In honor of One Hit Wonder day, I went through and dug up some of the best Mets “one-season” wonders and formed a sort of “All-Star” team. Many of these players went on to have successful career post Mets, but we are only counting Mets seasons. Some qualifications, aside from relievers most of the players have at least 1.9 fWAR over a full season (just 1 season 1.9 or higher), and have at least 350 plate appearances.

C- 1972 Duffy Dyer .231/.299/.375/.675, wRC+ 89, fWAR 1.9

Apparently Duffy Dyer was known for his defense. UZR didn’t exist in 1972, but the defensive statistics Fangraphs has puts him at well above average defense, which is good because he was not a very good hitter. Dyer would never have another season above 1.4 fWAR again and finished with a career fWAR of 4.9 meaning he accumulated nearly 40% of his fWAR total in 1972. It was actually hard to find a catcher that qualified as a one year wonder, as the Mets have had many good catchers over the years (Gary Carter, Mike Piazza, John Stearns even Paul Lo Duca).

1B – 1995 Rico Brogna .289/.342/.485/.827, wRC+117, fWAR 2.3

Had it not been for the strike in 94, Brogna would have not made this list. In 39 games in 1994, Brogna broke out in a big way, producing 1.3 fWAR in just 39 games, with a fantastic 163 wRC+. After 1995, Brogna was never the same, with an injury riddled 1996 leading to his trade to the Phillies in 1997. Who did the Mets get in return? Toby Borland and Ricardo Jordan. I guess it’s a good thing Brogna never did much else, finishing with a career fWAR of 1.9. He was so bad for the Phillies in 1997 that he was good for -1.9 fWAR. The 2.3 fWAR he put up in 1995 is good for 121% of his career fWAR.

2B – 1964 Ron Hunt .303/.357/.406/.763, wRC+, fWAR 3.0

In his rookie season, Hunt actually had a 1.9 fWAR, meaning he really shouldn’t be on this list, but it was very hard to find another 2B that qualified in my absolutely made up qualifications. Ron Hunt looked like he was on the way to be one of the first Mets superstars, putting up fantastic numbers for a horrendous team, Ron Hunt was an all-star in 1964 (and again in 1966, missing most of 1965 due to injury), but the Mets would trade him away after that 1966 season along with Jim Hickman to the Dodgers for Tommy Davis and Derrell Griffith. The Mets would go on to get 1 season out of Tommy Davis before flipping him and 3 other players to get Tommie Agee and Al Weis, huge contributors to that 1969 WS championship team. Hunt would go on to have a pretty good career, finished at 28.3 fWAR.

SS – 1992 Dick Schofield .205/.309/.286/.595, wRC+ 74, fWAR 2.0

Absolutely not known for his bat, Dick Schofield had exactly 1 good season for the Mets because well, he only played 1 year for the Mets. Known for his glove, Schofield had quite a long career because he could play SS extremely well. There isn’t much else to say about Schofield, because the Mets let him walk after the season and he would never again be an everyday player. Schofield would finish with a career fWAR of 13.7.

3B – 1977 Len Randle .304/.383/.404/.787, wRC+121, fWAR 4.0

Len Randle was pretty much an exactly league average player. A 101 wRC+ in 1974 and 100 wRC+ in 1975 while playing for the Rangers is pretty much the definition of average. When he came to the Mets in 1977, Randle would have a career year. He never came close to putting up 4.0 fWAR again. Accumulating 7.6 fWAR in his career, 52% coming in this 1977 season.

OF – 1996 Bernard Gilkey .317/.393/.562/.955, wRC+ 152, fWAR 7.6

1996 Lance Johnson .333/.362/.479/.841, wRC+ 122, fWAR 6.4

1976 John Milner .271/.362/.447/.809, wRC+ 136, fWAR 2.9

Wow. That 1996 Mets outfield was nothing short of ridiculous. Gilkey kind of doesn’t really qualify according to my “qualification”, but that 7.6 fWAR blows away any other year he had out of the water. It’s not even close. What happened in 1996 that the Mets didn’t compete? They had 2 all-time seasons from OFs and finished 71-91. Todd Hundley also hit 41 homers, setting a then Mets record. They even had a pitcher who I’ll get to in just a bit. Was 1996 a lost season for the Mets? Save this note for later, because I’ll absolutely be revisiting this during the offseason. Lance Johnson would not have qualified had he not been traded in 1997. Gilkey had another good year in 1997, and then was traded and pretty much disappeared. John Milner did nothing really of note, but notably, was traded twice for Willie Montanez (once as part of a big 4 team trade and once straight up).

SP – 1996 Mark Clark 14-11, 3.43 ERA, 3.78 FIP, 3.5 fWAR, 6.02 K/9

1966 Bob Shaw 11-10, 3.92 ERA, 3.14 FIP, 3.2 fWAR, 5.58 K/9

1971 Ray Sadecki 7-7, 2.92 ERA, 2.59 FIP, 3.1 fWAR, 6.61 K/9

2003 Jae Seo 9-12, 3.82 ERA, 3.93 FIP, 2.9 fWAR, 5.26 K/9

1977 Nino Espinosa 10-13, 3.42 ERA, 3.69 FIP, 2.4 fWAR, 4.73 K/9

An easy to take away stat from all these years? Look at the K/9 rate. Those K/9 rates do not generally lead to long term success. Another unifying thread between all these pitchers is that they all pitched for lousy teams as well. Mark Clark was traded along with Lance Johnson for Brian McRae, Turk Wendell and Mel Rojas. Bob Shaw was at the end of his career, and his swan song happened to be that 1966 season. The Mets sold him away to the Cubs in 1967. Ray Sadecki is now remember as part of the trade that would bring Joe Torre to the Mets. Jae Seo looked like he might be becoming a great pitcher, going 8-2 with a 2.59 ERA in 2005, but was horrible in 2006 and was traded to the then Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Nino Espinosa never amounted to much, but did put up another season of 2.0 fWAR, but by that point he had already been traded to the Phillies. I’m amazed he did as long as he did, with a career 3.71 K/9 and 2.76 BB/9; he was an ultimate contact pitcher.

RP – 1990 Alejandro Pena 3-3, ERA 3.20, FIP 2.40, fWAR 1.3, 9.00 K/9

1997 Greg McMichael 7-10, ERA 2.98, FIP 3.44, fWAR 1.3, 8.32 K/9

2010 Hisanori Takahashi 6-2, ERA 2.04, FIP 2.59 FIP, fWAR 1.2, 9.42 K/9



I didn’t want to have a full list here, because while I thought you should have a full rotation, relievers are so hit and miss. These 3 players stand out the most. Takahashi actually had 1.5 fWAR that season, but 1.2 of it was while he was a reliever. Nothing notably to write here, as we all know how up and down relievers can be.

Now, as a full team, this team would be pretty lousy, unless we had some sort of magical time machine and we could grab all these individual seasons. Who would be on your One-Year wonder team?

Share this: Email

Facebook

Print

Reddit

Twitter

More

Pinterest

LinkedIn



Tumblr

