Reinventing the Mets: 1971

By the end of the National League Championship series in 1970, it was the clear that the Mets were here to stay. Back to back NLCS appearances and a young roster full of talent made the Mets, former laughing stocks, into a force in the National League. Heading into the 1971 offseason, off of back to back eastern division championship, the Mets would be looking to stay on top.

Here’s the roster that the Mets would have finished 1970 with:

Tommie Agee
Dick Allen
Bob Bailey
Ken Boswell
Jim Bunning
Duffy Dyer
Rich Folkers
Danny Frisella
Wayne Garrett
Gary Gentry
Jerry Grote
Bud Harrelson
Jesse Hudson
Bob Johnson
Cleon Jones
Mike Jorgensen
Jerry Koosman
Ted Martinez
Jim McAndrew
Tug McGraw
Jose Morales
John O’Donoghue
Amos Otis
Jose Pagan
Marty Perez
Bobby Pfeil
Bob Reynolds
Tom Robson
Les Rohr
Nolan Ryan
Ray Sadecki
Mickey Scott
Tom Seaver
Ken Singleton
Leroy Stanton
John Stephenson
Carl Taylor
Ron Taylor
Bernie Williams
Ron Woods

The early offseason focus was, as always, about cleaning house to protect prospects. The team would start by releasing the veteran O’Donoghue, who had been ineffective out of the bullpen and designating for assignment former number one pick Rohr and back-up catcher Stephenson. Rohr had never reached his potential as a tall, big armed left handed pitcher and Stephenson had been ineffective as a bench player. Stephenson would be picked up in the Rule 5 Draft by the Angels. The Mets would also attempt to do the same with Pfeil, but the Phillies would snap him up on waivers. The same would go with Scott, except that the Mets would agree to a deal with the Orioles for a minor leaguer.

This freed up five roster spots for several pitching prospects in need of protection. These were left handers Charlie Hudson and Jon Matlack, right handers Don Rose and Charlie Williams, and recent acquisition (via the Angels for Tony Gonzalez), right hander Joe Henderson. Matlack was the best of these young pitchers, someone the Mets were keeping a close eye on to make an impact on the big league roster soon.

As in the previous offseason, the Mets had to feel pretty happy about the roster they were entering the offseason with. Allen had another terrific season at first base, but missed out on MVP consideration after missing nearly a quarter of the season. Harrelson had the best year of his career in 1970, while Bailey, Jones and Agee all had excellent seasons. Otis had broken through to show that he was worthy of an everyday role in the outfield and Singleton had held his own when he made it to the big leagues for the first time after tearing through Triple-A.

The Mets would make their first move in the offseason in a surprising fashion by making the following trade:

The Mets trade Carl Taylor and Jones to the Dodgers for Bob Stinson, Von Joshua, Jim Lefebvre and Ray Lamb.

Trading Jones would have been a surprise, but it came as bi-product of the success of Otis. The Mets needed to add more left handed punch to the lineup. Having three right handed hitting starting outfielders when the teams first baseman was right handed, made it difficult to get left handed bats into the lineup. Two places to do that would be in a corner outfield spot and at catcher. Agee was the Mets best outfielder and the Mets would not have wanted to trade him. Otis was intriguing after a solid season as a part time starter, but didn’t have the proven everyday ability of Jones. The Dodgers were obviously looking to supplement their lineup that offseason as they traded for Allen in the real world, but the Mets aren’t going to trade Allen in this scenario and instead trade Jones.

This trade is a combination of two deals. The Dodgers originally sent Stinson and Ted Sizemore to the Cardinals for Allen then later traded Lamb and Alan Foster to the Indians for Duke Sims. Carl Taylor was actually a better fit for the Dodgers than Sims as he provided a right handed counterpart to starting catcher Tom Haller and more flexibility in the field. The Mets wouldn’t want Sizemore, but would rather have more flexibility in the lineup with the switch hitting Lefebvre. Joshua was a top outfield prospect that wasn’t traded that offseason, but Jones was a good enough player, fitting Dodger Stadium perfectly as a hitter and outfielder, that he would have earned a solid young prospect in return along with the above mentioned players.

The Mets would sell Pagan back to the Pirates after he had lost his position on the roster to Lefebvre and Woods to the Expos to clear spots on the roster. With that trade in the books, the Mets would turn around and send McAndrew and Lamb to the Indians for Duke Sims.

That trade provided the roster with left handed power behind the plate. McAndrew had never developed into the live arm his dominance in 1968 had shown and the team was loaded with young pitching. Lamb, as mentioned earlier, was in the original trade with the Indians. McAndrew and Foster are comparable, so the deal made sense.

As the offseason turned into spring training, the Mets had one of the most set rosters in memory. The pitching staff was deeper than ever with Johnson’s emergence as one more power arm and the veteran Sadecki’s success in 1970. The lineup continued to be deep, but the Mets were still closely looking for veteran left hand bats in the outfield to provide some support to youngsters Singleton and Otis, who the Mets were relying on for big roles in 1971. As spring training came close to the end, the Mets were able to finally swing a trade for such a bat by doing the following:

The Mets trade Rose and Dyer to the Phillies for John Briggs.

The Phillies actually traded Briggs to the Brewers in April this offseason for a minor league, power hitting catcher and a tall right hander. This perfectly matches Dyer and Rose. Dyer is actually a better deal for the Phillies as he was major league ready. In Briggs, the Mets got a veteran who killed right handed pitching, could play all three outfield positions and back up at first base.

With Sims, Briggs and Lefebvre added to the lineup, Gil Hodges had the most flexibility he’d ever had. Hodges could play match up’s and create lineup’s that didn’t allow other teams to strategize against the Mets based upon being overly right hand or left hand heavy. He also had a ton of flexibility on the field as he had multiple players who could man multiple positions.

However, the division rival Pirates were also ascending as a team to be reckoned with and the Mets were in a drag out fight with them, the Cardinals and the Cubs for the division. The pitching staff was better than ever, with Bunning sliding seamlessly to a swing man role and Johnson being added to the roster as a hard throwing part time starter and reliever. Even when Koosman went down with an injury, the Mets were able to call up top prospect Matlack, who held his own over the course of six starts and 37 innings.

The Mets would lose out on the fight though and that was because of issues in the lineup. Allen would have a down year, hitting .290 with 25 plus home runs, which just shows you how good he was. The lineup flexibility was great, but an injury to Agee, Allen’s down season and the bench not holding its own as it had in 1969 and 1970 left the team a tad short. Lefebvre and Briggs were great additions, but Sims wasn’t as productive as hoped. Singleton was solid, but still struggled as a switch hitter. Otis was terrific and seamlessly held his own in centerfield after Agee was injured, but none of the young players brought up to take over for Agee while he was hurt were able to make the same impact..

In the end, the back to back division titles would have ended as the Pirates won 97 games in 1971 en route to a World Series championship. The Mets though, would have made the season interesting and probably won 90 games. However, some questions had arisen. Was Allen in decline? What would happen with Agee’s knees moving forward? Was Singleton the answer in right field? Only 1972 could answer.