NY Mets: Eddie Murray had the least memorable 100 RBI season in club history

Eddie Murray dominated American League pitchers in the late 1970s and into the 1980s. He was a mix of power, run production, and hitting for average. When he joined the New York Mets ahead of the 1992 season, Murray was on the decline but not yet finished producing at the plate.

Murray, embarking on his age 36 season in 1992, joined a franchise looking to retool with some star power. Darryl Strawberry left for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Other Mets stars from the 1980s were also gone or fading quickly.

Murray wasn’t horrendous in 1992, but he also wasn’t close to the numbers he put up in his prime. A .261 batting average, 16 home runs, and 93 RBI to go along with 37 doubles line his stat sheet. A year later, he would produce even more and have the least productive 100 RBI season in Mets history.

Eddie Murray gave the Mets runs but for what?

The 1993 Mets are a special team. Outside of the early days in the 1960s, they are the only squad in franchise history to lose 100 games.

A bit of hard luck, some poor bullpen work, and losing a lot of close games led to their awful season.

Murray, in the final year of his two-year contract with the club, continued to clobber baseballs. He raised his batting average up to .285 in 1993 and added more home run power. He finished the season 27 long balls and managed to creep into triple-digits in RBI.

Finishing the season with exactly 100 runs batted in, Murray put together a season that should have been remembered more fondly. It wasn’t to be. The Mets were so bad, even this 37-year-old’s fantastic season was disregarded.

Only a handful of Mets players have ever reached 100 RBI in a season. You can probably put together a room full of fans and ask them to list the guys who appear at least once. David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Mike Piazza, etc. are all easy selections. It’s Murray, one more than the 99 Dave Kingman had in 1982 and Kevin McReynolds had in 1988, whose name would likely be forgotten.

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In my mind, Murray’s time with the Mets represents a dark time in franchise history many want to overlook and an era of bland baseball cards.