NY Mets trade retrospective: A .311 hitter to the LA Dodgers for two guys who never made MLB

On August 18, 1995, the New York Mets were selling while the Los Angeles Dodgers were buying. The two agreed to a deal which would send Brett Butler and his .311 batting average back to Los Angeles after a short 90-game stint with New York in the strike shortened 1995 campaign.

Butler was a Dodger from 1991-1994 and received mild MVP consideration twice with a seventh-place finish in 1991. Fast in his early days, he was a light-hitting OBP monster still playing well for the Mets at age 38 in 1995. He had 21 bases in 28 attempts, on his way to a 32 SB season when he tacked on a few more with the Dodgers.

It was a nice reunion for LA but what about what the Mets got back? Butler was a one-year rental the Dodgers would end up re-signing this time around. They wouldn’t luck out and find a pair of minor league steals as neither player made it to the majors.

The Mets didn’t gain much from their 1995 sale of Brett Butler to the Dodgers

Scott Hunter was one of two prospects the Mets received from the Dodgers. A 19-year-old outfielder hitting well in A-Ball at the time, he played well in the minors until reaching Triple-A. In 1999 during his age 23 campaign, the Mets parted ways with him while hitting just .228. He didn’t get much better, hitting .240 in 820 career plate appearances in Triple-A.

A significant portion of Hunter’s career was spent in Double-A. He returned to the Mets organization in 2001 and bounced between Triple-A and Double-A without showing enough improvements to ever climb onto the major league roster.

In addition to Hunter, the Mets added outfielder Dwight Maness. Oddly enough from Chester, Pennsylvania while Hunter was from Philadelphia, he met a similar fate with even less time in Triple-A. Just 6 games at that level, Maness was only a .228 hitter in Double-A. It was in the 1998 season when he played his last game for the Mets organization.

A worthwhile effort, this was a classic "need to trade" situation. New York had to sell Butler and just happened to guess wrong on what was an otherwise succesful free agent signing.

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