NY Mets trade retrospective: A future MVP for a burnt out former All-Star

On July 29, 1996, the New York Mets were in semi-sell mode during a period of time when the MLB trade deadline wasn’t nearly as important as it has become. The 1996 Mets were a top-heavy ball club with some notable offensive performances and even a couple of pitchers who did pretty well. The team finished just 71-91. If the MLB trade deadline was what it is today, we probably would have seen more players leaving midseason.

This trade would send infielders Jeff Kent and Jose Vizcaino to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for Carlos Baerga and Alvaro Espinoza. The kind of trade deadline deal rarely seen midseason, it would evolve into becoming an exchange defined by a future MVP getting swapped for a burnt out All-Star.

The Mets traded away one player to early and acquired another too late

It’s easy to not even realize Kent was ever a member of the Mets even though he was there from late 1992 through mid-1996. Kent’s time was during those lean early 1990s seasons of Mets baseball. A high of 21 home runs and 80 RBI in 1993, Kent would go on to win the 2000 MVP as a member of the San Francisco Giants. Cleveland didn’t get a whole lot out of him. After finishing the 1996 season with them, he was packaged with several players, including Vizcaino, in a deal with the Giants for Matt Williams. Williams would spend only the 1997 season with the Indians before getting shipped out to the Arizona Diamondbacks in their inaugural season.

Vizcaino and Espinoza would each only spend the rest of the 1996 season with their new clubs as well, the latter doing pretty well for the Mets. Espinoza hit over .300 in his 144 plate appearances. The veteran infielder still ended up released in March of 1997 as the official changing of the guard was taking place. As for Vizcaino, he probably had a little vengeance in his heart as a member of the New York Yankees during the 2000 World Series.

Of the four players involved in this trade, the longest fresh tenure would belong to Baerga. He was the lone player to stay for more than the end of the 1996 season. The Mets found out quickly they added some damaged goods. A so-so performance in Cleveland at the time of the deal, the once elite-level second baseman hit just .193 in his first 26 games for the 1996 Mets. He followed it up with a better albeit light .281/.311/.396 performance in 1997 featuring 9 home runs—his lowest total since 1990. Baerga would regress further in 1998 with a .266/.303/.364 slash line and only 7 home runs.

The irony of this trade is it felt like a precursor to a future trade with some similarities. The Mets acquired a broken down version of Roberto Alomar years later in a trade with Cleveland. He, like Baerga, failed to meet expectations. The only good thing is the Mets didn’t give up a whole lot to get Alomar. With this 1996 deal, the price ended up including a guy who would one day win an MVP for the Giants.

For further proof there are glitches in the matrix, we can connect this trade to the earlier Kevin Mitchell swap with the San Diego Padres. While Mitchell was in San Diego for only a half season, he’d win the MVP with San Francisco not long after. It’s another example of history not repeating itself but rhyming.