6 best Mets trades for a minor league player

3) NY Mets trade for Ron Darling

Ron Darling came to the Mets with zero innings of big league experience. First joining the organization on April 1, 1982, along with Walt Terrell in exchange for Lee Mazzilli, it’s amazing to realize he would end up as the best player either team acquired.

Darling spent all of 1982 in Triple-A where he managed to impress the Mets. He had gone 4-2 with a 4.44 ERA in his 13 starts for the Double-A team of the Texas Rangers the year prior. Things were looking up.

Darling stuck in Triple-A for most of 1983 before a September promotion gave him his first taste of major league baseball. He went 1-3 with a 2.80 ERA in his five starts. From then on, he was a permanent fixture in the show.

Across parts of nine seasons, Darling went 99-70 with a 3.50 ERA for the Mets. He was one of the big pieces to their impressive pitching staff throughout the late 1980s until he was eventually traded to the Montreal Expos in 1991. By then, Darling’s best days were in the past. Fortunately, he would remain a lifer for the Mets organization. Now a television broadcaster for the club, it wouldn’t have been possible if not for the Mets taking a chance on this minor league arm.