Mets Trade History: Getting burned by the Expos in the David Segui deal

The trade that sent David Segui trade from the New York Mets to the Montreal Expos proved to be a bad one for the Amazins.

If you grew up watching baseball in the 1990s, you probably remember the name David Segui. The musclebound first baseman/outfielder spent 15 years in the big leagues with the first few seasons in a Baltimore Orioles uniform and the last couple down there, too. Something many people forget is that he was briefly with the New York Mets.

Segui played for the Mets in 1994 and the beginning of 1995. Acquired in a deal with the Orioles which sent Kevin Baez to Baltimore, Segui played a mix of first base and the outfield with the Mets.

This was the time between Eddie Murray’s stint in Flushing and John Olerud’s arrival. The Mets briefly went with Rico Brogna as the primary first baseman, occasionally giving Segui some opportunities to play there as well.

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On June 8, 1995, the club decided to move on from Segui. They traded him to the Montreal Expos in exchange for Reid Cornelius.

Cornelius’ time with the Mets may be even more forgetful than Segui’s brief stint. In 10 starts with the 1995 club, he was 3-7 with 5.15 ERA. It was his only year with the club, later getting traded to the Cleveland Indians in the Mark Clark deal.

At the time of the deal, Segui was hitting .329. He continued to smash baseballs with the Expos in 1995 and became a threat at the plate for nearly a decade more.

Segui wasn’t one of the era’s premier sluggers, but he did have multiple seasons of hitting over .300 with home run totals in the teens. Segui was similar to Olerud in that respect.

He continued to bounce around the league with time spent as a member of the Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers, and Indians before rejoining the Orioles in 2001. All the while, Segui was an accomplished hitter the Mets seemed to let go of a little too early.

Along with his hitting prowess, Segui is known for one other thing. That’s his connection with PEDs. Segui was named in the Mitchell Report, one of the players Jason Grimsley famously called out, and one of the ballplayers who openly admitted to taking them. Despite not hitting many home runs during his brief time in New York, he said he took anabolic steroids during his time with the club.

In retrospect, even with this taken under consideration, it was still a loss for the club at least in the sense that if teams knew what Segui would become, the Mets could have gotten much more.

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Segui didn’t fully breakout until after leaving New York for Montreal. All he seemed to need were the at-bats to make it happen. It’s a regretful trade by the organization, but not one they should fully look back at in anger because of how successful the run was shortly after Segui’s departure.