Thursday Trade Tracker: San Diego Padres. A Closer, an MVP, and an Invisible Man

The wind is howling, the snow is accumulating, the temperatures are dropping, and my mind wanders towards the beauty of San Diego. The Mets and Padres have had their share of impactful trades with beloved (and not so beloved players).

December 20, 1973. Mets trade RHP Jim McAndrew for RHP Steve Simpson.

Trading a solid, if unspectacular, pitcher for someone who never pitched a game for the Mets may not be impactful, but McAndrew threw for six seasons on the Mets, two of those seasons ended up with the Mets in the World Series! McAndrew, always reffered to by Hall of Fame announcer Bob Murphy as being "The pride of Lost nation, Iowa", appeared in 146 games as a Met with a 3.65 ERA. How many millions would that get him today?

McAndrew happens to be the answer to a favorite Mets trivia question: Who was on the roster of both the 1969 and 1973 post seasons but never appeared in any games? Invisible Man, indeed.

TEACHER SAYS INCOMPLETE. McAndrew only pitched 15 games for the Pads before his career ended.

November 15, 2006. Mets trade RHP Heath Bell and LHP Royce Ring for RHO Jon Adkins and OF Ben Johnson.

Bell pitched in 81 games with a 4.92 ERA over three seasons with the Mets. Bell showed very little promise, although the hefty Heath sprinting in from the bullpen was always a show. Bell blossomed into a three-time All Star closer in San Diego. His best season was 2010 in which he saved 47 games with a 1.93 ERA! In that magical season, he also gained MVP and Cy Young votes. Not bad, considering Adkins pitched in only a solo contest for New York and Johnson appeared only nine times for the Mets.

When Bell was a free agent, he signed with Miami for a huge contract. It was there that he simply lost it. After a disastrous 5.09 ERA, he scuffed the final two years in Arizona (4.11 ERA) and Tampa (7.27 ERA!!).

Connections: David Wright hit only one walk-off home run in his career. It was off Bell in one of the last games at Shea in 2008. (Your author, perhaps the Forrest Gump of the Mets, was there).

TEACHER SAYS F. Bell had 132 saves in his last three years in San Diego (he was setting up for Trevor Hoffman before that). Think the Mets could have used those saves?

November 18, 2005. Mets trade OF Mike Cameron for OF Xavier Nady.

Cameron had been a solid hitter with two-time Gold Glove centerfielder with three teams before he was a Met. He reached his career high with 30 homers in New York, but, unfortunately, he might be best remembered with his head-to-head crash diving for a line drive with Carlos Beltran. Cameron suffered a concussion with multiple fractures of his nose and cheekbones on the play. He was removed from the game by stretcher. Beltran had a fracture in his cheekbone and a concussion.

Nady got off to a spectacular start in the Mets eventual playoff year of 2006. He drove in 40 runs in 75 games before "the car accident". Duaner Sanchez was a spectacular find at the beginning of 2006. Winning 5 games in relief to a 2.60 ERA, Sanchez was a go-to guy. A car accident as he was riding in a cab to Shea ended his season. Desperate for relief, the Mets then traded the clutch Nady to Pittsburgh for veteran Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez (he will come up a lot in Mets history). Hernandez was alright with the Mets, including 2.1 scoreless innings in the playoffs, but Nady's clutch bat (and .301 average in three Pirate years) was missed.

TEACHER SAYS B. Ollie P wound up contributing nicely in their playoff run. You might remember he gave up the Scott Rolen drive that was somehow caught by Endy Chavez.

June 15, 1977. Mets trade OF/1B Dave Kingman for OF/INF Bobby Valentine and LHP Paul Siebert.

T

he Midnight Massacre continues. Kingman, then holder of the then-season Met record for home runs was traded. Dave had his issues with strikeouts and fielding, but ask a young fan at the time. No slugger was more exciting. Mammoth blasts over 450 feet were commonplace, as were the missed plays in the field. Kingman woud often bunt as the third baseman would be playing in Flushing Bay. So would Mike Schmidt! Baseball was different then. Kingman was on his tour of all four divisions in 1977. He would later play a few games in the AL West with California and the AL East with the Yankees (the worst two weeks ever for this teenage fan! Kingman in THOSE pinstripes!).

What did the Mets get for Kong? Future team Hall of Famer, Manager Bobby Valentine and Paul Siebert. As a player, Bobby V was certainly done, hitting .133 in 42 games for the Mets in 1977. He never recovered from a outfield accident while he was with the Angels where he tore his knee to shreds. Bobby, once a ballroom dancer and football player (not at the same time), blames the accident for his limp to this day.

Siebert, best known as the son former Brooklyn Dodger Dick Siebert who had over 1.100 hits.

TEACHER SAYS F. Sky King should have hit the rest of his 442 homers as a Met! Tell me why I'm wrong.

December 11, 1986. Mets trade OFs Kevin Mitchell, Shawn Abner, Stan Jefferson, and minor leaguers Kevin Brown and Kevin Armstrong (YES, a trade with FOUR Kevins!) for OF Kevin McReynolds, INF Adam Ging and LHP Gene Walter.

The most impactful trade in Mets-Padres history. GM Frank Cashen was just starting to tear apart the World Champions. He felt Mitchell, a rough background growing up on the streets of San Diego, was a poor influence on young superstars Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden. Time has proven him wrong, as Mitchell developed into an MVP with the San Francisco Giants and made one of the best catches of the 80's. Strawberry and Gooden showed they were able to mess up their own careers all by themselves.

Abner was taken Number 1 in the 1984 Amateur Draft by the Mets. Who did the Mets pass up to take the high schooler? 20 game winner Billy Swift, Ballooning slugger Mark McGwire, Hall of Fame pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, Cy Young "Finger" Jack McDowell, and Rockie Masher Dante Bichette, just to name a few. Ouch!

Stan Jefferson stuck around for 6 seasons with 5 teams and grew up in Co-Op City with your friendly neighborhood author (Gump!). But Stan has a 1986 Championship ring for appearing in 14 games in September.

Kevin McReynolds had four solid Mets seasons hitting between 22-29 homers and driving in between 82-99 runs. Left Field defense was spectacular, often throwing out runners foolishly trying to stretch singles into doubles. McReynolds finished third in the MVP vote in 1988. His 21 stolen bases without being caught was a major laegue record for years. Trea Turner (2023) and Trevor Story (2025) now hold the record with a perfect 30 for 30. But...

It always seemed like he would rather be somewhere else. He lovingly spoke about hunting and fishing and it was said he was the first one out of the clubhouse. When he once said he wouldn't mind a trade, Howie Rose hilariously said he would drive him to the airport.

Would the Mets have been better off with the fiery Mitchell? Or was the steady McReynolds the way to go?

TEACHER SAYS C. I say Mitchell would have been more influential than McReynolds turned out to be.

Other Mets - Padres deals: Tim Teufel for Garry Templeton; Mets trade minor leaguer Jason Bay; Wally Whitehurst for Tony Fernandez; Mets get Cy Young winner Randy Jones.