NY Mets GM Omar Minaya's Trades are what Cost the Mets the Playoffs
1) Brian Bannister to the Kansas City Royals for Ambiorix Burgos.
Bannister, the son of former major league pitcher Floyd Bannister, had a fine season with the Royals. He went 12-9 with a 3.87 ERA, which was just 81% of the American League ERA this year. Bannister did not pitch well his last few starts so he might not have been much help to the Mets down the stretch but they probably would have had an even bigger lead coming into the stretch with Bannister in their rotation all year.
The Mets starting pitching finished 7th in the National League in ERA this season despite having the advantage of pitching in a decent pitchers park. If Bannister pitched as well for the Mets this season as he did for KC that number would have been lower.
Ambiorix Burgos was no help to the Mets this year as he only pitched 23 innings for them.
2) Henry Owens and Matt Lindstrom to the Florida Marlins for Jason Vargas and Adam Bostick.
Owens (1.96 ERA with 4 Saves in 23 innings) and Lindstrom (3.09 ERA in 67 innings) both pitched well below the National League ERA as relievers for the Marlins this year. The Mets bullpen this year ranked just 9th in ERA in the NL. And the bullpen was pretty bad coming down the stretch. While Owens got injured early in the year the Mets could certainly have used Lindstrom down the stretch and in fact he pitched well for the Marlins in both of their wins over the Mets in the final series of the season.
Jason Vargas made only two starts for the Mets this year and went 0-1 with a 12.19 ERA. You could argue that one loss was the one the Mets ultimately needed this year.
3) Heath Bell to the San Diego Padres for Ben Johnson and John Adkins.
Bell was nothing short of brilliant for the Padres this season. Going into their one game playoff with the Colorado Rockies he was 6-4 with a 2.08 ERA and 2 saves in 91 innings in a setup role this season. While Bell played a huge role in the Padres success this season the Mets bullpen was awful down the stretch of the season. With Bell in their bullpen this season the Mets would not have ranked 9th in bullpen ERA in the NL.
Mets fans had a horrible last month of the season as their team collapsed in an unprecedented fashion. Had Mets GM Omar Minaya not made the three trades listed here the Mets probably would not have collapsed as they did. He traded a starting pitcher and three relievers who all pitched to well below their league's ERA's this season. In return Minaya got back a bunch of players who did little or nothing to help the Mets this season and in one case, Vargas, lost a game the Mets desperately ended up needing.
Omar Minaya deserves a ton of credit for the Mets historical collapse this season.
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6 Comments
Post a CommentA+++ GREAT ARTICLE!
Baseball isn't my thing .. but stuff like this keeps me in the loop.
go Yankees..LOL
it wasnt the trade. it was the faith in an aging starting rotation and below-average bullpen pitchers
Bannister wasn't going to make the roster out of Spring Training. He probably would've got the starts that went to Vargas or Lawrence (which would have been an upgrade). Burgos got hurt. I still like this deal long term for the Mets. It would be nice to have the other two back. But that's negated in part by Randolph's refusal to use Heath Bell when given the chance the past two seasons.
happy friday :-)