Saturday Seasons: In 1995, Replacement Players and Bye, Bye, Bonilla and Brett

The 1995 baseball season began with a hangover from 1994: the labor dispute that cut short that season and carried over into the next, prompting major league owners to begin spring training with replacement players – a move the owners hoped would bring the “real” major leaguers back to the bargaining table and result in a settlement.

               It only made things messier. The players’ union said it wouldn’t settle the strike if replacement players were used in regular season games. Tigers manager Sparky Anderson refused to manage replacement players; he was placed on involuntary leave of absence and retired soon afterward. The Toronto Blue Jays’ season was cast into doubt by an Ontario law that prohibited replacement workers; the decision was to play games at the minor league complex in Dunedin, FL, if it came to that.  The Orioles, whose owner was a labor lawyer, said they would not use replacements.

               And the Mets? They went ahead, best as they could, with a spring training roster of 28 players, 13 of whom had major league experience, and 60 minor leaguers not protected by the union.

               So instead of Bobby Bonilla, Bret Saberhagen, Jeff Kent, Carl Everett, Todd Hundley and the rest of the known players on the roster, the Mets opened spring training counting on Herm Winnigham, Lou Thornton, Stanley Jefferson, Doug Sisk and a lot of guys you never heard of before and would never hear from again: Chris Warpole and Rich Wieligman. Tony Sarno. Alex Coghen, a 37-year-old truck driver from the Bronx. Thornton arrived late to camp; he needed to find someone to teach his class.

Some of the major league players opened their own training camps in Florida, Saberhagen was off in Hawaii, watching his 9-year-old son play in a baseball tournament.

Spring training games went on with the replacement players, who began wondering about their fates if they made it to a regular season. MLB announced that if there were a season, it would be shortened to 144 games. A settlement seemed far off.

And then…. U.S. District Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor – yes, that Sonia Sotomayor – issued an order March 31 finding the owners in violation of federal labor law and ordered them back to the bargaining table. “I certainly think the possibility of having a major league season start with major league players is much more likely now,” Mets owner Fred Wilpon was quoted as saying in the Daily News.

In response to Sotomayor’s ruling, the players ended their strike, even though there was no deal. And by April 4, the replacement players had been replaced with the originals.

Be careful what you wish for, especially if you are the New York Mets. Because not only did their regular players report for spring training so did everyone else’s. And this Mets team just wasn’t very good.

Starting July, 60 games into the season, the team was 23-37. By July 15, it was 27-45. And it was time to start thinking about jettisoning the last players remaining from the false optimism of 1992 – “the worst team money could buy” – by trading Bonilla and Saberhagen before the July 31 trade deadline.

               Trading Bonilla and Saberhagen were neither shocks not surprises. The rumors were reported in the newspapers for weeks leading up to the actual trades, including the prospective trading partners.

               The Baltimore Orioles, in need of a big bat to make a pennant run, had offered their top pitching prospect, Armando Benitez, in a package of Bonilla; the Mets were holding out for the Birds’ top hitting prospect, Alex Ochoa. Eventually, the Mets’ patience won out, getting Ochoa and Damon Buford for Bonilla; Benitez would become a Met four years later in a three-way deal that sent Todd Hundley to the Dodgers and also brought Roger Cedeno to Queens.

               “Bobby Bonilla deserves our praise and our thanks, but his time should be up here,” Newsday’s Jon Heyman commented in a July 28 column – the day the Mets pulled the trigger on the Bonilla deal. “Bonilla couldn’t help the Mets win last year, nor could he make them win in 1993 or ’92. He is not going to help them win this year and he probably won’t help them win next year, either. Nothing against Bonilla. One hitter cannot do it alone.”

               “Certainly, the Orioles are getting a quality player right now to try and help them win the pennant,” general manager Joe McIlvaine said after completing the deal…We’re banking that in the long run, the two players we got will really benefit the New York Mets for a long period of time.”

               For Bonilla, it was a bittersweet parting – notable because of his rocky early years with the team, when he wore earplugs in the outfield to block out the fans’ boos. “I was able to rebound and do some exciting things in a Mets uniform,” he said. “The fans have been wonderful to me and I won’t forget it.”

               Interestingly, the trade shared the back page with two Yankees deals that brought outfielder Ruben Sierra and former Met hurler David cone to the Bronx.

               The Saberhagen trade came three days later, right on the deadline: the starter went to the Colorado Rockies for Juan Acevedo and Arnold Gooch, a right handed reliever who would never make it to the majors but who, ironically, would also go to the Dodgers in the trade that brought Benitez and Cedeno to Shea. And it came, ironically, one day after a player billed as part of the Mets future, pitcher Jason Isringhausen, posted his first major league win, giving up six hits in eight innings as the Mets prevailed over the Pirates, 2-1.

Neither Newsday columnist Mike Lupica nor remaining veteran John Franco were overwhelmed by the moves, noting the departures of two seasoned all-stars for unproven youngsters. “You walk past Gate C at Shea Stadium and then past the Diamond Club entrance until you are at the Roosevelt Entrance side of the ballpark, not far from the steps leading down from the elevated subway. And you find a sign, once part of a promotion for kids. The sign reads this way: Future Mets. It is perfect, because that is all they really sell at Shea,” Lupica wrote.

               “Another youth movement,” Franco was quoted as saying. “Second youth movement in the six years I have been here.”

               But strange as it may seem, the Mets did not fall off the end of the earth after parting with a slugger batting .325 with 18 home runs and 53 RBI and a starter who had a 3.25 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 110 innings. Instead, they went on sort of a tear; they were 35-52 on August 1, after the Bonilla and Saberhagen trades. They went 33-23 after that.

               Istringhausen went 9-2, with a 2.81 ERA. Bill Pulsipher, the second of the three “Generation K” pitching prospects, went 5-7 with a 3.98 ERA. Rounding out the rotation were Bobby Jones, Dave Mlicki and Commack native Pete Harnisch. Franco had 29 saves, although the workhorse of the bullpen was Jerry DiPoto, who appeared in 58 games and began his apprenticeship toward becoming a general manager.

               Power was provided by Rico Brogna, a fan favorite from Connecticut who took over first base. Brogna hit the first home run ever at Coors Field and 21 more and ended the year with a .289 average. Jeff Kent, the second baseman, hit 20. Todd Hundley, the everyday catcher, hit .280. Rounding out the infield was Jose Vizcaino at shore and Edgardo Alfonzo at third. Brett Butler, signed as a free agent, hit .311 until he was traded to the Dodgers on August 18 for two more prospects (who never made it to the majors). A mid-September callup, Ochoa hit .297 in 11 games.

               And when the season ended, they had made it all the way to second place in the division – admittedly with a 69-75 record, tied with the Phillies and 14 games behind the winner, the Atlanta Braves.

               But things were looking up as they closed the books on one season and looked ahead to another. As Newsday’s Marty Noble wrote: “The final weeks were as positive and encouraging as the first months had been vexing and disappointing. It was a long way from the failure and despair of the first 90 days to the joy and hope of the final 60.”

               As they say, hope springs eternal. Then reality kicks in. But that’s next week’s story.