The one where the NY Mets trade 4 players for a .157 hitter and win the deal

After the 1971 season, there was a lot of dismantling of the current New York Mets roster. Art Shamsky was traded. Ron Taylor was sold. Donn Clendenon was released. The plug was pulled on Nolan Ryan in the horrific trade for Jim Fregosi.

Another yet far less infamous trade took place on December 3, 1971. A member of the 1969 Mets came back when the team sent a whopping 4 players to the Montreal Expos in exchange for Jim Gosger.

No offense is intended for the Gosger Family. On paper, trading four prospects for a player who hit .157 the year prior to joining the Mets seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Somehow, it was more of a lost transaction than a detrimental one.

The Mets trading for Jim Gosger in 1971 didn’t end up as badly as it could have

What became really strange about this trade from the start was Gosger never saw the major leagues in 1972. In fact, for the remainder of his career, he spent far more time in Norfolk playing for the Tidewater than he did in the majors for the Mets. His 142 games in 1972 didn’t include a whole lot of production to suggest he was ready for the majors again. His .244/.368/.341 slash line and 9 home runs were okay, but was it really worth four fellow minor league players?

Billy Carthel, Arsenio Diaz, Don Koonce, and Curtis Brown were the four players traded to Montreal for Gosger. Carthel made it to Triple-A but never any higher. Diaz spent a year in the Triple-A system for the Expos then several years playing in Mexico. Koonce had a 2.66 ERA lifetime in Triple-A, but failed to make it to the majors for some reason; likely walking more batters than he struck out in several seasons.

Only Brown ever reached the big leagues, appearing in a single game in the 1973 season for Montreal. He went hitless.

Gosger would see limited action for the Mets in 1973 and 1974, accumulating 139 plate appearances overall. He first arrived in Queens as a player to be named later from an earlier February trade, just in time to play a handful of games late in the season for the eventual World Series winners in 1969. A part-timer during both stints with the Mets, the fact that it took 4 players to reacquire him is astonishing. More amazing is how they combined to appear in 1 MLB game.