NY Mets: 5 all-time worst offenses in franchise history

The New York Mets get bullied a lot for being a bad team. The butt of many jokes, Queens has not always been home to the most talented baseball outfits.

It feels like for every Pete Alonso rookie season, the Amazin’s have had three batters below the Mendoza line.

Not every team has been bad though, whether it be in 1999 or 2015, the Mets have had some great offenses in the past. However, we won’t be talking about those teams today.

It’s time to take a look at the worst of the worst, the opposite of the cream of the crop: The 5 worst offenses in Mets history.

5) Worst Mets offense: 1963

The young New York franchise had a very, very tough time prior to their stunning World Series win in 1969. Since their inception in 1962 to 1968, the Mets failed to finish higher than ninth out of 10 teams in the National League and winning just 34.7% of their games.

Their second season was no exception. Finishing 51-111 and last in the National League, The 1963 Mets hit .219 AVG, the worst ever in team history.

They still managed runs, outhitting the 9th place Houston Colt .45s to finish 9th in the NL with 501 runs scored.

40 different batters made plate appearances for the Mets in what was a horrendous and disjointed offense.

Only six Mets made enough plate appearances to qualify for the league batting leaders that season. Out of those six, only Ron Hunt (.272 AVG) and Frank Thomas (.260) were able to hit above a .250 AVG.

3) Worst Mets offense: 1972

The only entry on this list to come from outside of the 60s, the 1972 Mets are the most recent addition on this list. So just remember that the Mets may be bad now, but they have been far from their worst for a while now.

It may not feel like it most of the time, but looking back, it’s true.

In Yogi Berra’s first season as manager in Queens, the team struggled mightily on the offensive end. The ’72 Amazin’s rank as one of the worst offensive units that the franchise has ever seen, ranking as the 6th worst season in runs per game (3.38) and third-worst in hits per game (7.40).

The team struggled to make consistent contact, hitting just a .225 AVG (third-worst in team history) and a .639 OPS (fifth-worst).

Only Ed Kranepool managed to hit above a .250 AVG, hitting a fairly uninspiring .269 AVG to lead the team.

New York’s record was kept afloat but the defense, helping them to third in the NL East with an 83-73 record despite having the worst batting average in the National League.

With Seaver, Jon Matlack, and Jim McAndrew tallying sub-3.00 ERA seasons, the 1972 Mets are another case of strong pitching let down by abysmal offense.

It reminds me of the titular song from the 1991 Disney classic Beauty and the Beast.

“Tale as old as time Song as old as rhyme Beauty and the Beast”

The Mets defense and offense’s relationship couldn’t be described any better.

2) Worst Mets offense: 1965

The 1965 Mets have the honor of holding the worst on-base percentage of any Mets team at a startlingly low .277 OBP. That’s a lower percentage than the offensively gifted 1999 Mets hit as a batting average (.279 AVG).

The Amazin’s were in their fourth season and continued their steady grip on last place in the National League, finishing in 10th for the fourth season in a row.

Again Ed Kranepool led the Mets on offense, hitting a team-high .253 AVG and 24 doubles to make his only All-Star appearance at the young age of 20.

Outside of Kranepool, none of the other Mets could consistently get on base. The team finished last in the National League in runs, hits, stolen bases, batting average, and slugging percentage.

Both before and after aging manager Casey Stengel was forced to retire after breaking his hip, the Mets struggled. Under both Stengel and replacement manager Wes Westrum, the team failed to win a third of their games.

Their 112 loss season finishes as the second-most in team history, finishing only behind the team’s inaugural season in 1962.

If the goal in baseball were to record 27 outs as quickly as possible, these Mets would have been some of the greatest to ever play the game.

In reality, it’s quite the opposite.

How could it get any worse than this?

1) Worst Mets offense of all-time: 1968

We all remember the 1969 Amazin’s. The underdog team that took the world by storm, coming out of nowhere to win 100 games and go on to take the franchise’s first World Series.

What made the team so special was how unexpectedly well they played, especially when looking at the standards set by the offense season prior.

With a 73-89-1 record, New York finished 9th in the NL, managing to avoid last place in the League. Despite the record being their all-time best at the time, the hitting was the worst the franchise has ever seen.

With Queens’ former star hitter Tommy Hunter now in Chicago following the end of the ’67 season, the batting order was even weaker than it already was.

The 1968 Mets hold the franchise-worst average of runs per game (2.90 R/G), and their 7.38 strikeouts per nine innings are the worst in the franchise outside of the 2012-2021 seasons which have featured a massive increase in Ks.

The team also has the second-worst on-base percentage and lowest OPS of any team that the Queens squad has ever fielded.

All was not lost however, as ’68 roster had one of the best pitching rotations the franchise has ever seen, keeping the team afloat.

Although, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, their offense failed to back them up.

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The ’68 Mets famously had Tom Seaver as their ace, and a dangerous rotation of Jerry Koosman, Don Cardwell, Dick Selma, and Nolan Ryan. Ryan had the worst ERA of the four, still throwing a 3.08 ERA and a team-high 8.9 strikeouts per nine innings in his first full season in the MLB.