Reinventing the Mets: 1963

So the 1962 season ended and the reimagined Mets were probably slightly more successful than the original Mets due to slightly better pitching, with the presences of Jim Brewer and Billy Pierce, and slightly better defense. In the end though, the issues that plagued the 1962 Mets would be similar to the reimaigned team as the original team; this was a team built from spare parts and not put together over time as a cohesive unit. The 1963 offseason would be the first time the triumvirate of George Weiss, Casey Stengel and Gil Hodges had a team to work with and mold for the future.

Here’s the roster they would have finished with at the end of the 1962 season:

Dick Allen (minor leagues in 1962, September Call Up)
Craig Anderson
Richie Ashburn
Jim Brewer
Chris Cannizzaro
Elio Chacon
Joe Christopher
Galen Cisco (Signed off waivers in September from the Red Sox)
Choo-Choo Coleman
Cliff Cook
Roger Craig
Dick Dietz (Minor Leagues in 1962)
Larry Foss (Signed off waivers in September from the Pirates)
Rick Herrscher
Jim Hickman
Gil Hodges (Player/Coach)
Jay Hook
Willard Hunter
Al Jackson
Sherman Jones
Rod Kanehl
Ed Kranepool (signed as amateur free agent during the summer of 1962, September Call Up)
Ken Mackenzie
Felix Mantilla
Bob Miller (RHP)
Bob Miller (LHP, acquired from Reds for Don Zimmer)
Bob Moorhead
Charlie Neal
Billy Pierce
Joe Pignatano
Sammy Taylor
Frank Thomas
Marv Throneberry
Coot Veal
Gene Woodling

Multiple decisions had to be made with this roster, but first and foremost at the managerial position. Stengel had struggled during the season. He had issues with staying awake in the dugout and some of his decisions regarding lineups and where players were positioned were problematic. With Hodges in place and ready to manage (he obviously was since he would manage the Senators in actual baseball history shortly into the 1963 season), the reimagined Mets will make Hodges a full time manager to start the offseason. Stengel wouldn’t have been fired, he just would have been repositioned to an area where he could oversee spring training, which he loved to do, talk to the media, which he loved to do more and not have to travel all over the country, which obviously was hard on his aging body. The Mets could have named him head over player development, assistant to the president, whatever, but the time was to move on to the man that had been groomed throughout 1962 for the job.

So, the first decision that happened was Hodges announcing his retirement and accepting the manager position of the New York Mets. Soon after, Ashburn would also retire, despite the Mets request for him to stay on one more year. Pignatano would be released, although Hodges probably would have asked him to join his staff, which Pignatano might have done. The left handed Miller would also be released and resigned to the minor leagues as depth. The rest of the roster would have remained intact, but that would have opened several roster spots for minor league players or players jettisoned by other teams.

This leads to Paul Blair.

Leaving Blair off of the 40 man roster in 1962 is considered one of the great gaffes in Mets history, but that’s most likely because people don’t understand the rules of that day. Prior to the offseason of 1962, dating back many years, any player signed during the previous year was subject to an open draft in the offseason. The only way to protect those players was to put them on your 40 man roster. However, if they were on the forty man roster, they could not be sent to the minor leagues unless they were passed through waivers, thus forcing a lot of quality prospects to sit on big league rosters for entire seasons. Sometimes this worked, like in the case of Al Kaline, but for the most part it probably caused a great number of promising baseball players to never realize their potential.

This was a rule set to deal with big money teams like the Yankees nabbing all of the good prospects and hording them in their farm system. The problem with this rule was that it was prohibitive against the expansion teams, so Baseball subtly changed the rule after the 1962 season ended. The rule was adjusted so that a first year player could stay in the minor leagues if they were counted against the 25 man roster, basically leaving the major league team shorthanded by playing with only 24 players.

The 1962 Mets had just signed Kranepool to an exorbitant amount of money and placed him on the 40 man roster so that he could make his debut in September of 1962. That meant that, to protect him, they would need to either keep him on the 25 man roster in the big leagues, or have him be the prospect that was optioned.

Blair was one of the few players the Mets signed in 1961 to have a big league career, but in 1962, Blair was still all projection. Playing in C Ball at the age of 18, Blair had posted a nice 163 ISO while hitting 17 home runs in 122 games, but had also struck out 52 more times than he got hits (147 SO’s to 95 hits). It was also his first season as a center fielder as he had been signed as a shortstop.

The Mets had an impossible decision on their hands; either expose the one decent prospect, outside of Kranepool, they had in the system, expose Kranepool who they had just put together a huge amount of money for or carry one of these players, who were both too young for the big leagues, on the roster for the entire season. The Mets went with Kranepool, who historically was not the better player. At the time though, the decision made sense. Blair was nowhere near the major leagues, but Kranepool was closer and had warranted a larger investment. The re-imagined Mets will do the same thing, hoping that Blair would pass through the first year draft. He didn’t, and the rest is history.

So with the Blair decision out of the way and Hodges as Manager, the Mets offseason began. The Mets would protect first year player Larry Bearnarth on the 40 man roster. Bearnarth had pitched in Triple-A for the Mets and showed some promise, so it was felt they could stash him in the bullpen for the season.

Decisions regarding some of the veteran players also had to be made. Hodges would have been open to discussing any of these players in trades, but probably would have been partial to bringing back Mantilla for his flexibility, Thomas for his power and Craig to have a veteran leader in the rotation that could be counted on for a hefty role. That left Neal and Pierce as players that would be heavily shopped.

Hodges also would be ready to install Allen at third base as he would have more than likely had a solid September, like he did in the real baseball world in September of 1963. Allen himself stated in the biography “Crash” that he felt he was ready for pro ball in 1963, but the Phillies sent him to Triple-A anyway. Proof for this is in how dominant Allen was in 1964, one of the best rookie seasons in modern baseball history. With the Mets, he would have been in Triple-A already in 1962, since they didn’t have a Single-A or Double-A affiliate, so the next step to the major leagues was logical.

Hodges needed several things. More young pitching, a left handed hitter and a first baseman who could field the baseball.

With all of that in mind, the following transactions would have been made:

Ron Hunt is purchased from the Milwaukee Braves.

In the Rule 5 Draft, the Mets would select:
Don Rowe from the Pirates
Al Worthington from the White Sox

In the First Year Player Draft, the Mets would select:
Dave May from the Giants
Steve Dillon from the Yankees
(Several other pitchers would be selected, but none would make it to the big leagues, so they won’t be mentioned here)

The Mets would make the following trades:

Bob Miller (Right Handed) to the Dodgers for Tim Harkness and Larry Burright

Charlie Neal to the Red Sox for Tracy Stallard and Pumpsie Green

Roger Craig to the Cardinals for Gene Oliver and Bob Sadowski

The Mets would also purchase:

Joe Hicks from the Senators
Carl Willey from the Braves
At the end of spring training, Duke Snider from the Dodgers

All in all, the offseason would be extremely active. In the real offseason, the Mets would select Ted Schreiber instead of Worthington, but Stengel wanted Worthington and I think that Hodges would have agreed. Worthington had pitched well in the minors the year before and had a big league track record. Hodges was also ready to go with Mantilla at second base, so picking up Schreiber would have been a little redundant.

The Mets also didn’t select May in the first year player draft, but Hodges would have liked the idea of the toolsy left handed hitting outfielder and would have hoped to team him with recently signed prospect Cleon Jones, who would have impressed Hodges during his winter league play.

The Miller trade was logical, as it met the needs for a potential slugging first baseman who could field in Harkness. Burright had looked like a solid rookie the previous season early in the year, but had tailed off. Miller was a solid young pitcher, but the deal looked good at the team as it brought back to young position players who could be long term pieces in the field for the Mets.

The Craig deal didn’t occur in the real world, but it should have. Oliver and Sadowski were instead dealt for Lew Burdette during the season, but when Weiss was interviewed about this after the trade happened, he admitted that the Cardinals had made the same offer to him, which he had rejected in the offseason. The reimagined Mets take that deal as it fills a hole at catcher and replaces the young arm that was traded away in Miller.

The Neal trade was actually a deal made using Mantilla, but the Red Sox made the trade because they were looking for a reserve middle infielder. Neal meets that need, but since he was older and had an inferior season to Mantilla in 1962, the Mets don’t get a prospect tacked on like in the original deal.

Thomas was talked about all offseason, most often with the Kansas City A’s, but no deal would occur as Thomas valued him highly for his power bat in the middle of the order. The Mets also inquired about Snider throughout the offseason, but couldn’t come up with an adequate deal, instead smartly awaiting the Dodgers attempts to designate him for assignment, leading to the Mets purchase of him.

Woodling would famously get involved in Throneberry requesting a larger contract and would be released. Throneberry would get his contract, but the Mets would have disliked his methods, just like they originally did in this offseason, and his career would be all but over.

Overall, the roster was very different. 14 of the players drafted in October of 1961 were no longer on the roster. The roster was younger, but still needed a lot of work to string together a cohesive unit.

More transactions would occur during the season:

The Mets would trade:

Larry Foss to the Braves for Lou Johnson

This is a truncation of the original set of transactions on May 8th of 1963. It was originally what amounted to a three team deal where the Tigers received Johnson and the Mets received Chico Fernandez. Since the Hodges Mets haven’t banished Chacon to the minor leagues, they have no need for Fernandez, but have to be interested in a quality athlete like Johnson.

At the trading deadline, the Mets would have made the following deals:

Felix Mantilla and Jim Brewer to the Dodgers for Al Ferrara, Mike Brumley and Nick Willhite

Frank Thomas to the White Sox for Frank Kreutzer and Mike Joyce

Neither of these deals were made during the actual Mets tenure, but they are realistic for the needs of the clubs involved. Mantilla was having a terrific season (take a look at his numbers that year with the Red Sox) and the Dodgers were struggling for production from third base as top prospect Ken McMullen was having a tough time. The Dodgers obviously had interest in Brewer as they would trade for him the following offseason in the real world. Ferrara was a top prospect, but he was a corner outfielder on a team that had two top first base prospects in Dick Nen and Wes Parker, as well as two corner outfielders who could play first base in Ron Fairly and Frank Howard, not to forget Willie and Tommy Davis who were young star outfielders at the time. Willhite was a solid pitching prospect, but again, the team was loaded in this area. Brumley would be DFA’s in the offseason. He was a quality receiver who had a decent bat with no power.

The White Sox had lost starting first baseman Joe Cunningham just before the deadline to a broken collarbone and were forced to promote top prospect Tommy McCraw, who wasn’t playing well. The White Sox had a history of doing these kinds of deals at the deadline or in season to acquire power. This was a team built on speed, defense and pitching, but had limited power on the roster. A year later they would trade Kreuter and Cunningham for Moose Skowron, at the time having a better year for the Senators than Thomas was for the Mets in 1963. The Mets obviously liked Joyce as they would purchase him from the White Sox in the offseason, so this deal makes sense.

The Mets would also make a smaller waiver deal after the deadline by trading minor leaguer Jacke Davis to the Cardinals for Duke Carmel, a left handed hitting outfielder with power who had never reached his potential.

In the end, this team would have been significantly better than the original who went 50 and 111. Offensively the team would have had major upgrades at Catcher, Third Base and Shortstop. Allen would have hit at least 20 home runs and batted in the 260’s, using minor league equivalencies, probably carrying an OPS in the 750 range. For comparison, the 1963 Mets posted a 623 OPS and hit nine home runs total.

Catcher and Shortstop were even worse posting a 510 and a 506 OPS respectively. Oliver would have improved those offensive catching numbers immensely as in 1963 he posted 17 home runs and a 739 OPS. Chacon probably would have repeated his numbers from 1962, an OPS of around 700, which was a vast improvement over the 1963 shortstops.

Defensively they would have been slightly better again. The shortstop who saw the most time in 1963 at the position, Al Moran, was known for his defense, but had a defensively inferior season to Chacon’s from 1962. In the minors, Chacon posted similar defensive numbers, so that position would have been superior, also not forgetting that the defensively superior Veal would have no doubt seen sporadic time at the position. Allen wasn’t known for his defense, but he got to the point in his career where he was slightly below average, until injuring himself in 1966 and 1967, and he would have had all of 1962 to learn the position in the minor leagues. The 1963 Mets third baseman were historically awful, combining for a 926 fielding percentage, which even Allen would have been superior to.

The pitching would probably have been close, but without Craig as their lynchpin, it probably would have been a tad worse. The bullpen would have been better, which would have helped. Worthington would have gotten a few starts, but eventually settled in the bullpen. Anderson, who was an awful starter in 1962, had pitched well out of the bullpen that year and would have gotten the opportunity again.

In the end though, the offensive and defensive improvements alone, along with some more consistency from Hodges as manager, would have left the team a win total that may have gotten closer to the 65 wins than 50. It’s very likely this team would not have lost 100 games, a significant improvement from one that lost around 120.

They also had interesting young players. Hickman struggled and proved himself to be a corner outfielder instead of a center fielder, but still had a lot of pop and promise. Allen had played well and in season acquisitions Ferrara, Johnson, Willhite and Kreutzer looked like young players the team could build around. All would probably have seen sporadic time in the big leagues, definitely in September, as would have Dietz, who after struggling at Triple-A in 1962, would have played well there in 1963.

In the end, there would have been far more hope at the end of 1963 and the appearance of a much better foundation, than originally, making the offseason to come very interesting.