Soto and Sadecki, and a Spin Through Mets History

The Mets have a shiny new free agent. But what about the first?

You may have heard the news. Juan Soto is changing zip codes. He used to work at 10463, in the Bronx. His new home office is in Queens, at 11368. I don’t think Juan has updated his LinkedIn page just yet, but it’s still early. If you want to send him a welcome note, the new address is 41 Seaver Way.

Soto became the newest member of the New York Mets Sunday night, thanks to the nearly bottomless bank account of Steve Cohen, who is believed to be the richest owner in baseball even after he agreed to pay the 26-year-old Soto $765 million over the next 15 years. If you are scoring at home, that’s $762 million more than the Yankees, Soto’s former employer, paid Reggie Jackson in baseball’s first free-agent class in 1977.

Soto has worn No. 22 his entire career, and if he would like that to continue, he will have to work out a deal with the Mets’ current No. 22, Brett Baty. (He would also have to work around a little-known clause in baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement that, with several exceptions, requires a play to request a number change by July 31 of the previous year.) Cohen and Mets fans alike should hope this happens, because research by Coffey Grounds, with the aid of the wonderful Ultimate Mets Database, revealed a noteworthy nugget:

The Mets have won two World Series titles, in 1969 and 1986. Donn Clendenon was the Series MVP in 1969. Ray Knight was the Series MVP in 1986.

Clendenon and Knight both wore No. 22.

It would be the stuff of Mets fans’ dreams if Soto were to replicate the heroics of Clendenon and Knight, but since half the baseball writers in New York and beyond are weighing in on what Soto’s signing portends for baseball in the big city, we will let them weigh on, and turn your attention instead to Ray Sadecki.

Ray Sadecki?

Yes, Ray Sadecki, the semi-obscure lefthanded pitcher who won more games than you probably think (135), pitched longer than you think (18 years) and in 1974, was part of a significant moment in Mets annals - going to the Cardinals in the trade that brought Joe Torre home to New York City.

So why do we have Sadecki on the brain?

Because on March 31, 1977, he became the first free agent ballplayer the Mets ever signed. It didn’t cost the Mets much ($25,000), and he didn’t last long (he was waived in early May), but hey, the first is the first. For all his riches, Juan Soto will never be able to make the same claim.

Sadecki had a fascinating career, rich in the sort of esoterica baseball specializes in.

Signed straight out of Bishop Ward High School in Kansas City, Sadecki and another promising young pitcher, Bob Gibson, were starters for the Omaha Cardinals in 1959 (Sadecki won more games than Gibson, 13-9), and both were promoted to the big club in 1960. The 19-year-old Sadecki went 9-9 that season and won 14 games in 1961, and had the only 20-victory season of his career, in 1964.

Throwing to his talented young catcher, 22-year-old Tim McCarver, Sadecki went 8-2 down the stretch in that epic ’64 season, beating the Phillies, 4-2, on Sept. 29, a victory that put the Cardinals in first place for the first time all year and all but cemented the greatest collapse in baseball history, the Phillies blowing a 6 ½ game lead by losing 10 straight games.

“It’s funny, we never felt any pressure that season,” Sadecki told a reporter years later. “It was almost like we weren’t in a pennant race. And to be honest, we weren’t until the end of the season. I mean, the Phillies only needed to win one game and it was over.”

Gibson, the Cardinals’ ace, pitched three times in the final week of the season, coming on in relief to beat the Mets and clinch the pennant in Game 162. That made Sadecki the Game 1 starter against the Yankees, a distinction he never would’ve had if the Chicago Cubs had had their way. Sadecki was the Cubs’ top priority in trade talks with the Cardinals at the trade deadline that season. The Cardinals wouldn’t budge on Sadecki, but they did part with Ernie Broglio, who had won 18 games the year before and 21 a few years before that, in a deal that brought a fleet leftfielder named Lou Brock to St. Louis. Bing Devine, the Cards’ GM, got major heat for trading Broglio, until Brock turned into Brock, hitting .348 the rest of the year and stealing 33 bases, a 25-year-old superstar on his way to the Hall of Fame.

The Cardinals beat the Yankees in seven games, but after Sadecki had the worst year of his career (6-15, 5.21 ERA) in 1965, he went on the trading block again, and this time it happened, Devine landing Orlando Cepeda, another future Hall of Famer, in a deal with the Giants on May 8, 1966 – the last game ever played at the original Busch Stadium. It was an odd year all around for Sadecki. He gave up home runs in separate games to the famously light-hitting Braves’ catcher, Bob Uecker – the only pitcher Uecker would take deep twice in his career. Sadecki also hit a homer off Braves’ righthander Tony Cloninger that year in the same game that Cloninger hit two grand slams, the second one off Sadecki.

The Mets acquired Sadecki the first time not even two months after they won the 1969 Series, sending Jim Gosger and Bob Heise to the Giants. Sadecki pitched serviceably as a spot starter and reliever for five seasons, and picked up a save in Game 4 of the 1973 World Series. He t barely had time to unpack his bags in his final three years, bouncing from the Cardinals to the Braves to the Royals to the Brewers. His free-agent offer from the Mets came at the end of spring training in 1977. His final big-league appearance came against the Pirates, the same club he made his debut against 17 years earlier. Sadecki was the loser in relief. The winner was the Pirates’ closer, Rich Gossage, who would become a free agent himself at the end of the year. He signed with the Yankees, who almost always got their man until Steve Cohen came along.