3 former MLB MVPs who were flops as NY Mets players

The New York Mets have never had a player earn National League MVP honors. They’ve had a few Cy Young Awards – Tom Seaver (three), Dwight Gooden (one), R.A. Dickey (one), and Jacob deGrom (two). But never an MVP.

The Mets, although never having a player so honored, they have had former MVP Award winners play for them, eventually. And in most cases, history just did not repeat itself. In fact, there are three former MVP Award winners whose time with the Mets is probably best forgotten.

1) Joe Torre won the MVP in 1971 when he led the National League with a .363 batting average, and league leading 230 hits and 137 RBI

Torre was 30 years old when he won the MVP with the St. Louis Cardinals. And although he would make the All Star team the next two seasons, that 1971 season was really his last really good year. Torre had been a five-time All Star catcher for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves in 8 seasons.

By time he got to the Cardinals, Torre was pretty beat up from all of his time behind the plate. With Tim McCarver handling most of the catching duties, and a young Ted Simmons on the way, Torre was converted to third base to protect his body and keep his bat in the lineup.

Torre would reward the Cardinals by hitting .289 with 18 HR and 101 RBI in 1969, and then .325 with 21 HR and 100 RBI in 1970, capped by his MVP season in 1971.

After three more seasons that were productive, but not nearly as productive as the prior three seasons, the Cardinals decided that Torre was nearing the end at age 34, and traded him to the Mets during the spring of 1974 in order to bring Ray Sadecki back to the Cardinals where he had previously been a 20-game winner.

Torre would have been a nice fit for the Mets in 1975, if he had been five years younger. He was slotted in to play third base as yet another attempt to answer the revolving door at that spot. But Torre was never the best at third and lacked any range, which saw him getting more time at first base than at third, and creating an issue where Dave Kingman had to play somewhere other than first.

Torre ended up playing 114 games in 1975, and in 361 at bats he hit .247 with 6 HR and 35 RBI, the worst offensive season of his career. The most memorable event of that season? Torre hit into four consecutive double plays in four consecutive at bats. And he still says, that would never have happened if Felix Millan did not get four consecutive singles in front of him.

Torre would play in 114 games again in 1976, clearly relegated to part-time status, and only garnered 311 at bats, hitting .306 with 3 HR and 21 RBI.

He was clearly done as a player. His time with the Mets was actually the worst period of his playing career, after proving to be a stud with the Braves, and winning the MVP with the Cardinals, he just fell flat with the Mets.