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Mets: Three all-time worst Mets trades in the month of June

By Tim Boyle |
PHILADELPHIA, PA - CIRCA 1990: Roger McDowell #13 of the Philadelphia Phillies talks with Ron Darling #15 and Keith Miller #25 of the New York Mets prior to the start of a Major League Baseball game circa 1990 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. McDowell played for the Phillies from 1989-91. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - CIRCA 1990: Roger McDowell #13 of the Philadelphia Phillies talks with Ron Darling #15 and Keith Miller #25 of the New York Mets prior to the start of a Major League Baseball game circa 1990 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. McDowell played for the Phillies from 1989-91. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
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One of the worst New York Mets trade in June sent Dave Kingman to the San Diego Padres. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
One of the worst New York Mets trade in June sent Dave Kingman to the San Diego Padres. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) /

We take a look at the three worst New York Mets trades made in the month of June.

June isn’t the best month in Major League Baseball to make a deal these days, but many years ago, the trade deadline took place on June 15th every season. This is why when you look back at New York Mets history, some of the biggest deals in franchise history went down on that date.

Sadly, many of those June Mets trades didn’t work as so well for the Amazins. Too often, June trades by the Mets front office resulted in a disaster.

There are three June trades that stand out as the worst of any. One of them is even regarded as possibly the worst deal in franchise history.

3) Worst Mets June Trades – Dave Kingman to the Padres on June 15, 1977

Dave Kingman was a frustrating player for some people to watch. The San Francisco Giants seemed to feel this way when they sold him to the Mets in February of 1975. Kingman got a jolt from the change of scenery, setting single-season franchise home run records in each of his first two seasons with the club.

Unfortunately, the all-or-nothing Kingman didn’t get a chance to complete his third season in New York. On June 15, 1977, the infamous Midnight Massacre occurred. Kingman was traded to the San Diego Padres as a part of the franchise’s massive tear down.

In return, the Mets picked up Paul Siebert and a far more familiar name, Bobby Valentine. Siebert pitched only 56 innings for the Mets across two seasons while posting a 4.50 ERA. Meanwhile, Valentine hit .222 across 278 trips to the plate.

Although Kingman struggled with the Padres and was even selected off of waivers and then traded before the season was through, he did get back to his slugging ways in 1978. He hit 28 home runs for the Chicago Cubs that year before smashing a National League-best 48 in 1979.

Kingman did later return to the Mets for the 1981 season where he was able to offer them his usual free-swinging approach at the plate.

Had the Mets never made this trade, they may have gotten a little more excellence. Alternatively, what if they had actually gotten better players back in return?

The New York Mets trade for Juan Samuel is one of the worst made in June. (Photo by: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
The New York Mets trade for Juan Samuel is one of the worst made in June. (Photo by: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) /

2) Worst June Mets Trades – Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell for Juan Samuel on June 18, 1989

We often think of this as the Lenny Dykstra trade because he had the most immediate success following the deal. However, we need to also make note of the two other incredibly important players in this trade, Roger McDowell and Juan Samuel.

McDowell was the main cohort to travel with Dykstra to the Philadelphia Phillies in this deal. They were later joined by Tom Edens, a future MLB journeyman reliever with minimal innings under his belt. The crux of this deal came down to how the Mets managed to swap a talented reliever and outfielder for an absolute bust.

Samuel is one of those Mets players we all like to forget. Following the trade on June 18, 1989, he hit only .228 down the stretch in his final 370 plate appearances. This wasn’t the same speedy yet powerful player they had faced so many times in Philly. This version of Samuel was far less productive.

As a result, they traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers in December.

What makes this such a bad Mets trade is how well Dykstra and McDowell did in Philadelphia. McDowell doesn’t get enough credit for the kind of career he had both in New York and Philadelphia. With the Mets, he was 33-29 with a 3.13 ERA and 84 saves. In his brief time with the Phillies across parts of three seasons, McDowell went 12-17 but with a 2.90 ERA. He also converted 44 saves.

The biggest difference-maker of all in this trade was, of course, Dykstra. After slashing .278/.350/.413 during his time with the Mets, Dykstra went on to hit .289/.388/.422 with the Phillies. He was a three-time All-Star with the Phillies and the runner-up MVP in 1993.

I can’t say enough about how poorly this trade worked out for the Mets. Regardless of what Dykstra was taking to make him a star, it was a deal that haunted the team.

The worst New York Mets trade in the month of June sent Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
The worst New York Mets trade in the month of June sent Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) /

1) Worst Mets June Trades – Tom Seaver to the Reds on June 15, 1977

We are back to where we began this journey. They don’t call it The Midnight Massacre because it sounds great. It’s because the trades the Mets made on June 15, 1977, literally massacred their chances at contending for several seasons.

The Tom Seaver trade to the Cincinnati Reds is regarded as one of the worst ever made by the franchise. Although the Mets did get some quality players back, none came close to replicating what Tom Terrific could.

Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson, Dan Norman, and Pat Zachry are the men the Mets received for their franchise player. If this deal proved anything, it’s how much quality matters more in a trade than quantity.

Flynn did win a Gold Glove with the Mets and Henderson hit .287 during his four seasons with the club. Norman barely played for the team while Zachry gave them six decent years. Coincidentally enough, Zachry led the National League in 1981 with 14 losses while Seaver led it in wins with just as many.

Seaver’s time with the Reds wasn’t as superb as the glory days in Flushing. However it did include a fourth and second-place finish in the Cy Young race along with a pair of All-Star selections.

Looking at the haul the Mets got for Seaver, the deal really wasn’t horrific. All four men did play for the team and some were pretty important. The problem with this trade is how little impact they actually had on the franchise like Seaver would have through the remainder of the 1970s and into the early 1980s.

Seaver did return for one more stint in New York when he pitched for the 1983 Mets. By then, he wasn’t the same star pitcher he was in his earlier days. The trade was still haunting the franchise at the time, too. It would take another year before the team finally began to seriously compete again.

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