Remember 1969: Who Won: Deals of History: 1989

 

Mets Trades through the years:  Who won?

(Hey, that looks like Reese and Remember about 50 years ago!) 

November 1988 through October 1989

Notes:   If anyone had any thoughts that the 1986 thru 1988 years would never end, they didn't get past the 1988-1989 trade season.   There were some sad days for Mets fans who had favorites on the team, perhaps none sadder than when Mookie was dealt.  

They were oh for seven in the trades that year.   Frank Viola had a very good year in 1990 for the Mets, but he was only around for three years, and Rick Aguilera ended up with 311 saves after being traded away.   He was one of the top closers in baseball through the decade of the 90's.   Kevin Tapani went on to win 143 games in his post Mets career.     I had forgotten he had that kind of career.   That trade was more lopsided than I remember.   It is on the list for possibly one of the five worst in Mets history.

The full damage:  

(1)  New York Mets traded Reggie Dobie to the Seattle Mariners for Chuck Carr  (Nov 20, 1988)

(2)  New York Mets traded Wally Backman and Mike Santiago to the Minnesota Twins for Toby Nivens, Steve Gasser and Jeff Bumgarner  (Dec 07, 1988)

(3)  New York Mets traded Steve Frey to the Montreal Expos for Tom O’Malley and Mark Bailey  (Mar 28, 1989)

(4)  New York Mets traded Terry Leach to the Kansas City Royals for Aguedo Vasquez  (Jun 09, 1989)

(5)  New York Mets traded Lenny Dykstra, Roger McDowell and Tom Edens to the Philadelphia Phillies for Juan Samuel  (Jun 18, 1989)

(6)  New York Mets traded Rick Aguilera, David West, Kevin Tapani, Tim Drummond and Jack Savage to the Minnesota Twins for Frank Viola   (Jul 31, 1989)

(7)  New York Mets traded Mookie Wilson to the Toronto Blue Jays for Jeff Musselman and Mike Brady  (Aug 01, 1989)

Final thoughts:   Unlike 1990, when every player in MLB trades actually played in the majors, there were a lot of career minor-leaguers involved in these seven trades.   Steve Gasser had a Mets career ERA of 19.50 in just 5 games for Single A Columbia before finishing the year and career in the Atlanta system.     Mike Santiago, the throw-in in the Backman trade, never played major or minor league ball again.   Jeff Bumgarner never got to AAA with the Mets (or ever again after a cup of coffee with Portland in the Twins organization before the trade).   Mike Brady was the last of the bunch to come over - he never made it out of Single A. 

Trivia:  Terry Leach was an anti-Tom Brennan guy as he was 24-9 with the Mets (including 18-3 across '87-'88) and 14-18 with everybody else.