Reinventing the Mets: 1972

After winning back to back division titles, our Mets went into the 1971 season with high hopes. Unfortunately, despite a solid 90 or so wins, the Mets were outplayed by the Pittsburgh Pirates en route to a World Series Championship. It was a disappointment, yet the team had to hold to those high expectations as they still had finished second and won a significant amount of games.

Here’s the roster that the Mets would have finished 1971 with:

Tommie Agee
Dick Allen
Bob Bailey
Ken Boswell
John Briggs
Jim Bunning
Buzz Capra
Rich Folkers
Danny Frisella
Wayne Garrett
Gary Gentry
Jerry Grote
Bud Harrelson
Joe Henderson
Charlie Hudson
Bob Johnson
Von Joshua
Mike Jorgensen
Jerry Koosman
Jim Lefebvre
Ted Martinez
Jon Matlack
Tug McGraw
John Milner
Jose Morales
Amos Otis
Marty Perez
Bob Reynolds
Tom Robson
Nolan Ryan
Ray Sadecki
Tom Seaver
Duke Sims
Ken Singleton
Leroy Stanton
Bob Stinson
Ron Taylor
Bernie Williams
Charlie Williams

The Mets had questions entering this offseason. Allen had the worst full year of his career since his rookie season and had some ongoing shoulder issues that were gradually limiting how many games he could start in a season. The Mets had hoped Singleton could take a hold of an outfield position, but he had not been able to grab hold of it, although he still showed potential. Boswell and Lefebvre had been solid offensively at second base, but had not handled the position well defensively. Finally, Agee had struggled with knee issues that had limited him from having a third consecutive stellar season.

However, before any of these questions could be answered, the Mets had to commence with the regular house cleaning that happens at the end of any season. One decision was made early and easily when Bunning announced his retirement. The Mets had gotten a lot out of the Bunning trade in 1969 and allowed Bunning to retire playing for a winner.

The Mets still wanted to open up a few roster spots to protect some of their prospects from the Rule 5 Draft, so they had a few other minor moves to make. The first was to release Henderson, one of the prospects acquired for Tony Gonzalez when he was traded in 1970. Henderson had been ineffective in the minor leagues and the Mets wanted to replace him on the roster with a better prospect. To open up one more spot, the Mets sold Robson to the Rangers. Robson had looked like a quality, power hitting prospect, but had never developed as hoped and the Mets had other such players with better potential.

With these moves made, the Mets added minor league first baseman Larry Fritz, outfielder George Theodore and right handed pitching prospects Hank Webb and Tommy Moore.

With these moves made, the Mets leapt into the offseason looking to catch the Pirates. One position of need seemed to be second base where Ron Hunt, traded prior to the 1967 season , had never been adequately replaced. With that in mind, the Mets made the most controversial trade of their history, and arguably one of the top five most controversial trades in Baseball history.

The Mets traded Ryan, Stanton, and two minor leaguers to the Angels for Jim Fregosi.

Let’s analyze this for a moment. Although this trade would go down in infamy, the logic behind it at the time was sound and still stands up with our current team. At the time, the Mets had a hole at third base. Although Fregosi was not a third baseman, he was a talented shortstop and the thought was that a transition to third base wouldn’t be out of the question. The same goes for second base, a transition shortstops often make when they either cannot athletically handle shortstop as veteran players or are determined, as young players to not have the physical ability to handle the speed of the position in the major leagues. Fregosi had been an All Star just two seasons before, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he could return to that level playing a position that worked better for him as he turned 30.

The other part of this trade that is forgotten is Ryan’s part in it. Ryan was miserable in New York. This is noted by his teammates in interviews after the fact, which was said to be a product of not only playing in the big city itself, but also his role on the team. Ryan had been moved in and out of the bullpen and was often yanked early in games when his control was not on. The right hander also struggled with blisters throughout his time in New York and the treatments of the training staff were obviously not making the situation better. All of this led Ryan to request a trade from Mets management. Reportedly this demand went as far as to say that if he wasn’t granted a deal, he would retire. This put the Mets in a very difficult position. Everyone recognized Ryan’s tremendous throwing arm, but whatever guidance the Mets were giving him in regards to both his blister problem and his growth as a pitcher was obviously not working. In the end, the Mets made a decision to trade the young pitcher instead of risk losing him for nothing in retirement.

The Mets would also make another minor deal with the Cardinals, meant to bolster their bullpen while trading out some young left handed arms for other prospects:

The Mets traded Boswell, Folkers and Hudson to the Cardinals for Harry Parker, Bill Stein and Chuck Taylor.

This is a modification of the original deal that involved players like Art Shamsky and Jim Beauchamp, inconsequential players that won’t play a part in this deal, especially since our Mets never had Shamsky.

Boswell had never lived up to the hopes the Mets had for him leading into the 1968 season. He had proved inconsistent with the bat and in the field. He had also never been able to develop into an everyday player. The Cardinals had never acquired Ted Sizemore from the Dodgers as he had been traded by them for Allen when the Cardinals had the slugging first baseman in the real 1970 season. That meant that second base was manned only by the aging Julian Javier, so the Cardinals were in the market for at least a player who could platoon with Javier. Boswell fit that bill. Parker was a wash for Folkers as a prospect, the only difference being that he was right handed and Hudson was the throw in to make sure that the veteran Taylor could be acquired to help out the Mets bullpen as the plan was to move Johnson into the rotation. Stein was a solid infield prospect that was the result of the Mets including Boswell. Basically it was a good old fashioned baseball trade where each team got back something they could use now and in the future.

With Taylor in the fold, the Mets would let go of Ron Taylor when they sold him to the Expos. Ron Taylor had been a terrific bullpen arm for the club, but he was older than Chuck Taylor and similar in approach. With several young arms that could make their way into the bullpen sitting in the minor leagues, carrying two similar right handers was redundant. The Mets would also make another minor move with the Expos by sending Morales and a few minor leaguers to the Expos for veteran outfielder Jim Gosger. Morales had never developed as hoped when he was acquired for Dick Dietz prior to the 1968 season.

The Mets would make another minor move by acquiring Bill Sudakis from the Dodgers off of waivers. Sudakis was an intriguing 25 year old who had struggled with injuries, but was a switch hitter with excellent power and the ability to play catcher, first base and third base. Acquiring him as a potential rehab candidate for nothing more than a waiver claim made a lot of sense for the club.

As the offseason wore on and spring training approached, the Mets were still looking for something else, an impact player or presence that could bridge the gap between their young club and the world champion Pirates. That impact came in the form of a legend returning to town:

The Mets traded Lefebvre , Williams and cash to the Giants for Willie Mays.

The Mets originally acquired Mays during the 1972 season for Williams and cash. However, our Mets, after acquiring Fregosi with the intention of moving him to second base, had been fielding offers for Lefebvre. The Giants, in need of infield help and currently in a contract dispute with Mays, who wanted a longer term deal to finish out his career, decided to make this deal earlier than what originally happened, with Lefebvre’s addition.

In Mays, the Mets didn’t get the superstar of yesteryear, but got a player who still had talent that, if used in a part time role, could be maximized. They also got a legend and a leader, who could hopefully help the Mets get back to the top of the division with his presence alone.

Originally in 1972, as spring training came to a close, the Mets would be discussing Rusty Staub with the Expos. Our Mets don’t do that though. As tempting as Staub might have been, the presence of Allen, the young Otis and other hitters that the original 1972 Mets didn’t have, lead our version to keep its young resources (Singleton, Tim Foli and Jorgensen) instead of feeling like making a deal for Staub was necessary for contention.

Unfortunately, any positive feelings from the offseason and spring training were extinguished when Gil Hodges passed away after a heart attack on April 2nd, 1972. Originally, the Hodges passing was a horrible event that marked the end of the best time period to that point in Mets history. To our Mets, this would have been a beyond devastating blow as Hodges wasn’t just the manager that lead the Mets to a World Series championship, he was in essence the architect of the entire franchise, taking on a coaching role in 1962 and managerial leadership in 1963. Hodges was also the driving force behind some of the moves the team had made and one of the main reasons that a multitude of diverse players had been able to meld into a perennial contender. Taking this death hardest may have been Allen, whom Hodges had helped develop as a player and provided a stable environment for his talents to flourish. Regardless, with the season to begin shortly, the Mets were without their leader and manager.

Several candidates were discussed, the foremost being scouting director Whitey Herzog and bench coach Yogi Berra. Herzog had helped develop the system that had churned out the likes of Gentry, Singleton, Otis, Matlack and Milner, as well as helping the team make decisions on trades for players like Agee and others. M. Donald Grant, not enamored by Herzog, would decide to go with the more known Berra as manager, eventually leading to Herzog leaving the team after the season. In many ways, 1972 was a massive change for the Mets organization. Not only had the team lost it’s on the field mentor and guide in Hodges, but they had also lost a terrific scouting talent in Herzog. Our team wouldn’t see this turning point right away as they would get off to a terrific start, being 19 games over five hundred and four games in front of the World Series champion Pirates a little more than a quarter of the way into the season.

The original Mets of 1972 fell off after this wonderful start, playing to a 51 and 60 record the rest of the way, mostly due to various injuries on the offensive end of things, most notably to Staub. Our Mets never acquired Staub and never dealt with the rash of injuries that undermined the original 1972 team. The only one the Mets would truly experience was the ongoing knee problems of Agee, but with the presence of Otis, Briggs and Singleton in the outfield, the Mets wouldn’t have to overly lean on Mays and untried young players, like Don Hahn and Dave Schneck, to soften the blow. Our roster is much deeper offensively and Agee’s injury would have just been part of the flow.

Part of this was again due to the teams excellent pitching, further deepened by Matlack, who spun together a brilliant rookie of the year campaign, and the hard throwing Johnson, who had been finally given a chance to start regularly. The main reason for the changes in fortune with our Mets though, was once again the presence of Allen. Allen had a monstrous season in 1972, originally for the White Sox. Allen would have held this team up through hard times, especially when given a day off here and there to support his long term shoulder issues. He would end up with another 35 plus home run and 110 plus RBI campaign that would again put him neck in neck for MVP honors, just like in 1969, except this time with superstar Reds catcher Johnny Bench.

Not everything was positive though. Agee, off to a solid start, struggled with injury issues. Fregosi proved that his poor 1971 season hadn’t been a fluke, but may have more likely been a sign of slow decline. Garret, hoped to be a depth piece in case Fregosi failed, continued to struggle and Agee’s injury issues made for an ineffective campaign. Bailey also had his struggles, batting only .233 while committing 22 errors at third base. Depth in the bullpen was also a problem as Taylor and minor leaguer Bob Rauch were ineffective support to the triumvirate of McGraw, Frisella and Sadecki.

A few in season moves would help these issues. Milner would be promoted to provide left handed power. Reynolds would be promoted to provide a power arm in the bullpen and the staff would be further solidified by the waiver acquisition of Woodie Fryman from the Phillies, allowing the Mets to put the hard throwing Johnson back into the bullpen.

What would all of this lead to? Well, this might appear bold, but most likely this would have resulted in the Mets sitting on top of the division. That would have required the Mets to win at least 97 games, as division champ Pittsburgh won 96 games in 1972, but looking at WAR helps support this claim. Allen himself may have been worth eight games, while the combination of Briggs, Otis and Singleton would have severely outperformed the original Mets outfield of 1972. When you add in Fryman’s presence and how it would have allowed for a much more effective bullpen, you have a division champion.
What would have happened when the playoffs hit? This is a tougher call. Our Mets had lost to the Big Red Machine in 1970 and the Pirates and Reds of 1970 were pretty close as teams. This led to a tight series in the real world that resulted in the Reds getting the chance to challenge the Athletics in the World Series. We’ll give this to the Reds again, as the Pirates were a superior offensive team to even our Mets and were shut down by the Reds in the post season. The Mets would have made a fight of it though, and would have gone into 1973 that much more determined to get back to the post season and defeat their Cincinnati nemesis.