Top Mets cast-offs at every position that starred for other teams

Sometimes they do get away. They slip through your fingers. They go unnoticed…or unappreciated. But with all of the so-called intelligence in the “war room,” how could so many mistakes happen? They call them the “brain trust.” The ones who are running the show. The ones who make all the vital decisions about personnel. The scouts, the farm directors, the general managers, etc. It’s a wonder how people in such high positions can make such ill-fated choices. The New York Mets have had their fair share of the prize that got away.

You can bounce around the field and get a true sense for what could have been…what might have been…if…IF…a few guys were able to just stick around before being cast off to toil elsewhere. How things might have gone for them, or the Mets organization, if they had a chance to do it all for the Mets.

Here they are, the cast-offs, position by position:

Catcher – Chris Cannizzaro

Regardless of what Travis d’Arnaud is now doing with another club, the Mets really had no catcher that left the team and went on to greatness elsewhere. Well…as a player anyway. There were some guys like Bruce Bochy and John Gibbons who had some relative success as managers. The one guy who was talented but didn’t do anything to stand out until he left was Chris Cannizzaro.

Cannizzaro was plucked from the St. Louis Cardinals in the expansion draft and played for the Mets during their inaugural season in 1962. He spent four years in a Mets uniform but didn’t really distinguish himself until he was part of another expansion team when the San Diego Padres entered the National League in 1969.

During that time he bounced around from the Atlanta Braves to the Boston Red Sox to the Detroit Tigers to the Pittsburgh Pirates before landing with the Padres. Cannizzaro became the Padres lone All-Star representative in that ’69 season and had another solid season the year after. But other than that, his career was truly non-inspiring.