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3 best Mets bullpen duos of a lefty and righty in team history

By Alan Karmin |
New York Mets Tug McGraw
New York Mets Tug McGraw / Focus On Sport/GettyImages
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The New York Mets have had some pretty good relievers over the years. Some popular, some not so much. And regardless of whether one particular guy was dominant, there always seemed to be a need for a neutralizer, a guy who threw from the other side. It was important to have both a righty and a lefty coming out of the pen.

The Mets have had some pretty effective lefty righty teammates over the years. So who were the best of those lefty righty duos in Mets history?

1) Tug McGraw and Ron Taylor

Those that lived through the “miracle season” of 1969 can look back at the success of righty Ron Taylor and southpaw Tug McGraw. Yes…THAT Tug McGraw.

Taylor was already an established and reliable reliever when the Mets acquired him prior to the 1967 season. McGraw was already with the Mets, having made his debut as a starting pitcher in 1965 at the age of 20, even outdueling some guy named Sandy Koufax that season.

What has gotten lost in Mets history is that McGraw actually spent the entire 1968 season at Triple A Jacksonville. There was still no room for him in the rotation in 1969. However, after Jerry Koosman went down with an injury early in the season, McGraw was recalled to fill in. Gil Hodges liked his demeanor and wanted to keep him around so he moved him to the bullpen…and the rest is history.

For the record…McGraw made 42 appearances in that 1969 season with 12 saves, while Taylor made 59 appearances with a team-leading 13 saves. Team-leading 13 saves? Well…the Mets staff only combined for 35 saves that season because the starting staff didn’t need much help. The Mets starters completed 51 games that season.

In the end, Taylor and McGraw would work as a tandem for three seasons, from 1969 through 1971. And by 1971, while each would continue to pitch in 45 plus games in high leverage situations, it was another guy, Danny Frisella, who would emerge as the team leader in saves with 12.

2) Jesse Orosco and Roger McDowell

Orosco and McDowell did a lot more than pitch for the 1986 Mets. They also played the outfield in one game…together…shuttling back and forth from the outfield to the mound.

That really is the true definition of a tandem, isn’t it?

The lefty Orosco came to the Mets in the trade that sent Jerry Koosman home to Minnesota. He made his debut in 1979 for a cup of coffee, but came up to stay in 1981 and established himself as the closer of what was a bad Mets team. By the time the righty McDowell arrived in 1985, the Mets were up and coming and had become the free-spirited dominant team they became known for in that era.

When the Mets clinched the National League pennant and then won the World Series in 1986, the image you see is Orosco on the mound, having thrown his glove in the air, and falling to his knees in celebration…having closed out those victories. And not to take anything away from the glory of Orosco, but, believe it or not, it was McDowell who was the more effective closer during the three seasons the two worked together as the Mets lefty right duo.

Orosco and McDowell were together from 1985 through 1987. During that period Orosco pitched in 170 games and had 54 saves while McDowell made 193 appearances and saved 64 games.

3) Armando Benitez and John Franco

One of the most popular players in Mets history was lefty John Franco. And nobody was happier to be a Met than Franco when he came over to the Mets from the Reds to start the 1990 season.

But he wasn’t all too happy when the Mets acquired the hard-throwing right hander Armando Benitez and anointed him as “the closer.” By the time Benitez was brought in, Franco was already 38 years old and, after having nine fairly effective seasons as the Mets closer, he was not the flamethrower teams were looking for to come out of the pen late in a game.

Franco’s soft-tossing screwball was a perfect compliment to Benitez’s hard-throwing, “I don’t know where the hell it’s going” fastball. Franco may not have liked the idea, but the tandem worked, for a while at least.

Benitez and Franco would be a tandem out of the Mets pen for 3 ½ seasons. Franco would be forced to sit out the entire 2002 season due to injury.

During that time period, Benitez would appear in 333 games, winning 18 and saving 160, with a 2.70 ERA. Franco, meanwhile, would appear in 204 games, winning 11 and saving 27, with an ERA of 3.50.

And while the fans always adored John Franco, Armando Benitez, for all of his dominance, became the target of the fans’ ire, as he often faltered in key situations.

Even though they may have been teammates for relatively short periods of time, ya gotta love these lefty right duos the Mets have had over the years.

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