Hopefully everyone enjoyed it because it will be quite a while before another Met is honored in Cooperstown. This year’s ballot and numerous others down the road are devoid of obvious candidates from the franchise. The gap extends beyond players who enter the Hall of Fame in a Mets hat, too. There are essentially zero likely upcoming Hall of Famers who played even one game for the Mets.

The period between Seaver’s induction in ’92 and Piazza’s last year actually saw a good portion of former Mets elected to the Hall of Fame who simply did not don the cap:

These Hall of Famers range from beloved by Mets fans (Carter) to reviled (Alomar), but they’re all Hall of Famers regardless. There is no one like them who figures to be remotely close to election over the next decade.

2017: Jeff Kent, Billy Wagner, Gary Sheffield

The 2017 ballot had three holdovers who were modest candidates, but do not currently stand anywhere close to inevitable Hall of Fame induction. Kent is the leading home run hitter among second basemen in big-league history and spent most of the first few seasons of his career with the Mets from 1992 through 1996 until he was dealt for Carlos Baerga. In four years on the ballots though, he has never topped the mere 17 percent mark.

Wagner was a top-flight reliever who signed a four-year, $43 million deal with the Mets prior to the 2006 season, and he is probably the most popular Met in this group. He did have some awesome years closing for the Mets until falling victim to Tommy John surgery late in the ’08 campaign. His Cooperstown case is fascinating in comparison to the much more acclaimed Trevor Hoffman, since his rate stats are much better and he chose to retire early rather than being forced out by ineffectiveness like Hoffman. Unfortunately, most BBWAA writers don’t see it that way—he only received 10.5% of the vote in 2016 and 10.2% in 2017.

( * – Editor’s Note: Here’s another, less comprehensive breakdown of Wagner’s HoF case.)

Sheffield’s connection to the Mets is the loosest of the three, but the slugger did spend the last season of his 22-year career in Queens, smashing dinger number 500 in the fourth-ever game at Citi Field. If there weren’t any PED connections to Sheffield, he would probably be doing a lot better given the 509 career homers and .292/.393/.514 triple slash. He has absolutely been penalized and has never even approached Kent’s low voting levels during his three years on the ballot.

2018: Johan Santana

There is no getting around the fact that it’s depressing that Santana is almost Hall of Fame-eligible already at the mere age of 37. He is still attempting to come back and pitch in the majors for the first time since 2012; all power to him! The odds are that he will indeed hit the Hall of Fame ballot next year, and he is the Mets’ only legitimate candidate aside from the carryovers.

The problem is that Santana just didn’t last long enough to receive serious Hall of Fame consideration, though as expert Jay Jaffe has argued, he has an intriguing case based on peak. After all, he won two Cy Young Awards, contended for three others (including 2008 with the Mets), and finished with a better career ERA (3.20, 74 ERA-) than southpaw luminaries Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson.

Jaffe did ultimately decide that it wasn’t an overly strong case, particularly with superior starters like Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina already struggling for induction. Maybe a Veterans Committee To Be Named Later will look at Santana more favorably, but either way, it’s going to take some time.

2019: David Cone, Bret Saberhagen

Unless you’re a devoted member of the Jason Bay family, there are zero new Met names of note ahead on the 2019 BBWAA ballot. So the “best new chance” turns to the Veterans Committee, which according to the Adam Darowski will have their “Today’s Game” committee meet in December 2018.

The top Mets there will be Cone and Saberhagen, two pitchers who saw their greatest fame outside Queens with championship teams in the Bronx and Kansas City, respectively. Both went one-and-done on their initial Hall of Fame efforts in the late-2000s, but Jaffe recently outlined how they both deserved a better fate since advanced metrics really like them. It’s hard to envision a Veterans Committee truly appreciating them though since they have elected precisely zero living players since Bill Mazeroski in 2001. Alas.

2020-21: [tumbleweed]

The Veterans Committee is primarily reviewing players during these two election cycles who predate the Mets’ entire existence, and the best new Mets-related candidate on either is Bobby Abreu, who despite an interesting comp to Vladimir Guerrero, will not come close to induction. So…

It’s going to be a long, long time before another Met has a serious immediate shot Cooperstown. ESPN’s David Schoenfeld predicted that the next one to be enshrined will be Carlos Beltran in 2029, and that’s not a bad guess at all. His career is ending soon, and while he’s a better candidate than everyone else mentioned so far (and David Wright), it will likely take him a few years to climb the BBWAA voting ladder. He should get there eventually though.

The unfortunate reality is that Beltran will probably be the first Met of any kind elected since Piazza. Until then, Met fans will have to settle for Chipper Jones pointing at his son Shea in the crowd next year, I guess. Bleak.

Let the long wait begin.

Photo Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports

Edgardo Alfonzo

Signed out of Venezuela as a teenager, Edgardo Alfonzo was a man before his time. These days, a middle infielder with who can hit for average and power and draw walks and field his position is hailed as one of the best players in baseball. But when Fonzie took over as a 23-year-old starter in 1997, we’d never before seen anyone like him in Flushing. Four seasons hitting over .300. Top-10 in franchise history for batting average, on base percentage, home runs, RBI and runs scored. One of the most consistent and versatile infielders of his era, Alfonzo moved from third base to second in 1999 to form one of the best infields in franchise history. His first-inning two-run homer led the Mets over the Reds in the 1999 Wild Card playoff. When the Mets made the World Series the next season, Alfonzo led the team with 6.6 WARP. Two years ago, Alfonzo came back to New York to coach the Brooklyn Cyclones. — Noah Grand (@noahgrand)

Fred Wilpon

You’ll note this week’s topic is not who we want to see on a Mets Hall of Fame plaque. Aside from Mets players, the list of current inductees includes a few executives: Johnny Murphy and George Weiss, the architects of the 1969 Miracle Mets, and Frank Cashen, the general manager for the 1986 World Series winner. The Mets’ first owner, Joan Whitney Payson, was inducted into the Mets Hall in 1981, six years after her death.

Fred Wilpon will turn 80 after this season. He’s intensely concerned about his reputation. You may remember that insane New Yorker profile from 2011. (Sample quote: “Everybody likes Fred, there is tremendous respect for Fred, people listen to what he has to say, and I don’t know of anybody who has ever had an open fight with him.”) Wilpon might not commission his own statue outside Citi Field (and nobody’s going to get a Fred Wilpon tattoo). But Wilpon will be a Mets Hall-of-Famer. The only question is when. — Scott D. Simon (@scottdsimon)

David Cone

Cone’s place in Mets lore occupies that unfortunate stretch of years immediately following ’86, when the team struggled to recapture the success everyone assumed would continue. When Cone was acquired from Kansas City in spring training of 1987, he was an unproven 23-year-old with all of 11 MLB relief appearances to his name. By the time he was traded to Toronto for Jeff Kent in August 1992, Cone was a full-fledged star. He won his only two career strikeout titles as a Met (1990, 1991). His superlative 20-3 season in 1988 helped the Mets to their second NL East title in three years. And while Cone’s star only rose further once he left Queens — he’d win five World Series titles in all, the first coming that fall with the Blue Jays, and his perfect game in 1999 won’t ever be forgotten in the Bronx — he was a consistent winner, even during the offensively lean times of the early ’90s. His time with the Mets was on the short side, but Cone’s results were undeniable. — Erik Malinowski (@erikmal)

Jay Horwitz

Perhaps nobody outside of Bob Murphy, Mets Hall of Fame class of 1984, has had a longer record of contribution to the Mets than the venerable Vice President of Media Relations, Jay Horwitz. Horwitz was hired by the Mets in 1980 and has made an indelible mark on the team as one of the last old-school PR men in the game.

Over the past few years, Horwitz has become something of a pop culture icon for diehard fans. His Twitter account, as infrequently updated as it is, served as great comic relief when the team was not as good on the field. He had a bobblehead night at Citi Field. Tales of his pocket-dialing random contacts are ubiquitous in slice of life stories around the team. He’s as much a part of the fabric of the team as almost anyone, and he deserves induction into the Mets Hall of Fame. – Jarrett Seidler (@jaseidler)

Al Leiter

While this past weekend was spent celebrating a certain 1998 Mets-Marlins trade, another between those teams also had a tremendous impact on the franchise. Al Leiter was no stranger to New York City when he came over from Florida in a February 1998 deal for A.J. Burnett and a couple other prospects. He was a second-round pick by the Yankees in 1984, but overuse led to major shoulder problems. Leiter would not establish himself as reliable until he was traded to the Blue Jays.

By ’98, though, Leiter had thrown a no-hitter and earned World Series rings from the Blue Jays and Marlins; he was considered a superb southpaw. He wasted little time becoming the Mets’ ace. It was Leiter who threw a shutout in the one-game Wild Card playoff in ’99 against the Reds. It was Leiter who the Mets turned to guide them through the postseason in ’99 and 2000. It was Leiter pitching his heart out as the Mets tried desperately to stay alive in the Subway Series, only to be done on a ninth-inning thousand-hopper after 142 pitches.

Leiter’s seven years in Queens were excellent, even as he became one of the few bright spots on sagging teams under Art Howe. As the head of the rotation during the Mets’ finest era since 1986, a spot in the Mets Hall of Fame seems well-deserved for the New Jersey native. — Andrew Mearns (@MearnsPSA)

Ron Darling

Darling was never the best pitcher on his team, but he was  consistently solid. He saved his best performance for the Mets’ championship season, when he spun a 2.81 ERA in 1986. Now, none of this would be enough on its own to get Darling a plaque in the Mets Hall of Fame.

I like when people are able to excel in multiple exploits during the course of their life. Darling’s fantastic work in the Mets broadcast booth puts him over the top. Darling has been with SNY since 2006, so we are now talking about his work in terms of decades. It has been nothing but stellar. Darling has become one of the best color commentators in the game and is part of a broadcast team that is revered as one of the best in the game as well. If Darling stays  with the team, his excellent commentary and knowledge of the game — combined with his  production as a Met — makes him an easy choice for a plaque in the future. — Tyler Plofker (@TylerPlofker)

Gary Cohen

The last time the New York Mets introduced an announcer in their Hall of Fame was 1984, when the trio of Ralph Kiner, Bob Murphy and Lindsey Nelson received their plaques. However, no Mets announcer is more deserving of the honor than SNY play-by-play man Gary Cohen. Cohen started covering the Mets on the radio in 1989 alongside Murphy before taking over primary responsibilities in 2003. He then made the transition to SNY on TV in 2006 and has been a staple of what is arguably the best announcing team in all of Major League Baseball.

Cohen is also celebrated for his memorable calls in New York Mets history such as Todd Pratt’s walk-off home run in 1999 to defeat the Diamondbacks in the NLDS and, more recently, the final out of Johan Santana’s first no-hitter in New York Mets history. Making these calls and announcing every game has made Cohen a staple in Mets fans’ lives. Recently, Cohen’s voice even became recognizable nationwide with his emphatic call of Bartolo Colon’s first career home run. But Cohen is more than just a Mets announcer; he is a fellow Mets fan. — Seth Rubin (@SethRubin)

Photo Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets have mostly been on the negative side of these deals, but some of them have turned out well. Hell, they found both outcomes on one day, acquiring then-unknown Jose Baustista from the Royals in exchange for minor leaguer Justin Huber on July 30, 2004, only to send the future superstar away that evening alongside Ty Wigginton in the infamous Kris Benson deal. Since Bautista wasn’t even a Met for 24 hours and might have been part of the Benson plan along, he doesn’t quite qualify for this post, but both trades represent the kind that would fit. The Kazmir/Zambrano doesn’t either since that was a laughable bust from almost the get-go. The rest of these took some time to reveal the impact.

May 19, 1981: Jeff Reardon and Dan Norman to the Expos for Ellis Valentine

Ellis Valentine was a tremendously talented young player with a cannon for an arm on the Expos, but he was unable to conquer his off-field demons during his time in Montreal. Still, the Mets thought that they could perhaps unlock Valentine’s potential, as he was only about 27 years old. So they dealt reliever Jeff Reardon and minor league outfielder Dan Norman to Montreal to acquire him.

Valentine didn’t work out in Queens and was gone from the team a year and a half later. Reardon, however, flourished north of the border. The right-hander had pitched well in New York with a 2.65 ERA in 97 games, featuring high velocity despite a shaky walk rate, but he still had the background of an undrafted free agent. He won the Expos’ trust in the split-season stretch run for the only playoff berth in their history in Montreal, and soon became one of baseball’s most reliable closers. Reardon and his blistering fastball made four All-Star teams and saved 357 games after leaving New York, and he was even the game’s all-time saves leader at one point.

The mid-‘80s Mets found their stopper in Jesse Orosco anyway, but it could have been Reardon throwing his glove in the air after the 1986 World Series comeback. Instead, he moved on to Minnesota after the Expos traded him and closed down the 1987 World Series for the Twins.

August 28, 1984: Gerald Young, Manny Lee, and Mitch Cook to the Astros for Ray Knight

This deal is admittedly a slight reach since Ray Knight was far from an unknown. He was a two-time All-Star with the Reds and the Astros earlier in his career, but his shine was blemished by the time the Mets traded for him. After a strong season in ’83, Knight stumbled in ’84 and by late August, he had a .223/.259/.281 triple slash in 88 games with just 12 extra base hits. He was on the wrong side of the 30 and under contract for another couple years, so GM Al Rosen decided to cut bait. All three men acquired for Knight were simply players to be named later.

While Knight finished the ’84 season with a decent September, ’85 was a nightmare. He platooned with Howard Johnson and did not play well at all, ending the year with a .218/.252/.328 batting line. Then in ’86, everything suddenly clicked again. Knight rediscovered his form at the plate with a .282 TAv, finished 14^th in NL MVP voting, and of course won World Series MVP honors with a 1.005 OPS series against the Red Sox, belting the go-ahead homer in Game 7.

Young had a couple good years in Houston, as did Lee with Toronto after they claimed him in the off-season, but I’m sure the Mets will take the trade-off for their last World Series hero. It took two years for the Knight deal to pay off, but it ended with the greatest reward.

August 27, 1992: David Cone to the Blue Jays for Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson

The 1992 Mets were an absolute nightmare, and they weren’t going anywhere with pending free agent ace David Cone. It was an obvious move to sell, and though the team put it off for a while, they did find a contender to bring Coney aboard. To their good fortune, one of the players acquired was Jeff Kent. It worked out for Toronto since they won the ’92 World Series with Cone in their rotation, but the Mets had a borderline Hall of Famer on their hands.

The only problem was that no one quite understood Kent’s potential at the time. He was a 20^th round pick in 1989, hadn’t been ranked by Baseball America as a Top 100 prospect, and his Mets teammates didn’t like him because he was a loner and refused to deal with hazing. Nonetheless, Kent showed his prowess at the plate with a .279/.327/.453 triple slash in 498 games with the Mets, clubbing 98 doubles and 67 homers.

Then at the 1996 trade deadline, the Mets decided to flip Kent to Cleveland in the ill-fated Carlos Baerga deal. He broke out for 29 homers with the Giants a year later and by the time he retired in 2008, he had 377 career dingers, the most ever by a second baseman. My step-dad always rued that trade, saying “Jeff Kent was too good for the Mets.” The Mets stole a future MVP from the Blue Jays and never truly reaped the benefits.

Half a decade later, the Mets made a similar mistake surrendering a steal. They swiped a 22^nd rounder from the Expos named Jason Bay in spring training 2002 for infielder Lou Collier. Then they sent Bay packing after four months in a deadline deal for pitchers Steve Reed and Jason Middlebrook. In 2004, Bay was NL Rookie of the Year for the Pirates and became an All-Star three times that decade, only to flop upon signing a $66 million deal to return to the Mets in 2010. Naturally.

July 28, 2000: Melvin Mora, Leslie Brea, Mike Kinkade, and Pat Gorman to the Orioles for Mike Bordick

The Mets were cursed by a late bloomer, and it was partially the fault of the magnificent Rey Ordonez.

The nonpareil defender broke his arm in a late May game in 2000, forcing him to miss the entire season. So for the next two months, the Mets filled shortstop with a 28-year-old utilityman from Venezuela named Melvin Mora. Like Kent, it was somewhat fortuitous that the Mets even had Mora in the first place. He was originally signed by the Astros at age 19, and they cut him loose after the ’97 season. GM Steve Phillips picked him up, stuck in their minor leagues, and he made his big league debut as an occasional bench player in 1999.

Mora didn’t hit a lick in 39 plate appearances in ’99, but he did a capable job filling in for Ordonez, batting .260/.317/.423 in 79 games, good for a .260 TAv. Although it wasn’t spectacular, it seemed fine for an emergency replacement. Phillips didn’t quite believe in Mora though, so at the trade deadline, he elected to package him with three other players for Orioles shortstop Mike Bordick, who made his only All-Star team that year. Bordick never displayed that form upon joining the Mets, mustering a mere .236 TAv the rest of the way and being a non-factor during the postseason run. A free agent that year, he rejoined the Orioles in 2001.

On a terrible Orioles team, Mora was given regular playing time. He played just about everywhere and maintained steady though unspectacular numbers through the end of 2002. Then in 2003, everything clicked. Mora became an All-Star, hitting .317/.418/.503 in 96 games before injuries cut his season short in the second half. The next year, he led the AL in OBP with a .419 mark and won the Silver Slugger at third base. He was an All-Star again in 2005 and eventually ended his career in 2011 with 283 doubles, 171 homers, and 31.2 WARP.

To be fair, no one saw Mora’s breakout coming and that didn’t arrive until his age-31 season. On the other hand, Mora played perfectly fine for the Mets filling in for Ordonez, and they didn’t think a helpful utilityman could capably cover shortstop for a few more months. Instead, Mora covered multiple positions elsewhere for the next decade.

August 30, 2000: Nelson Cruz to the A’s for Jorge Velandia

You might ask “Who is Jorge Velandia?”

The answer is no one, really. He was an infielder who played 174 major league games for six different teams between 1997 and 2008. Velandia didn’t even report to the Mets when they acquired him; he was sent to Triple-A for a few days before becoming a September call-up. He played 15 games and didn’t get a hit. Velandia only spent 47 games total in Queens from 2000 through 2003. He was just a random bench guy.

The cost for the random bench guy was Nelson Cruz, a 20-year-old outfielder who had not yet played professional ball for the Mets. Still, he had tremendous tools and the Mets just gave him up for no one. It’s 16 years later, Cruz has 264 career homers and four All-Star Games to his name, and even now at age 36 has a .328 TAv for the Mariners. Would the Mets have given up on him just as the A’s and Brewers did before his Texas breakout? Perhaps not, but they never even gave him a chance. Howard Megdal summed it up best:

So yes, I hold Steve Phillips responsible for trading away Nelson Cruz. If he had done so for some kind of certainty at a position of need, fine. But wasting a prospect for a third, unpalatable alternative at a position? No, that’s not what a good GM does.

2000 was an unforgettable season at the major league level for the Mets, but they sure made some bad mistakes with prospects. C’est la vie.

But by 1991, the Mets were a team that felt 50 years removed from a title rather than just five. The roster was an awesomely weird amalgam of people. They were prospects that hadn’t developed as expected and aging stars from ’86 on the freeway out of town. They had players who would later become clubhouse leaders—both in Queens and elsewhere—but were still too young to know their true potential. And there were the free agent signings stuck in an unfortunate limbo, too late for the mid-’80s glory years but who simply couldn’t stick around the late ‘90s rebirth.

While that ’91 club still retained some of the DNA from the Series-winners just five years prior, it was a roster ultimately doomed to mediocrity, stuck in a time of confusion and soul-searching. The Mets were no longer the powerhouse of their recent past, yet their path to a rebuild was still far from obvious.

So it’s no surprise they finished 77-84, fifth in the NL East, but this team was so much more interesting than that, at least in hindsight. A 10-game winning streak that spanned the All-Star break pushed the Mets to 49-34, just 2.5 games behind Pittsburgh for first. Hope abounds! But then they finished the year 28-50, the worst record in all of baseball during that time. In those final 78 games, they averaged an MLB-worst 3.48 runs per game. (For comparison’s sake, this year’s Mets are only scoring 3.69 a game. How times have changed.)

An up-and-down team struggling to find an identity? A team full of hope that’s maybe over-reliant on pitching and has great trouble scoring runs? Stop me if you’ve heard that one before.

Yes, we joke lovingly about the baaaaad Mets teams of the past, but if this year’s iteration is more akin to the ’86 champs than the ’91 schlubs, from now until the All-Star break is when that transformation has to happen. Otherwise, they could be remembered alongside this magnificent, ragtag bunch of hapless underachievers:

Ron Darling – Dumped in a midseason trade to Montreal, Darling was by then no more than a middling fifth starter, even in his age-30 season.

David Cone – Acquired in spring training of 1987, Cone was the rotational stalwart of the post-’86 hangover. Led the league in strikeouts (243) and FIP (2.52) in ’91, his last full season with the Mets. This was also his age-28 season and yet all five of his World Series titles (plus the perfect game) had yet to happen. Life comes at you fast.

Sid Fernandez – Bryan did a great roundup of El Sid’s career not long ago, but 1991 was, as he writes, a lost year for the hefty lefty with the smooth curve. At least Fernandez had one more full season left in him for ’92.

Gregg Jefferies – There was no prospect hyped in that post-’86 wake quite like Jefferies. Third in ROY voting in 1989, buoyed by one epic charge at Roger McDowell. Led the league in doubles in 1990. Always a high-contact hitter, Jefferies never quite put up the big power numbers people expected, and he was traded after the 1991 season in the ill-fated deal that brought Bret Saberhagen to Queens.

Howard Johnson – This was peak HoJo in all his glory: Holding down third base, socking 38 dingers, swiping 30 bases, maintaining that magnificent beard! It was all downhill in ’92, but this ’91 season was one to remember. Johnson finished in the top 10 in MVP voting three times in his nine seasons with the Mets. This was the last of the three.

Kevin McReynolds – Traded away with Jefferies to Kansas City in the Saberhagen deal, McReynolds was the first big pick-up after ’86, a fresh bit of energy in the intervening years. And in 1988, as a seven-year-old who was newly cognizant of baseball, his game-winning grand slam at Wrigley Field (and the gaping maw it induced in Cubs manager Don Zimmer) became a seminal moment in my life.

Dwight Gooden – Doc’s final season in Queens with a winning record (13-7). Still only 26, but his days of averaging more than nine strikeouts per nine were effectively over by then. Dumped after the 1994 season.

John Franco – After coming over in the Randy Myers trade after the ’89 season, Franco missed out on a ring with Cincinnati in 1990, but his consolation was spending the next 14 seasons with his hometown Mets, through eras both putrid and sublime. His earlier Mets teams skewed more toward the former, but Franco (when healthy) was as reliable as they come. Weird to think that he would survive long enough to concede the closer’s role to Braden Looper and witness the rise of a young David Wright, but Franco remains the modern-day Mets answer to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Frank Viola – Still only 31 by then, Viola actually finished fourth (2.6) in team bWAR, behind Cone, Gooden, and Johnson. You know who finished tied for fifth? Jeff Ennis and Rick Cerrone (1.7). This was a weird Mets team. They let Viola walk after the season.

Todd Hundley – Still five years away from breaking the single-season record for most dingers by a catcher and 16 years away from the Mitchell Report that named him and teammates Chris Donnels and Mark Carreon as suspected PED users, Hundley was simply another 22-year-old, late-season call-up in 1991. His first career homer came that year in the bottom of the 14th in a late September game against Pittsburgh. Hundley’s tater tied the game, but Wally Whitehurst gave up a run in the top of the 15th and the Mets lost. (It was the first game of a doubleheader.)

Anthony Young – I would never tell anyone to not chase their dreams, but I might make an exception for Young. This season wasn’t terrible for the 25-year-old rookie, but oh the pain that was to come. He pitched a shutout in his first start of 1992—a six-hitter in St. Louis—then won again 10 days later in a late-game mop-up appearance. Of course, as we all know, he then didn’t win another game for another 465 days, losing a MLB-record 27 straight decisions. The day he broke the streak? Maybe the only time I was ever happy to see Eddie Murray in a Mets uniform.

Pete Schourek – To this day, my father and I maintain all young prospective pitchers (read: babies) should be taught to throw left-handed simply because of Schourek. His reverse splits were maddening, and yet somehow he once finished second in Cy Young voting to Greg Maddux. But in 1991, he was simply a 22-year-old rookie with his whole career ahead of him. He pitched his only career shutout that season, a one-hitter over the last-place Expos in September. Oh what hopes he must’ve had.

Hubie Brooks – Talk about bad timing. You play for the unwatchable Mets from 1980 to 1984, only to return for one more go-around in 1991? Like getting to the barbecue early, then volunteering to go pick up some ice for the cooler, only to come back, see the grill cooling off, and wonder why no one saved you a cheeseburger.

Garry Templeton – Will always be known more as the shortstop St. Louis traded to San Diego for some guy named Ozzie Smith. To Mets fans, he’ll always be the guy who was acquired for Tim Teufel. The speed that once led the NL in triples three straight years was long gone by ’91, and Templeton retired after the season.

Tim Teufel – Despite never playing more than 100 games in a season following ’86, Teufel stuck around as a utility infielder who could get on base in a pinch and supply some pinch-hitting pop if needed. He spent two more full seasons in San Diego before retiring in 1993.

Tom Herr – Like Templeton, another infielder more known for his days with another NL team. Herr was the starting second baseman on Opening Day but was reduced to a bench/utility role by June. Traded to the Giants in August and retired after the season.

Dave Magadan – In 1990, Magadan challenged for a batting title and received actual, real MVP votes after the season. (He finished better than worst!) The year after, he was a solid fourth of an infield that was low-key super-enjoyable for Mets fans to watch. Magadan at first, Jefferies at second, Johnson at third, and Kevin Elster at short was a group that was, at its best, definitely not old and terrible.

Mackey Sasser – Everyone remembers the throwing yips that nearly derailed his career in 1990—14 errors in 87 games—but what many forget is that Sasser largely overcame those issues in 1991, committing just one error in 179 chances over 43 games at catcher. Regardless, his career was more or less headed in its natural downward trajectory by that time, even at 28. I talked to him years ago for a magazine story on the yips that never ran. He was coaching community college ball down in Alabama. He’s now also the athletic director there. Good for him.

Kevin Elster – I was a catcher in youth ball, but if I’d had a better throwing arm, I probably would’ve played shortstop and Elster would’ve been the reason. He made the position look easy and fun, 88 games without an error and all that. Little did we know that it would all come to an end after ’91. Shoulder surgery just a week into the ’92 season ended his Mets tenure, but he would go on to appear in Little Big League, so it worked out OK for him.

Vince Coleman – In 1992, Coleman, along with teammates Gooden and Daryl Boston, was brought up on a rape charge that was later dropped. He also physically assaulted manager Jeff Torborg on the field. In 1993, he was charged with a felony for tossing a lit firecracker at fans outside Dodger Stadium. (His attorney? A pre-OJ Robert Shapiro.) But in 1991, he was merely injured and terrible, clocking in a sub-zero WARP over 72 games.

Oh wait, nah, he also fought with coach Mike Cubbage on the field before a game in July. Manager Bud Harrelson chose not to discipline Coleman and instead chalked it up to a “moment of insanity.” GM Frank Cashen (himself facing retirement) later fired Harrelson before the home finale at Shea. Cubbage took over for the final week of the season, went 3-4, and never managed again.

What a team.

Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports