NY Mets pitcher Luis Severino will try to do what these 3 couldn't accomplish

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A lot of teams, the New York Mets included, attempt to recycle, grab someone off the scrap heap, catch lightning in a bottle, see if there is anything left in the tank…however you want to explain it away. Taking a chance on some once-great pitchers…even some Cy Young Award winners…would seem like a no brainer.

Take Luis Severino. And the Mets have. He was hailed as the ace of the New York Yankees not too long ago. His breakout season was 2017 when he started 31 games and went 14-7 with a 2.98 ERA, striking out 230 batters in 193 innings. He was named an All-Star for the first time. He followed that up with 32 starts in 2018 and was still dominant, striking out 220 hitters in 191 innings, while winning 19 decisions. He again was an American League All-Star.

But something went wrong early in 2019 and Severino was diagnosed with multiple injuries that kept him out of action almost all of that season, and then it was revealed that he required Tommy John surgery, shutting him down for the entire 2020 season as well.

He returned to action but has repeatedly struggled with various muscle strains and the Yanks finally let him go. And now, he is the next low risk-high reward project the Mets have taken on.

Unfortunately for the Mets, way too many of them were not what was advertised in the brochure. Here are three of those reclamation projects that simply did not work out the way the Mets had hoped.

Southpaw Randy Jones was done by the time he came to the New York Mets

San Diego Padres lefthander Randy Jones won only eight games and led the National League with 22 losses in 1974. He turned things around and discovered himself the following season, and won 20 games against 12 losses while leading the NL with a 2.24 ERA.

He finished second to Tom Seaver in the Cy Young Award voting, as Tom Terrific captured his second award with a league-leading 22 wins and 243 strikeouts. Then in 1976, Jones duplicated Seaver’s 22 wins, against 14 losses, a 2.74 ERA and 93 strikeouts in a league-leading 315 innings pitched, to win his first Cy Young Award.

Most Mets fans will maintain that Jones should not have won the award as it was Seaver’s sidekick Jerry Koosman who had the better record at 21-10, 2.69 ERA, and 200 strikeouts, finishing second to Jones in the voting.

Following that campaign, Jones had four consecutive losing seasons with high ERA’s for bad Padres teams. He had thrown those 315 innings in that 1976 season, starting 40, yes FORTY, games and completing 25 of them. Unfathomable in today’s times. He had arm troubles but he never threw hard, he was the typical “soft-tossing lefty” that was fairly typical of the era.

So when the Padres finally gave up on him following the 1980 season, the Mets jumped on it and brought him in a very cheap price, hoping he would recapture his form.

Jones would go 1-8 with a 4.85, 14 strikeouts and 38 walks over 12 starts that saw him throw 59 innings in the strike-shortened 1981 season. And, no, the strikeouts and walks are NOT backwards. That was what he actually did, and very rarely got past the 5th inning.

He gave it another gallant effort in 1982, starting 20 games and throwing 104 innings (some of those in relief) and, again, not getting past the 5th inning in most of his starts. He did win more games (7) but he also lost more (10). And he lowered his ERA to a miniscule 4.60. And he continued his trend of walking (51) more hitters than he fanned (44).

It didn’t work out with Jones and he was out of baseball at the age of 32.

The New York Mets took a "Chance" with another former Cy Young Award winner

Dean Chance was a bonus baby and star pitcher for the Los Angeles/California Angels. After coming up for a cup of coffee in 1962 at the age of 20, he established himself as a star the following year winning 14 games and pitching to an ERA of 2.96. After having a bit of a tough time on a bad Angels team in 1963 going 13-18 with a 3.19 ERA, Chance became the youngest pitcher to win Cy Young Award when he led the American League in wins (20), ERA (1.65), complete games (15), shutouts (11), and innings pitched (278). He also won five of those games – complete game shutouts – by 1-0 scores.

The Angels were not a very good team, and Chance was not exactly an exemplary good little soldier. And so they decided they could lose just as well without him and rid themselves of a headache. So after two more productive seasons, the Angels shipped him from the warm climate of Southern California to the frozen tundra of Minnesota baseball.

In his first season with the Twins, Chance would again win 20 games in 1967, leading the AL with 39 starts, 283 innings, and 18 complete games, pitching to a 2.73 ERA.

He started another 39 games the following season, winning 16 games with a 2.53 ERA. But Chance was limited to 15 starts and 88 innings due to injuries for the 1969 Western Division Champions Twins. He won five games and pitched to a 2.95 ERA.

Chance had a career ERA of 2.92 and from 1962 through 1969 had only had an ERA over 3.00 three times, the highest being 3.19 during that 1963 campaign. The Twins gave up on Chance after the ’69 season and they sent him to Cleveland. The Indians decided to make him a relief pitcher for the 1970 season. He appeared 36 times out of the pen. That didn’t work. He also made 19 starts and with the exception of a few quality starts, that didn’t work.

The Mets were looking to add to their stable of pitchers for a stretch run and acquired Chance…believing they would be teaming two Cy Young Award winners – Seaver and Chance – and have a dual threat at the front end of the rotation. It was an odd decision because the Mets had a wealth of young arms ready in system. And also because Chance had a reputation as a wild one and that never sat well with M. Donald Grant.

Well…it didn’t matter…Chance didn’t have much of one to make a difference. He made three appearances, all in relief. Two innings. 13.50 ERA. He had enough time to have yearbook pics taken with two different uniform numbers (32 and 27).

Chance didn’t make it out of spring training with the team in 1971. He was sent to Detroit before the Mets broke camp and was out of baseball one year later at the ripe old age of 30.

Warren Spahn was over-the-hill when he took the mound for the New York Mets

Warren Spahn was already a 14-time All-Star when he captured his only Cy Young Award at the age of the 36.

While current Major League starters can barely can get through five innings and tend to break down before they even make it to the Big Leagues, beginning at age 35, from 1956 through 1963, Spahn won 167 games, winning at least 20 in seven of the eight campaigns. And he led the league for five consecutive seasons (1957-1961) in wins and led the league in complete games in each of those seasons totaling 165.

In 1964, at age 43, Spahn pitched to a 6-13 record with an ERA of 5.29, more than double his ERA of the previous season. And he threw 80 innings less and only four complete games.

The Mets were not a very good team and were more interested in bringing in well-known aging stars to boost attendance at the time, so, at age 44, the Mets purchased him from the Braves.

It didn’t work out so well. Spahn pitched to a 4-12 record and 4.01 ERA before the Mets released him in July. He was picked up by the Giants for the stretch run that season, but the winningest lefthander in history (363 wins) was soon out of baseball.

Hopefully Severino can join this list as another Cy Young Award winner rather than yet another Mets disappointment.

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