3 former Mets players who were One Hit Wonders

Every so often there is a player who comes along and becomes the new phenomenon of the New York Mets. Some of them are actually promoted as a prospect while others are a bit of a surprise. And when they burst on the scene and have immediate success, it will seem like the Mets have found a player to be entrenched for a generation. Way too often, though, those hopes are dashed very quickly. Sometimes those successes are short-lived. Sometimes those players give the impression that they will be around for a long time when, in reality, they are only good for one season.

1) Mike Vail

Mike Vail came up during August of the 1975 season, a season in which he would end up winning Minor League Player of the Year playing for the Tidewater Tides. He would continue his great season with the Mets by hitting in 23 consecutive games, a modern day record for rookies. In 38 games for the Mets, he hit .302 with 3 home runs and 17 RBI.

Vail’s early success made it easy for the club to get rid of fan favorite Rusty Staub. The Mets needed an excuse to trade Staub and it became one of the ill-fated swaps in Mets history, when they got a washed up Mickey Lolich in return from the Detroit Tigers. Vail would be anointed as the next big star of the Mets but that would never happen. Vail badly injured his foot playing basketball just before the start of the 1976 season and would never live up to the billing.

The 1975 debut would be the only Mets highlight of Vail’s career. He would spend time with seven different clubs during his Major League career and a couple of productive seasons with the Chicago Cubs, but he never achieved the level of success he was believed to have after suffering the foot injury.