Released players who have made an impact

[Guest 41Forever]

Thinking about The Bautista and Gonzalez signings, I was wondering how many players we've signed after they have been released, and have then made a significant impact on the Mets.

Reyes, while not doing well now or most of last year, because a regular upon his return. Fernando Tatis got a lot of playing time. Who else jumps to mind for you?

Edited May 23, 2018 by Guest

[G-Fafif]

Lenny Randle was the most valuable player of a godawful year after Texas couldn't keep him around, what with his having clocked his manager.

[G-Fafif]

Picking up Gary Sheffield worked out well for a couple of months.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Lenny Randle was the first one I thought of too.

What about Lee Mazzilli in 1986? Had he been released before the Mets signed him?

[G-Fafif]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Lenny Randle was the first one I thought of too. What about Lee Mazzilli in 1986? Had he been released before the Mets signed him?

Yes. Released by Pittsburgh to make room for that fine young man Bobby Bonilla. Mets signed him a few days before George Foster made room at the Major League level for Mazz.

[G-Fafif]

Orel Hershiser was released by the Tribe in ST '99, scooped up by the Mets moments later, significant part of a playoff-bound pitching staff.

[G-Fafif]

Useful pinch-hitter Jesus Alou was released by the A's prior to the Mets signing him in 1975.

[Edgy MD]

Nori Aoiki, if only kinda.

[stevejrogers]

You can call traded two weeks after being acquired an unofficial DFA’ing

[G-Fafif]

In the second-time-around vein, a la Mazzilli, the Mets grabbed Marlon Anderson in the summer of 2007 after the Nationals let him go. Marlon belted a PH three-run homer one August night versus the Patres as part of an electric six-run uprising SNY might still play to this day had the Mets held on to the 7-6 lead they took on Anderson's swing.

But they didn't. It was 2007.

[G-Fafif]

Kind of a marginal impact, but Bobby Abreu was let go by the Phillies late in camp in 2014. We gave him a standing ovation when he left the field after recording what he and we knew was his final big league hit on the last day of the season. If you can't go out with a world championship, that's not a bad exit.

[Guest 41Forever]

G-Fafif wrote: Lenny Randle was the most valuable player of a godawful year after Texas couldn't keep him around, what with his having clocked his manager.

I thought about Randle, too. Technically he was traded, sez Baseball Reference: April 26, 1977: Traded by the Texas Rangers to the New York Mets for a player to be named later and cash. The New York Mets sent Rick Auerbach (May 20, 1977) to the Texas Rangers to complete the trade.

But the concept is the same. No way he was continuing with Texas.

[Edgy MD]

There seems to be a missing letter in this thread title, and so it seems to advocate for the team to cut anybody who commits the sin of being productive.

Kind of like the army executing Sting at the beginning of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

[G-Fafif]

41Forever wrote: Lenny Randle was the most valuable player of a godawful year after Texas couldn't keep him around, what with his having clocked his manager. I thought about Randle, too. Technically he was traded, sez Baseball Reference: April 26, 1977: Traded by the Texas Rangers to the New York Mets for a player to be named later and cash. The New York Mets sent Rick Auerbach (May 20, 1977) to the Texas Rangers to complete the trade. But the concept is the same. No way he was continuing with Texas.

I had either forgotten or didn't realize that's how Randle became a Met. Thanks for checking.

I mostly remember Rick Auerbach as a baseball card I got too often. Acquired by the Mets a couple of months before being traded for Lenny, but never played for us.

[Centerfield]

Mike Baxter was released by the Padres in July of 2011.

The next May, he made quite the impact, literally and figuratively.



In this picture, you can actually see the site of the impact.

[Guest 41Forever]

Edgy MD wrote: There seems to be a missing letter in this thread title, and so it seems to advocate for the team to cut anybody who commits the sin of being productive. Kind of like the army executing Sting at the beginning of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

Good catch! Fixed.

[G-Fafif]

If we're counting waiver claims, Mike Phillips was a nice pickup from the Giants as 1975 got going.

[G-Fafif]

Not much impact, except that it propelled him into an exclusive club: The Mets signing the released-by-Houston Alex Trevino in 1990. Negligible effect on the Mets' fading fortunes in the NL East race, but Alex joined the three-decade club, heretofore populated only by Mike Jorgensen and Tom Seaver.

[Frayed Knot]

It seems to me that if teams released players by first dangling them off the upper deck and then releasing them, that that would make quite an impact.




OK, I'll step away from the keyboard now as I'm clearly not a well man