It’s early, but let’s make deal!
The off season is upon us and we would all like to get the ball rolling on retooling the roster. While it’s only the beginning of November, the Mets have been known to make some memorable November trades this early in the off season.
Mets trade Ron Hunt and Jim Hickman to the Dodgers
On November 29, 1966, the Mets traded Ron Hunt and Jim Hickman to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Tommy Davis and Derrell Griffith. Davis spent one year with the Mets and hit .302 and looked like the team had a legitimate hitter they could depend on for many years to come. It didn’t work out that way. I still have a 1967 Mets yearbook that Tommy Davis autographed.
In December of 1967 (yes, this article is supposed to be about November trades – but I needed to close the loop on Davis and what he actually brought to this team) and despite his strong season, Davis and three other players were shipped to the White Sox for Tommie Agee and Al Weiss. No one could have predicted the contributions that both would have to the 1969 championship season both at the bat and in the field. Agee is easily considered one of the club’s best outfielders in franchise history and who could forget those two magical catches against the Baltimore Orioles. While Weis was not that strong of a player, his World Series home run in 1969 was essential to the team clinching their first championship.
Mets trade Bob Johnson for Art Shamsky
Art Shamsky joined the Mets on November 8, 1967, after several seasons with the Cincinnati Reds in a deal that subtracted Bob Johnson from the Met roster. While the Mets knew they were picking up a good defender they recognized that his .238 average in 381 plate appearances for the Reds in 1968 was close to what they would get. Instead, in 1969, playing mostly in a platoon with Ron Swoboda, Shamsky slashed .300/.375/.488 to go along with hitting 14 home runs. In 1970, his stat line was 293/.371/.432 in 458 plate appearances. While he was mostly a bench player in that magical season, he did have seven singles in 13 plate appearances as the Mets swept the Atlanta Braves to move into the Championship series against the Orioles.
Mets steal Carlos Delgado from the Marlins in a trade
On November 24, 2005, the Mets traded three players and some cash to obtain Carlos Delgado from the Florida Marlins (that’s what they were called back then). Delgado’s first season in New York was 2006 and the Mets made a run all the way to game seven of the NLCS in a large part because of his bat. He hit 38 home runs and drove in 114 in 2006, added another 24 home runs in 2007 and 38 more in 2008. His slash line while in Queens was .267/.351/.506 and 104 home runs. Up until Pete Alonso, Delgado was the most impactful bat to ever play first base for the Mets.
Mets add Bob Ojeda in a trade with the Red Sox
This was a November trade that worked out well for both teams. On November 13, 1985, the Mets traded four players, including pitcher Calvin Schiraldi, to the Boston Red Sox for Bob Ojeda and three others. Less than a year later, both would be appearing in the same 1986 world series. Ojeda was 18-5 in 1986 and his .783 winning percentage led the national league. He finished fourth in the Cy Young vote and was undefeated in the post season.
While he never matched his 1986 performance, and was injured for a lot of 1987, Ojeda still pitched to a 51-40 record and 3.12 ERA over his time in Queens
Mets trade for Felix Millan and George Stone
This November trade was considered one of the more underrated trades the Mets made, and one that turned out great. On November 2, 1972, the club traded Danny Frisella and Gary Gentry to the Atlanta Braves for Felix Millan and George Stone. Millan spent five years at a Met, playing steady defense while also racking up 743 hits including 185 in 1973 and 191 in 1975. His slash line was .278/.326/.337. While never considered a star, Millan was still a key member of this team.
Stone, a once productive pitcher for the Braves, had a bad year in 1972 leading to his exit from Atlanta. Still just in his mid-20s, and despite being in the league for six years already, Stone had an incredible year for the 1973 Miracle Mets.
In a rotation that included some of the most popular Mets pitchers of all-time, Stone, wo started in the bull pen, later shifted into the rotation and finished with a 12-3 record and 2.80 ERA as the Mets won the division with a paltry total of just 82 wins. Without Stone, the Mets would have been watching the playoffs on television. He pitched six and two thirds innings in a playoff win against the Reds giving up just one run and threw three shutout innings against the Oakland A’s in the series. Stone never had the same success in 1974 and 1975 pitching to an ERA in excess of give, but he certainly shined having a career year in 1973.
There are many teams that need to retool their rosters and certainly a lot of holes will be filled across baseball by teams handing out huge free agent contracts, versus draining their own prospects. The Mets are in a position to do both and this writer opines that they should jump out ahead of the class and start making deals. If they are serious about contending, they need to quickly see if they are even in the ballpark with Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz. If both of their salary/year demands are unrealistic, they need to quickly move on to other players, with a careful approach to those on the other side of 30 like Alex Bregman and Josh Naylor. There is no reason not to determine that all right now.
Then there is the trade market that the Mets should also be very active in. There is no reason to wait until the calendar turns to 2026 and lots of good players are already off the board. As Nike would say, “Just do it.”
What a great read, I was riveted and nostalgic! Yet getting much of the granular I never knew.
I have a strong feeling the team will go all-in for Skubal. But if they fall short on getting him, my intuition says the Bellingers won’t be signing with the club. Trade-wise, who else do you think would be a good fit — a true blockbuster — worth sending a huge haul of prospects for?
A long-term, MVP-caliber bat also seems like a major priority. An eleven-year veteran — and we never quite know which version of Lindor we’ll get — could face a season affected by a nagging injury, as any player might. How many more years like 2024 does he have in him? Could they also be putting big money on the table for a hitter under 30 with, say, a plus-one dWAR?
And then there’s the bullpen. Without Díaz, will that have to be rebuilt from scratch? With the possibility that not every need can be filled this offseason, adding a Skubal might be the kind of move that lets them tell themselves they’re gearing up to be the Dodgers — or even something closer to those great Oriole teams, the Big Red Machine, or the 1969–76 A’s who averaged nearly 95 wins a year. Which in this era might scream that any team with that aspiration needs two major additions every year?
And despite huge pockets, penalties still means that managing your payroll will be very important. Look what they got from Manaea, Montas and Marte (only the Mets offered him 2025) in 2025? Plus Montas salary in rehab 2026 is almost $83 million for so so little?
"Mets trade for Felix Millan and George Stone
This November trade was considered one of the more underrated trades the Mets made, and one that turned out great."
I think it's important to judge a trade both when it was made and how it turned out. If this trade happened this November, we would be talking about how we gave up too much. But you're right - it worked out better than the Mets had any right to expect when it was made. If Gentry doesn't get hurt and Frisella doesn't pass away - the Mets lose that trade big time.