The one where the NY Mets trade for a player they sent to the Dodgers a month earlier

On June 4, 1998, the New York Mets struck a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Subway Series legend Dave Mlicki and Greg McMichael were sent to Hollywood for Brad Clontz and Hideo Nomo. The early June trade came at an unusual time, well ahead of the trade deadline, and early enough for the Mets to do the unthinkable.

Flash forward to July 10 and the two teams came to the table once more. With cash, McMichael went back to the Mets for fellow reliever Brian Bohanon.

It’s not incredibly uncommon with the waiver wire for players to circle back to the same team throughout a season. Getting traded back to the same team just a little over a month after they sent you away is as unorthodox as it gets. Who actually won the trade?

Who won the strange but forgotten Mets-Dodgers trade from 1998?

When the original trade took place, McMichael was 1-2 with a 3.97 ERA for the Mets. He wouldn’t be quite as good upon his return nor was he horrific. McMichael had ERAs in July, August, and September ranging between 4.00-4.20. The Mets definitely got the best out of him. His 4.02 ERA from both stints was far better than the 4.40 ERA performance the Dodgers received over 14.1 innings.

However, there is another part to this trade. Bohanon cruised with a 3.15 ERA in 54.1 innings with the Mets working as a starter and reliever. Upon joining the Dodgers, he did nothing but start. In 14 starts he’d go 5-7 with an unexpectedly brilliant 2.40 ERA. This came from a guy who’d finish his career with a 5.19 ERA that he couldn’t blame completely on finishing his final three years with the Colorado Rockies.

Bohanon had far better results with his new club than McMichael had with his return to the Mets. Considering the Mets packaged McMichael and Jason Isringhausen the following summer in a trade for the disastrous Billy Taylor, it feels even more so like a Mets loss and a Dodgers win.

Unbelievable for those of us hyper-focused on the current Dodgers, they were a team that didn’t make the playoffs at all from 1997-2003. Multiple winning seasons including 92 victories in 2002 weren’t enough to get them to the postseason.

For all of the trading the Mets and Dodgers did in a short period, neither managed to make it to the playoffs in 1998. The following year, with McMichael around for the early part, the Mets managed to sneak in a Wild Card. It doesn’t necessarily make them the winners of the trade, but it helps.