In 1973, our Mets reached the pinnacle of baseball for the second time in five years. The legendary Willie Mays was able to end his career as a World Series champion instead of how the real 1973 ended, with Mays being remembered for several flubbed plays in that championship contest. Tom Seaver won his second Cy Young Award and the Mets squad, full of players that were now old hats at pennant races, the playoffs and the World Series, were looking at the upcoming season as an attempt to cement a legacy that had started to build when they first broke through as contenders in 1968.
Here’s the roster that the Mets would have finished 1973 with:
Dick Allen
Bob Apodaca
Rick Auerbach
Bob Bailey
Buzz Capra
Rich Chiles
Larry Fritz
Wayne Garrett
Jerry Grote
Bud Harrelson
Buddy Harris
Greg Harts
Bob Johnson
Von Joshua
Jerry Koosman
Ted Martinez
Jon Matlack
Willie Mays
Tug McGraw
Felix Millan
John Milner
Tommy Moore
Carl Morton
Amos Otis
Harry Parker
Bob Reynolds
Ray Sadecki
Dave Schneck
Tom Seaver
Duke Sims
Roy Staiger
Rusty Staub
Randy Sterling
Bill Stein
George Stone
Brent Strom
Bill Sudackis
Hank Webb
Bernie Williams
Minors – Greg Erardi
As mentioned earlier, the offseason began with the legendary Mays retiring from professional baseball. The Mets would give Mays a job in the organization as a roving instructor, but our Mets have allowed Mays to end his career on a high note like so few other plays were ever given.
The Mets would also designate Harris for assignment. Without options and with a plethora of young arms in the system, Harris was redundant. Harris would retire instead of spending more time in the minor leagues.
With three roster spots open, the Mets would protect a trio of young hitters in Benny Ayala, Bruce Boisclair and Ike Hampton. Hampton and Ayala were the most exciting as Ayala had right handed power that the Mets had never been able to truly develop in their system and Hampton was a switch hitting catcher with power.
The Mets offseason leading into 1974 was quiet. The team was pretty complete, with a five quality starters in Seaver, Koosman, Matlack, Morton and Stone, a deep bullpen and a group of young arms at Triple-a that can be called up when necessary. The lineup was also deep, with Otis and Staub cemented in centerfield and rightfield, Bailey holding down third base, Millan giving stability to second base and Grote leading a catching platoon with the power hitting Sudakis. The only question marks on the team would have been at shortstop, where Harrelson hadn’t been healthy in two years and left field, where Milner had shown some promise, but still struggled against left handed pitching.
To help with both of these situations, the Mets would make one trade prior to the start of the season when they send Johnson to the Phillies for Cesar Tovar.
Johnson had shown some promise, but never lived up to his potential. He was also the odd man out in the starting rotation and one of a group of strong arms in the bullpen. Tovar fit the roster better and would be sold in the actual 1973 to 1974 offseason to the Rangers, so this one for one swap that fits both teams’ needs would have definitely gone through. Tovar also made the roster that much deeper, as he could play multiple positions on the field and bat leadoff. This was important as Otis had been manning that position, for the most part, for several years, but was a talented enough hitter to lengthen the lineup hitting in the middle of the order.
As spring training began, the only real questions on the roster were related to players without options. One such competition was for a back-up outfield spot between left handed hitting Joshua and the right handed hitting Williams. Both players needed to be passed through waivers to get them back to the minor leagues and neither had cemented a spot on the roster in previous seasons. Both were still young and had shown talent in the minor leagues, so the Mets were loath to lose both. In the end, the left handed hitting Joshua was kept and the Mets attempted to slide Williams through waivers at the end of spring training, to no avail. The Padres claimed the young outfielder and agreed to trade minor league pitcher Steve Simpson for him. This is realistic as Williams was originally a part of the trade that sent Willie McCovey to the Padres in the actual offseason. The Mets obviously liked something about Simpson because they would trade Jim McAndrew for him in the real offseason. Our Mets traded McAndrew several years ago, so instead they move Williams.
Another spring training move would occur at catcher. The Mets were pretty solid on Grote and Sudakis sharing duties after Sudakis’ strong season with the bat. Sims had been a quality back-up for the club, but his at bat’s had waned with his age. Several young catchers were brought to camp and young prospect Ron Hodges had specifically impressed. As spring training came to a close, the Mets decided to go with Hodges as the left handed hitting bench catcher instead of Sims. Sims was placed on the market and the Yankees snapped him up for veteran reliever Wayne Granger. The Mets felt that Granger, who had once been a dominant reliever for the Reds, but had struggled in recent years, could give them more on the roster than Sims, while allowing for a spot for Hodges. This also led to the release of Chiles as he was a lesser prospect and the Mets would rather use that spot for Hodges.
With the roster set, the season commenced. Originally, 1974 was an unmitigated disaster, where the NL champions from 1973 fell into a rut, losing more games than they won for the first time since 1968. Our Mets have too much talent for that.
The original 1974 Mets had Don Hahn and Schneck manning centerfield and posting a negative 1.5 WAR. Otis, who handles centerfield for our team, had a 4.9 WAR. Just replacing Otis for the Hahn/Schneck platoon creates a 6.4 win change for the club. WAR doesn’t connect directly with wins and losses, but Otis is just the tip of the iceberg here. Our Mets didn’t sell Capra to the Braves in 1974 and are the benefits of his magnificent 1974 season, allowing for a better replacement for Stone than the original 1974 Mets had when he went down with an arm injury. Morton also had another quality season as a fourth starter for the team, providing much higher quality starts that the group of pitchers the Mets had to throw out on the field after Seaver, Koosman and Matlack. Reynolds proved that his 1973 seasons wasn’t a fluke and helped buoy the bullpen when McGraw struggled with injury and ineffectiveness.
Bailey was as solid as ever and Allen came back healthy to slug 32 home runs. Allen notoriously retired while with the White Sox in 1974 due to nagging injuries. Our Mets utilize the increased flexibility created by Tovar to allow Milner to give Allen a multitude of days off to stay healthy and effective.
All in all, it would have been another exciting summer, with the Mets again in a hard fought playoff race with the Pirates. This would have resulted in the Mets winning out late in the season, with about 90 wins, for their third consecutive division title and fifth in six years.
This would have brought the veteran club with two championships and five playoff appearances against the up and coming Los Angeles Dodgers. Originally, the Pirates faced off against this young club and lost in four games. Our Mets would win a hard fought series, due to playoff experience and terrific pitching, which was the one thing that Pirate roster couldn’t match against the Dodgers.
This would have led to a rematch with the Athletics in the World Series. Our team won’t win out this year, for several reasons. The previous year’s club had won a hard fought World Series in six games with tremendous depth. This club hasn’t had the same level of performances that were achieved in 1973 and the Athletics were that much hungrier to beat the team that had caused them to not win back to back championships.
In the end, these 1974 Mets would have a achieved a whole lot more than the actual version and although a World Series championship wasn’t in the cards, the team had still made it to the championship in back to back seasons, finally cementing their legacy as arguably the best team in the National League.