Mets: Three trades with the Astros that led to a World Series appearance

The New York Mets and Houston Astros have made some big trades over the last 50+ years. Three helped lead New York to a World Series appearance.

The New York Mets and Houston Astros are tied together in MLB history. They came into the league together. The pair even met in the 1986 postseason. The Mets were the victors in that best of seven series, setting up for a championship run.

These two organizations have also made plenty of trades over the years. Whether the Astros were in the American League or National League, they’ve never been shy about making a deal with the orange and blue team in New York.

Amazingly, three of those trades helped lead to a World Series appearance by the Mets. Going back from the most recent, these were the big trades between the Mets and Astros with a clear connection to winning.

One Year of a Star Pitcher

On December 23, 1999, the Mets traded Kyle Kessel, Roger Cedeno, and Octavio Dotel to the Astros for two veterans. They were outfielder Derek Bell and star pitcher Mike Hampton.

Kessel never made it to the big leagues while Cedeno lasted just one season in Houston. Dotel had some very good years with the Astros but bounced around throughout his career. For what it’s worth, he was part of the 2004 trade that brought Carlos Beltran to Houston.

The Mets directly got much more from the two players they acquired in this trade. Bell hit 18 home runs for the Mets and filled in nicely as the team’s everyday right fielder. Hampton had a much bigger impact, going 15-10 with a 3.14 ERA in the regular season.

Hampton was coming off a second-place Cy Young season down in Houston when he arrived in New York. He wasn’t nearly as amazing in 2000 yet still played a major role in leading the Amazins to the World Series.

In the postseason, Hampton struggled in his lone starts in the NLDS and World Series. However, he made up for it with two wins and 16 shutout innings in the NLCS. The performance earned him the series MVP.

Speaking of MVPs. More than a decade earlier, the Mets landed another important one in a trade with the Astros.

Landing a World Series MVP

The Mets clearly lost the 1982 trade with the Astros which swapped Danny Heep for Mike Scott. Scott became a star in Houston and put together some incredibly impressive seasons.

On August 28, 1984, they made up for the mistake. The Mets landed third baseman Ray Knight for a player to be named later. The player became multiple players with Gerald Young, Manuel Lee, and Mitch Cook going down to Houston to complete the deal.

If you know anything about Mets history, you already see where this is going. Knight is one of only two players in team history to own a World Series MVP. It’s hard to win a World Series MVP without taking home a ring, too.

I won’t get into what the three players the Mets dealt away did in Houston. Whatever they accomplished pales in comparison to what the Metropolitans got out of Knight.

Knight’s 1984 season included 27 games in a New York uniform. He hit .280 in his 101 plate appearances. The next year, with 290 trips to the plate, he batted just .218. For the second straight year, the Mets were a competitive team, but not good enough to make the postseason.

Everything changed in 1986. The Mets captured the National League pennant after defeating the Astros and Knight played a major role in both the regular season and World Series.

In the first 162 games, Knight slashed .298/.351/.424. He drove 11 home runs and knocked in 76.

The real important games happened in October. After batting just .167 in the NLCS, Knight turned it up in the World Series. He .391/.440/.565. He had some of the biggest hits for the team and scored the game-winning run on the infamous Bill Buckner error.