty uniform, and a do-anything-to-win attitude.

Although it wasn’t until after leaving the Mets that Hunt turned getting hit by a pitch into an art form setting records in that category, Hunt was clearly the first Met that fans could legitimately be proud of. Yet Hunt didn’t even start the 1963 season as the Mets’ second baseman. Rather it was Larry Burright who had come over from the Dodgers. Hunt soon seized his opportunity and held the job.

But it seemed to me that the front office didn’t appreciate Ron the way the fans did. In fact, less than 2 weeks after the 1964 All Star Game, the Mets purchased Bobby Klaus from the Reds and immediately installed him at second base, supplanting Hunt who moved over to third. I don’t know what Hunt thought about it but Mets’ fans were shocked.

The Mets could certainly use all the help they could get, but second base was the only position where the Mets were seemingly set. Actually, the Reds had briefly replaced Pete Rose with Klaus, so Bobby must have had some amazing scouting reports that didn’t translate to big league success.

In a short time, Hunt and Klaus switched positions although Klaus never hit enough to really earn any spot in the lineup. He did fill in for Hunt when Ron was injured in 1965, hit under .200 and that was it for his career.

Meanwhile, Hunt continued to be a bright spot on terrible Met teams (All Star again in 1966) until he was traded away along with Jim Hickman in the Tommy Davis deal in November of 1966. Ron went on to have a solid big league career most notably with the Giants and Expos and his knack for getting hit by pitches has become his legacy but Mets fans will always remember him as the team’s first young star.

The post Happy Birthday to Ron Hunt: The Mets’ First All-Star appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Jon Matlack‘s career record of 125-126 may be as mediocre as you can get, but Matlack was a much, much better than average major league pitcher. In fact, he was one of the very finest left-handed pitchers ever developed by the Mets’ organization.

His other career marks – a 3.18 lifetime ERA (better than Steve Carlton, who was considered the best lefty of his generation), 97 complete games, and 30 shutouts attest to the fact that he was a workhorse, who when he was on, was as good as anyone.

Matlack holds several important distinctions as a Met, although not necessarily statistical ones. To begin with, he was the Mets’ very first GOOD first round amateur draft pick.

In ’65 with the second pick, the Mets selected the forgettable Les Rohr. With the first pick in ’66, they opted for Steve Chilcott over Reggie Jackson and we all know how that turned out.

In 1967, having advanced to ninth place the previous season, they didn’t get to pick until the No. 4 slot. The first three picks were Ron Blomberg, Terry Hughes, and Mike Garman. The Mets, up next, chose Matlack, a 6-foot-3 left-handed pitcher out of high school in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Certainly you could make a case that later first round picks like John Mayberry and Ted Simmons turned out better, but there’s no doubt that the Mets’ selction of Matlack was better than the three choices that preceded him that year and a whole lot better than most of the Mets’ No. 1’s through the years.

Next, Matlack was the first of the Mets’ hot young pitching prospects to be brought along slowly, getting three full seasons in Triple-A before being brought up for a cup of coffee in 1971. Prior to his extended hitch in Triple-A, in his first full year in the minors, 1968, Matlack had a superb year, going 13-6 2.76 with 188 strikeouts in 173 innings for Single-A Raleigh-Durham.

Considering how the likes of Les Rohr, Dennis Musgraves, Ron Locke, Tug McGraw, Grover Powell, Tom Seaver, et al were force-fed to the big leagues based on single year minor league performances, you would have almost expected Matlack to be given a shot at the Mets’ rotation in 1969 or 1970 at the latest.

But starting pitching was the Mets’ strong suit and that gave the organization the luxury of nurturing Matlack until he was unquestionably big-league ready. And in 1972, he certainly was, going 15-10 with a  2.32 ERA and 1.172 WHIP with the Mets, and winning the National League Rookie-of-the-Year Award.

Matlack was a solid starter for the Mets for six years, and while he never became Tom Seaver or Jerry Koosman, he impressed nonetheless. In 1974, Matlack posted the finest season of his career and one of the top five seasons ever by a Mets pitcher.

That season, despite the poorest run support in the league, he led the majors with seven shutouts and a 2.42 FIP while winning just 13 games.  He completed 14 of his 34 starts, and led all pitchers with a 7.2 fWAR.

Matlack was a three-time All-Star  for the Mets and became the only player in franchise history to win an All-Star Game MVP award, sharing most valuable player honors in 1975 with Bill Madlock of the Chicago Cubs.

He was eventually dealt away to Texas prior to the 1978 season in a bizarre four-team trade involving a lot of big name players. I won’t go into the details here, but I’ve always wondered how that one came about.

Matlack pitched decently for the Rangers, but was out of baseball before he turned 34. In 1989, at the age of 39, Matlack resurfaced in the late, lamented Senior Professional Baseball Association where he had a solid 10-2 record, making him one of the few well-known players in the league to deliver more than “name value.”

I’ll always remember him as a true quality starter who unfortunately pitched on too many Mets’ teams that couldn’t score enough runs to make a pitcher with a 3.00 ERA and 1.19 WHIP a winner. In his 6 1/2 seasons with the Mets he accumulated a 26.6 WAR.

Happy 70th birthday, Jon!

The post Happy Birthday to the Underrated Lefty, Jon Matlack appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

With the New York Mets having their sights set on a playoff-bound 2020 season, Brodie Van Wagenen is looking to pull the trigger on a significant trade according to some reports.

So far this offseason, the Mets have made a series of sensible moves, inking Rick Porcello, Dellin Betances and Brad Brach to one-year deals and dealing for center fielder Jake Marisnick.

However, the thought of Van Wagenen making another blockbuster type deal may raise the hairs on the back of your neck for some fans still trying to get over last year’s trade for Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz.

Mets history has certainly given us many more bad trades than good, but let’s look on the bright side and reminisce about one of the best trades the Mets have ever made…

A trade hatched by Frank Cashen, certainly the best general manager the Mets have ever had, at least to this point.

By now you probably figured out I’m talking about the Keith Hernandez trade, a deal that certainly paved the way for the second World Series championship in franchise history.

The Keith Hernandez trade of June 15, 1983 is explained in detail in one of the finest baseball books I have ever read, “White Rat – A Life In Baseball” by Whitey Herzog and Kevin Horrigan.

As Cardinals’ manager/GM, Herzog made some outstanding deals and a couple of real clinkers. Even worse than the Hernandez deal is an earlier one that may rank as one of the worst trades ever – Ted Simmons, Pete Vuckovich, and Rollie Fingers for Sixto Lezcano, Lary Sorensen, Dave LaPoint, and David Green (then considered the best prospect in the game). But back to the Hernandez deal.

As the 1983 season went on, Herzog felt that Keith Hernandez was dogging it. Herzog said he knew nothing of Keith’s drug use, but he couldn’t believe how lazy Keith was becoming. He wasn’t running out ground balls and he seemed to be spending most of his time before games smoking cigarettes and doing crossword puzzles.

Other players were complaining to Herzog about Keith’s lack of hustle, and Whitey’s coaches told him that even though the club was in first place, Hernandez was “poisoning” the whole team.

Herzog also thought the Cardinals needed pitching and felt that Hernandez still had excellent trade value and that Hernandez’ salary demands for his next contract were going to be far out of line with his value to the team.

The Cardinals also had a red-hot minor league hitter in Andy Van Slyke who deserved a chance in the big leagues. So, Herzog decided that moving George Hendrick to first base and Van Slyke to the Cardinals’ outfield and dealing Hernandez for pitching help was the way to go.

When Lonnie Smith came forward admitting to a cocaine habit and possibly insinuating that he was not the only member of the team doing drugs, some suspicion arose concerning Hernandez.

The Cardinals began shopping Keith, but there were few interested parties. All the other teams were scared of his contract and there was a definite buzz of drug rumors.

Only Frank Cashen of the Mets showed any interest. The deal was to be Neil Allen who the Cardinals were going to turn into a starter, and the Mets’ most promising young pitcher, Rick Ownbey, in exchange for Hernandez. When Cashen agreed, that was it.

Hernandez’ initial reaction to going to the Mets was negative and he was pretty sure he would opt out and become a free agent, but the Mets’ young talent and Hernandez’ quick adjustment to New York City changed his mind.

Keith also put his drug problems behind him and became an integral part of a Mets’ team that won a World Championship and probably should have won a couple more.

Meanwhile, Neil Allen faded quickly and Rick Ownbey surprisingly never made it at all, making this one of those one-sided deals the Mets were very famous for, only this time it was in their favor.

Keith, of course, went on to become a part of the best team of baseball announcers for the Mets after he hung up his spikes, joining 1986 teammate Ron Darling and Gary Cohen. It cemented Keith Hernandez’s place in Mets lore.

The post Amazin Trades: Frank Cashen Deals For Keith Hernandez appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

On December 8, 1977, the Mets were one of four teams involved in one of the most complex deals in the history of baseball. Here is how it played out:

• The Mets sent John Milner to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• The Atlanta Braves sent Willie Montanez to the New York Mets.
• The Texas Rangers sent Adrian Devine, Tommy Boggs, and Eddie Miller to the Atlanta Braves.
• The Texas Rangers sent a player to be named later and Tom Grieve to the New York Mets.
• The Texas Rangers sent Bert Blyleven to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates sent Al Oliver and Nelson Norman to the Texas Rangers.
• The New York Mets sent Jon Matlack to the Texas Rangers.
• The Texas Rangers sent Ken Henderson (March 15, 1978) to the New York Mets to complete the trade.

I wish I could tell you who conceived this deal and how it fell into place, but frankly, I have no idea. For the Mets’ part, they replaced John Milner with Willie Montanez and sent Matlack away for Tom Grieve and Ken Henderson.

Mets fans were still in shock from the Tom Seaver trade four months earlier and now the Mets were trading away another top arm. Manager Joe Torre called it a win for the Mets.

“You never have enough pitching,” Torre said. “But we felt that we had enough arms —untested arms, true. We also had to give up pitching to get offense, because pitching was the one thing we had to offer. And we gave up experience in Matlack. Still, we think that we’ve strengthened the team.”

Montanez was considered a better all-around player and certainly flashier than Milner, but I think that Met fans were disappointed with Willie’s production and expected a major upgrade from Milner.

Actually, the one full year Willie spent with the Mets wasn’t bad statistically (.256, 32 2B, 17 HR, 96 RBI), but he seemed to fail a lot in big spots and hit his best in one-sided games.

Ironically, the following season, the Mets sent Montanez to Texas, another of the parties in the original deal, in exchange for Ed Lynch and Mike Jorgensen and a couple of years later, the Pirates traded Milner even-up to Montreal for Montanez.

As for the other part of the trade for the Mets, it turned out to be a lot less than either side expected. Matlack had one solid year for the Rangers, but that was about it. Neither Grieve nor Henderson was anything other than a part-time player, though the Mets were expecting more, I’m sure.

The big names in the deal were Blyleven and Oliver, so maybe the deal started out as a one-for-one and other general managers just joined the party. I suppose after giving up Blyleven, the Rangers needed another pitcher and that’s how Matlack got involved, but it looks to me like the Mets were a pawn in this trade, and they were probably fortunate it didn’t turn out any worse than it did for them.

The post Dissecting the Four-Team Trade That Sent Jon Matlack to Texas appeared first on Metsmerized Online.