Thursday Trade Tracker: Boston Red Sox. Bobby O, Enter Sandman, and Calvin!

The New York Mets and Boston Red Sox occupy two of baseball's most demanding, passionate, and media-saturated markets. Forever inextricably linked by the unforgettable drama of the 1986 World Series, these two historic franchises share a unique dynamic. They may play in different leagues, but share their deepest vitriol for a mutual enemy that plays in the Bronx. For that alone, Mets fans and Red Sox fans will always be friends.

While they aren't traditional trade partners, there has been only one major earth-shattering World Series-changing trade. Others transactions are more likened to depth pieces over a long, grueling season.

November 30, 1965. Mets get SS Eddie Broussoud for OF Joe Christopher.

Back in the days of the infant franchise, this was a biggie! Joe Christopher was a regular for two years. His 1964 season was one of the best for a Met in the 1960's. He had 163 hits, with 16 homers, 76 RBI, and a .300 batting average. I did some research to find the next time in Mets history someone reached all four of those numbers in a season. You won't believe it, but it was all the way to 1996! Bernard Gilkey had 181 hits, 30 homers, 117 RBI and hit .317. Yes, Keith Hernandez came very close.

The Mets traded Christopher due to a 1965 spring training finger injury from which he never recovered. The team also was looking to clear up RF for a guy named Swoboda.

Bressoud, a Korean War veteran, was a solid shortstop for the Red Sox, even making the 1964 All-Star team. He hit 10 home runs for the Mets in his only season with them in 1966. That might not sound like alot, but Eddie had a share of that record for FORTY years! How about that? Kevin Elster also hit 10 in 1989, but Jose Reyes broke the team shortstop home run record with 19 in 2006. The Mets present day shortstop record is held by present icon Francisco Lindor.

TEACHER SAYS A. Bressoud gave them a fine season, and poor Joe Christopher only went 1-13 for the rest of his career.

August 25, 2009. Mets get OF Chris Carter and minor league 1b Eddie Lora for LHP Billy Wagner.

When the ominous opening riffs of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" blasted through the loudspeakers at Shea, Mets fans knew the game was effectively over. (He was the only closer who used that, right??). Long before he was immortalized as a 2025 Cooperstown inductee, Billy Wagner arrived before the 2006 season as the highest paid reliever in baseball history - and he brought a then unheard of 100 MPH fastball with him.

Despite being listed at 5-foot-10 (in his dreams), he was a giant on the mound. Born a natural righty who taught himself to throw lefty due to a childhood injury, he overwhelmed hitters with sheer velocity and nasty breaking stuff rarely seen. The Mets won the division in 2006, with Wagner notching 40 saves with a 2.24 ERA. Afetr Tommy John surgery in 2008, Wagner was traded to Boston. Wagner pitched the last month in Boston, throwing to a 1.98 ERA in 13.2 innings. From there, he signed as a free agent with Atlanta. Incredibly, at age 38, he had one of his best seasons in a Hall of Fame career during his swan song. He saved 38 games, was an All-Star, and his ERA was a Diaz-like 1.43.

Chris Carter, not the hulking slugging first baseman who would lead the NL with 41 taters in 2016, but the lefty swinging backup who got one big hit in his first Mets at bat. Carter laced an RBI double to beat Washington in his ititial appearance. What else was he known for in his 100 Mets games? Striking out only 17 times in 180 at bats is Gwynn-like (make that Millan-like) today. Manager Jerry Manuel gave him a cool nickname, "The Animal", based on his "relentless drive and work ethic."

TEACHER SAYS Meh! C. Wagner was leaving as a free agent. Carter had some nice at-bats.

November 13, 1985. Mets get LHP Bobby Ojeda, and pitchers Chris Bayer, John Mitchell, and Tom McCarthy for OFs John Christensen and LaSchelle Tarver, and pitchers Wes Gardner and Calvin Schiraldi.

The biggest trade in Met-Red Sox history. Let's start with the lesser participants. Mitchell started 19 games for the Mets in 1987 when the entire starting staff went down. He went 3-6 with an awful 4.11 ERA. Today, with that ERA, he would be in Cy Young contention! Christensen had 113 at bats with those fun 1985 Mets , but could not stick in the majors. Remember him? Swing as long as the Nile. Tarver, at one time seen as having Mookie potential, hit .120 in only 13 Boston games. Wes Gardner managed to last enough to pitch in 142 Boston games over 5 seasons, with a 4.73 ERA. That's a disaster for a middle reliever.

Calvin Schiraldi! Were you screaming, "Calllvinnnn! Callllllvinnnn!" at the top of your lungs during Game 6 or Game 7? After his historic breakdown in Game 6, Boston manager McNamara somehow went to him again in a tied Game 7 in the 7th inning! Three hits, three runs, and a Ray Knight home run in only 16 pitches during a third of an inning, the Mets were well on their way to their second World Championship! (Yes, Gump was there!). Schiraldi, who pitched 15 games for the Mets over two years, was well known to the team. (It seemed like a lot more than 15 games, right?). One of those games was the 26-7 debacle in Philadelphia in 1985. Calvin gave up TEN runs. (Yes, I was there. It was my 21st birthday). Kevin Mitchell tells the story that he and Schiraldi were talking when they were minor league teammates and Mitchell asked how Calvin would pitch him in a winner-take-all situation. In Game 6, with one out to go for a Boston Championship, Schiraldi pitched to Mitchell EXACTLY AS HE HAD TOLD HIM HE WOULD! Mitchell laced a single to center.

Bobby Ojeda made this trade one of the most important in Mets history. The Mets rotation was anchored by high-octane arms. Gooden, Darling, and Fernandez fired fastballs by hitters, but it was the soft-tossing lefty that led the team in victories in 1986. I can still hear Bob Murphy say, "Dead fish!", as he described Ojeda's junk...which sometimes looked like it would never reach the plate. In a career high 217 innings in 1986, he achieved a 2.57 ERA, good for second in the league behind Mike "Scuff" Scott. Only 20 game winners Fernando Valenzuela and Mike Krukow won more than Ojeda's 18. Only Scott and Krukow had a lower WHIP than Ojeda's 1.090. Ojeda continued his mastery in the post-season, winning 2 games while losing none, with a 2.33 ERA.

Ojeda was credited by manager Davey Johnson as having the "professional edge" the team needed with their reputation for fighting and wild antics. However, don't forget he was one of four Mets arrested outside of a bar in Houston in 1986. They had a fight with security who happened to be off-duty police. The others were Ron Darling, Tim Teufel, and Rick Aguilera. They wound up spending 11 hours in a holding cell. Misdemeanor charges were later dropped. Trivia: Do you remember the name of the bar? Cooter's.

He later became a Mets analyst. While many teams like to employ "homers" and soft critics to make sure they keep their job, Ojeda was famous for calling out poor fundamentals, lack of effort, or even questionable managerial decisions. Jerry Seinfeld famously criticized the Mets harshly for letting Ojeda's analyst contract run out.

TEACHER SAYS A+. Clearly, the Mets do not win the World Series without this trade. On both sides.

January 13, 1983. Mets get RHP Mike Torrez for minor leaguer Mike Davis.

Torrez was truly a "Bear" (his nickname) during his 18 year career. A consistent 200- 270 innings eater, he always took the ball. A 20-game winner in his only Oriole season in 1975, he was probably best known for giving up the cheapest, most out of nowhere home run perhaps in baseball history. Sorry, Red Sox fans, but Bucky "Fucking" Dent has to be mentioned. Even young children in Boston call him by that name! Torrez continued to eat innings for the Mets, throwing 222 in 34 games started for the team. He relieved in 5 others. He led the NL in walks with 113. Only Nolan Ryan and Darling walked more as a Met in any season.

Torrez won a total of 185 games in his career with a respectable 3.96 ERA over a large amount of innings. He even picked up a Hall of Fame vote! Others with a small amount of HOF votes in 1990 include Greg Luzinski and Jerry Remy with one; Mickey Rivers, Lou Piniella, and Rick Monday with 2; Bob Watson and Mr. B.F. Dent with 3 (what's with all these Yankees?); and dear old friend Tug McGraw with 6.

TEACHER SAYS B. 1983 wasn't a good year. Torrez and The Franchise ate up innings.

The last few transactions with the Red Sox were just plain weird. The Mets and Red Sox were giving and taking these middle infielders in 2024. All three had a

few at bats each with the Mets. I'm using my sleuth skills to determine if these teams were pulling a fast one on us. WERE THEY ALL THE SAME GUY?

May 1, 2024. Red Sox purchase SS Zack Short from Mets.

May 25, 2024. Mets purchase SS Pablo Reyes from Red Sox.

September 8, 2024. Mets purchase INF Eddy Alvarez from Red Sox.

I want a photo of all three of them together! Prove they aren't the same! I already have a photo of Batman together with Bruce Wayne. Batman has a grey mustache in my photo, though.

Alvarez went 2-11 as a Met. Short went 1-9 as a Met. Reyes had only one pinch running appearance as a Met (and scored a run!). If you can add Leo Foster, Brad Emaus, and Kevin Baez to my photo, I'd appreciate it.

Other names in Mets- Red Sox transaction history: Pumpsie Green, Tracy Stallard, Felix Mantilla, Cal Koonce, Jim Burton, Andy Hassler, Ed Glynn, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Addison Reed.