1982 TOPPS ALEX TREVINO
Ah, 1982, the hockey stick cards. My initial reaction to these cards was, well, not quite dislike but not very far from that, either. Kind of similar to my feelings about Alex Trevino. Our featured player couldn’t hit and there’s only so much goodwill Trevino’s ability to play in the infield on an emergency basis will get you. However, you could certainly do worse for a backup catcher. The back of this card tells us that he threw out 45 would-be basestealers in 1980.
Baseball-Reference tells us that Trevino played 86 games in 1980, with 78 starts. And he did not have a passed ball, which is something. Furthermore, B-R tells us that Trevino nailed 47 runners that season, for a 44% success rate. Boy, that would be a nice thing to have now.
But the Mets didn’t have Trevino in ’82, as he was part of the package sent to the Reds for George Foster prior to the season. He played a career-high 120 games that year but amassed just a 0.2 fWAR. It’s tough to be a star when you post a 74 OPS+.
In his first eight years in the majors, Trevino posted fWAR marks that were positive but less than a 1.0 mark. That 1980 season where he threw out 40-something runners was a 0.8 fWAR season. And in 1985 with the Giants, Trevino posted a 0.4 mark.
But in something that seems relevant given what’s gone on here in the offseason, Trevino moved to the Dodgers in 1986 and turned in the best year of his career, notching a 1.8 fWAR, thanks to a 110 OPS+, which was helped tremendously by a .299 BABIP, which was 80 points above what he produced for the Giants the year before.
The 1982 season is the last year where I bought a bunch of packs. A move to North Carolina, beginning college and the Mets’ continued lousiness all contributed to the end, as did the uninspiring hockey stick design. But now nostalgia has hit me and I find myself in ’82 again. This Trevino card came to me as part of a trade, one of 24 cards. This is a second set for me. Currently, I’m three cards away from having a second set run from 1976-1981, with the three missing all coming from 1978.
I have a site that has my wantlists and there’s a corresponding interest level, labeled priority. One of the sets on there is the 1957 Topps, which is high priority. This second set for 1982 is a low priority. It’s always good to have your priorities in order.