Five Mets moments we wish they could redo on Groundhog Day

2) Mets Trade Tom Seaver

Just like another great pitcher on this list that was traded away in moments the Mets would like to redo, we have the trade that sent future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds. Seaver was originally signed as an amateur free agent by the Mets on April 3rd, 1966. Although he had a fantastic ten and a half seasons with the Mets before being dealt away, it is still a moment the Mets wish they could redo.

In Seaver’s first ten and half seasons with the Amazins, he won the Rookie of the Year Award, three Cy Young Awards, was selected to ten All-Star games, led the league in ERA three times, led the league in wins twice, led the league in strikeouts five times, and won a World Series.

Seaver was only 32 years old when the Mets traded him to the Reds, so even though they received a couple of decent players, the trade was still not a good one. The Mets traded a player whose nickname was literally “The Franchise”, which is a bad decision before he even puts on the uniform to his new team.

Although Seaver did find his way back to Queens later in his career for one more season, the in-between still haunts the Mets. He spent five and a half seasons with the Reds where he combined for a 3.18 ERA, a 1.177 WHIP, and 75 wins over 1,085.2 innings with 2 All-Star game appearances, and a second, third, and fourth-place finish n Cy Young voting.

Those seasons that Seaver was gone from the Mets were absolutely terrible too. They finished in last place or second to last place every single year he was gone so they might have waisted Seaver’s talent, but yet again as previously mentioned, his nickname was literally “The Franchise” and the return they got for him was not that great anyway.

While you can never assume a player would produce the same way if they were never traded away, it is a safe assumption that Seaver would have performed at his same elite level. Even though Seaver was not the same pitcher on the Reds as he was on the Mets, he still had a 3.18 ERA over 1,000 innings in Cincinnati in his mid-thirties which is fantastic.

If the Mets had the opportunity to go back and redo their decision on trading Seaver, it is safe to say he would have stayed in Queens for a lot longer and added to his legacy. Unfortunately, the decision to not trade Seaver will always be a moment that the Mets wish they could redo.