We’ll know pretty soon if Jesse Winker or Ryne Stanek will be among the best acquisitions made near the trade deadline. Based on Mets history, it doesn’t take much to do so. Certainly, a lot depends on not only their performance. But also the outcome of the Mets in their chase for a postseason and whatever happens beyond that. All those variables are why these five stand out.
For a time, this was the final date to deal. At the time in 1969, the Mets trailed the Chicago Cubs by eight games in the NL East and the offense averaged a meager 3.8 runs.
It’s not about getting the best player. It’s about getting the right player. Donn Clendenon was an ideal fit. The veteran first baseman was languishing with the expansion Expos after leaving the Pirates and even briefly retiring. Just as it was great for the Mets, he had found the right team, too. Clendenon had twelve home runs, thirty-seven RBIs, and a .777 OPS.
More importantly, he reinforced the Mets’ lineup against left-handed pitching, deepened a relatively thin bench, was defensively solid at first base, and added experience to a team that had never faced the pressures of a pennant race.
New York steamrolled to the division title and then conquered the National League pennant. Then came the World Series—when he batted .357 and went deep in Games 2, 4 and 5 to garner Most Valuable Player award honors. While the five players traded for him proved to be of small consequence, Clendenon enjoyed a better season in 1970: slugging .515, charting an OPS of .863 and driving in 97 runs.
Six years after the team’s darkest day (sending Tom Seaver to the Reds) came one of its best—and the greatest trade in Mets history.
In Cashen’s efforts to restore respectability, he had cultivated promising prospects that had reached—or were approaching—big-league status. But no amount of veteran leadership would come from the farm system. Cashen pulled a coup that put the Mets rebuild on the accelerator by getting Keith Hernandez.
The first baseman and St. Louis manager Whitey Herzog were at odds. It made the former MVP and multiple Gold Glove-winning first baseman expendable. All the Mets had to give up was a declining relief pitcher, Neil Allen, and another arm, Rick Ownbey, who would make seven more big-league starts and win once.
Hernandez’s leadership changed the attitude of the Mets. The team improved in each of his first three full seasons, culminating of course with the championship in 1986—a significant reason why his number is in the Citi Field rafters.
We’re getting a little creative, but for good reason. Beyond the trade deadline were opportunities to swap players via waivers. So in late August, as the Mets remained in sight of the Chicago Cubs for the NL East, they picked up a veteran third baseman. Ray Knight had been in the postseason with the Reds. He’d been an All-Star as a Red and Astro.
In addition to Hernandez and eventually Gary Carter, he brought much-needed experience to a relatively young (and emerging) team. He also provided a good helping of toughness—especially in 1986.
And when it counted, Knight was there in the big moments. In Game 6 of the ’86 NLCS, he delivered a key 16th-inning RBI single in Houston as New York eventually took the pennant. Against Boston in the World Series, he batted .391—including a two-out single in the all-important 10th inning of Game 6 that led to him scoring the winning run and the homer that broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning of Game 7 to help him win MVP.
His effect may not resonate like Clendenon, Hernandez or Knight. But the late outfielder played a role in consecutive postseason trips.
Acquired for outfielder Brian McRae and two minor league pitchers, Darryl Hamilton slashed .339/.410/.488 over the final two-plus months of the ’99 regular season as the Mets reached the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. And in those playoffs, Hamilton was solid there too with a batting average and on-base percentage at .353.
He spent much of the 2000 regular season injured, but for his 120 plate appearances which spanned 43 games, Hamilton went .276/.358/.362. He had just two hits that October, but one of them was crucial. It was in the top of the 10th in Game 2 of the NLDS at San Francisco. With two outs and the bases empty, Hamilton hustled out a double and then came around to score a tie-breaking run on Jay Payton’s single. That was the difference in a 5-4 victory.
The pitching staff was maturing on the fly, keeping the Mets above .500 and within arm’s reach of the NL East-leading Washington Nationals despite an offense short on power and shorter on depth. Remember John Mayberry Jr. and Eric Campbell?! That was what the Mets were trotting out in a starting lineup in late July.
Two days earlier, management infamously failed to acquire Carlos Gómez from Milwaukee. Jay Bruce became the focus next, but a path to that deal became impassable (for a year, at least). The target then became Yoenis Céspedes—18 home runs, 61 RBIs and a .293 average with Detroit.
At somewhere way too close to the 4:00 p.m. cutoff, Alderson shipped off two prospects for an instant offensive upgrade while avoiding a village full of unhappy fans on Mets Twitter. But no fan could have anticipated the ripple effect his addition would have. The leader of a three-month thrill ride to the NL pennant, Céspedes turned the lineup from powerless to powerhouse. Fifty-seven games, 17 home runs, and 44 RBIs later, the Mets were postseason-bound and eventually en route to the World Series.
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