The Mets front office reasoned that the Mets were trying to add to their strength, that you could never have enough pitching. But they couldn’t exactly justify it by trading away their best hitter. The Mets had always seemed to have plenty of pitching, but they never seemed to have enough punch on offense. In reality, trading Staub would be the start of Grant ridding himself of anyone who was going to be questioning his authority. (Although he traded off Tommie Agee, the team’s best athlete, because he had the audacity to ask for more money a few years earlier.)
The Mets believed that 1975 rookie sensation Mike Vail would make fans forget about Rusty Staub. He didn’t. After suffering an off-season injury, Vail was never the same and made the decision to trade Staub look even worse than it was. So after getting rid of Staub, there was no addition of any offense to offset that loss.
And the only major trade made midseason (July 21, 1976), another head-scratcher, was to send Wayne Garrett and Del Unser to the Montreal Expos for centerfielder Pepe Mangual and leftfielder Jim Dwyer.
For some odd reason the Mets, well really Joe Frazier, had been enamored with a guy by the name of Roy Staiger at third base. He was a high draft choice that never had success in the minors yet Frazier loved him. Frazier swore by him and insisted he would be a powerful RBI bat.
And for whatever reason, Mets hierarchy never took to Garrett even though he had given some decent years at third base and could also fill in at second and short when needed. Unser was always a great centerfielder and a good hitter. He was having a great season in 1975 until he got injured and never fully recovered from the injury and the Mets just gave up on him, hoping that Mangual would give them some speed at the top of the lineup. But he was a bust. And Dwyer would be basically a pinch hitter for a little bit before being dispatched elsewhere.
The only rational for the trade might have been that Unser wasn’t the same since his injury toward the end of the ’75 season and the Mets were looking for speed and stability in centerfield. Mangual had shown signs of that in Montreal but it didn’t translate after getting to the Mets.
The Mets had actually gotten off to a good start and would remain competitive all season long. And for very good reason. Pitching.
Mets pitching led the National League in several categories including ERA (2.94), WHIP (1.150), strikeouts (1,025), strikeouts per nine innings (6.4), least amount of hits (1,248), hits per nine innings (7.8), least amount of walks (419), strikeouts (1.025), strikeouts per nine innings (6.4), shutouts (17), and complete games (53).
A 2.94 TEAM ERA with 53 complete games and 17 shutouts. Unfathomable in today’s era.
Jerry Koosman led the starting rotation with 21 wins against 10 losses and an ERA of 2.69 and team-leading 17 complete games. Jon Matlack went 17-10 with a 2.95 ERA, a team-leading 6 shutouts and 16 complete games to his credit. Oh yeah, Tom Seaver had a record of “only” 14-10 with a team-leading 2.59 ERA and NL-leading 235 strikeouts. Lolich, meanwhile, sported a record of 8-13 with an ERA of only 3.22. Skip Lockwood, a forgotten Met, was the closer saving 19 games, winning 10, with an ERA of 2.67.
Of note, Seaver and Matlack made the 1976 All Star team (along with Dave Kingman) with Matlack named co-MVP of the game. Koosman did not get selected to the All Star team…nor was he named Cy Young Award winner.
As for the Mets hitting, it wasn’t actually as bad as it had sometimes been. They were pretty much in the middle of the pack in just about every category, with the exception of stolen bases where they were a distant dead last.
Dave Kingman was his usual power threat with a team-leading 37 home runs and 86 RBI. John Milner chipped in with 15 homers and 78 RBI. Ed Kranepool actually had probably the best season of his career, hitting .292 with 10 HR and 49 RBI. Joe Torre actually led the team with a .306 average.
I once wrote a story how the Mets once had to suit up three catchers in their starting lineup. Well, the 1976 starting lineup quite often paraded out three first basemen – Kranepool at first, Milner in left field and Kingman in right field. Add Torre in at third base and there were games that had what amounted to four first basemen in the game at the same time.
None of the four played more than 127 games. And when they all did play, needless to say the defense wasn’t all that great. And THAT was their offense. And it just wasn’t going to be enough to overtake the Philadelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates, both teams loaded with offensive power.
The Mets had the pitching that could have dominated a short series in post season. And if the playoff picture was as it is today, they would have made the post season and could probably have won a title. But they were just not a well-constructed team (four first basemen playing at the same time). When have we heard that before?
Looking back on that season, I just recall it being uneventful and somewhat boring. While they were competitive, and you were pretty much always rewarded with a great pitching performance, there was very little to cheer about. The Phillies and Pirates were basically in a two-team race and really beat up on the rest of the division. And while the Mets pitching held them at bay, they just couldn’t score enough runs.
When you look at great pitching staffs, the 1976 New York Mets is truly overlooked, and probably because as great as they were, they didn’t accomplish anything that would make the team memorable. If only the Mets could put a staff together like that today, in today’s post-season format. Then we could really see if great pitching could beat great hitting.
Just an afterthought…in the 1976 NL Cy Young Award went to Randy Jones of the San Diego Padres and the co-Rookies of the Year were Butch Metzger of the Padres and Pat Zachry of the Cincinnati Reds. All three would end up pitching for the Mets.
