Mike Jacobs

Best Mets Of All Time: No. 60 Scott Schoeneweis

As we have seen through this list of the Best Mets of All-Time, we see the choices for some uniform numbers are quite limited, and that is certainly the case with the number 60. The last to wear is was P.J. Conlon who made team history by being the first Irish born player to play for the team, and really the first in the Majors in nearly a century.

There was also Jon Rauch, who had two claims to fame. The first was surpassing Eric Hillman by an inch to become the tallest player in Mets history. The next was his dousing Matt Harvey in ice water as a way to haze the rookie. Other than that, his Mets career was productive (o.4 WAR) but relatively unremarkable.

Then, there is Scott Schoeneweis who had a very complicated two years with his hometown team.

His first season with the Mets was simply a struggle, which was due in large part to a severed tendon in his knee. To his credit, he gutted it out and continued pitching in what was an increasingly depleted Mets bullpen. It should also be noted he did exactly what he was signed to do.

In 2007, Schoeneweis limited left-handed batters to a .204/.208/.247 batting line notably not allowing a single homer and just four extra base hits. It needs to be noted even in a season where he really struggled and dealt with injuries his .262 wOBA against left-handed hitters was the best in the National League.

In fact, from 2007 – 2008, Schoenweis’ .249 wOBA was the second best in the Majors among those who had more than 50 IP against left-handed batters. Simply put, Schoeneweis was signed to be a left-handed pitcher in the bullpen to get left-handed batters out. If he had been limited to just doing that, perhaps his Mets career would have gone better.

For what it is worth, he was much better in 2008 with a healthy knee. In that season, he was 2-6 with a 3.34 ERA. Again, it should be noted he did the job he was supposed to do in getting left-handed batters out. In a memorable scene, he and Billy Wagner would also help the grounds crew get the tarp on the field.

In terms of Schoeneweis, while injured he was durable making 70+ appearances in consecutive seasons en route to becoming just one of four MLB pitchers to accomplish that feat from 2005 – 2008.

Unfortunately for Schoeneweis, he is not going to be primarily known for getting left-handed batters out, his durability, or for his helping get the tarp on the field. No, his lasting image as a Mets pitcher is his surrendering a home run to the right-handed hittin Wes Helms, who had pinch hit for the left-handed hitting Mike Jacobs on the final game of the 2008 season. That made him the losing pitcher in the final game ever played in Shea Stadium.

Despite that, Schoeneweis posted a respectable 0.8 WAR for a LOOGY in 2008. That’s the highest WAR out of any of the three players who has worn 60 with the Mets, and that is why he is the best Mets player to ever wear that number.

Previous

1.Mookie Wilson
2.Mackey Sasser
3. Curtis Granderson
4. Lenny Dykstra
5. David Wright
6. Wally Backman
7. Jose Reyes
8. Gary Carter

9. Todd Hundley
10. Rey Ordonez
11. Wayne Garrett
12. John Stearns

13. Edgardo Alfonzo
14. Gil Hodges
15. Carlos Beltran

16. Dwight Gooden
17. Keith Hernandez
18. Darryl Strawberry

19. Bob Ojeda
20. Howard Johnson
21. Cleon Jones
22. Al Leiter
23. Bernard Gilkey
24. Art Shamsky

25. Pedro Feliciano
26. Terry Leach
27. Jeurys Familia
28. Daniel Murphy

29. Frank Viola
30. Michael Conforto
31. Mike Piazza

32. Jon Matlack
33. Matt Harvey

34. Noah Syndergaard
35. Rick Reed
36. Jerry Koosman
37. Casey Stengel
38. Skip Lockwood
39. Gary Gentry
40. Bartolo Colon
41. Tom Seaver

42. Ron Taylor
43. R.A. Dickey
44. David Cone
45. Tug McGraw

46. Oliver Perez
47. Jesse Orosco
48. Jacob deGrom
49. Armando Benitez
50. Sid Fernandez
51. Rick White
52. Yoenis Cespedes
53. Chad Bradford
54. T.J. Rivera
55. Orel Hershiser
56. Andres Torres
57. Johan Santana
58. Jenrry Mejia
59. Fernando Salas

Where Are They Now: The 2006 Top 10 Prospects

At the 2006 trade deadline, many believed the Mets were in need of a big starting pitcher to help the best team in baseball win the World Series.  At that time, the big name was Barry Zito, but the Mets were reportedly balking at the asking price which included their top prospect in addition to their best set-up man in Aaron Heilman.  Certainly, Heilman became untouchable with Duaner Sanchez‘s injury.  However, there is still some debate whether any of the Mets prospects should have been so untouchable so as to prevent them from being moved in a trade many believed the Mets needed to make to win the World Series.

Keeping in mind the Mets didn’t want to move a top prospect, let’s take a look at who was considered the Mets Top 10 prospects back in 2006 and see how their respective careers fared:

Lastings Milledge

The Mets 2003 first round draft pick was seen by many as a future star in the major leagues.  He was supposed to be a five tool center fielder.  Unfortunately, it did not pan out that way.

Milledge first got his chance in 2006 at first due to a Xavier Nady injury and then because of Nady being traded to sure up their bullpen due to the Sanchez injury.  Milledge would show he was not quite ready for the limelight.  That shouldn’t be surprising considering he had only played 84 games in AAA, and he was 21 years old.  In 56 games, he would only hit .241/.310/.380 with four homers and 22 RBI.  He would be unfairly chastised for high fiving the fans after a game tying home run in extra innings.

Unfortunately for him, the home run that led to much hand wringing might’ve been the top moment in his career.  Milledge would never figure it out for the Mets, and his star potential would diminish.  In 2007, the Mets would move him for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider.

Overall, Milledge would only play six years in the majors hitting .269/.328/.395 in parts of six major league seasons.  He would play his last game for the Chicago White Sox as a 26 year old in April 2011.  From there, he would play four years in Japan.  In Japan, he wouldn’t re-establish himself as a major leaguer like Cecil Fielder did, nor would he become an acclaimed Japanese League player like Tuffy Rhodes.  Rather, he hit a disappointing .272/.348/.447 averaging 10 home runs and 32 RBI.

Milledge suffered injuries limiting him to just 34 games in 2014 and 2015.  No one would sign him to play professional baseball anywhere in 2016.  In the end his professional baseball career is over at the age of 31.

Yusmeiro Petit

Petit was the one major prospect the Mets would move to help the 2006 team.  The Mets included him in a deal with Grant Psomas and Mike Jacobs for Carlos Delgado.  Delgado would go on to become a slugger at first base the Mets had never truly had in their history.  For his part, Petit has put together a nice major leauge career.

Petit would not figure things out until he became a San Francisco Giant in 2012.  Under the tutledge of Dave Righetti and Bruce Bochy, he would become a very good long man in the bullpen.  In his four years with the Giants, he as 10-7 with one save, a 3.66 ERA, and a 1.128 WHIP.

His best work was in the 2014 postseason.  That year the Giants rotation was Madison Bumgarner and a group of starters the team could not truly trust to go five innings in a game.  Accordingly, Petit was used almost as a piggyback starting pitcher.  In that 2014 postseason, Petit would make four appearances going 3-0 with a 1.42 ERA (no runs allowed in the NLDS or NLCS) and a 0.868 WHIP.

In the past offseason, Petit was a free agent, and he signed a one year $3 million deal with the Washington Nationals with a $3 million team option for 2016.  He struggled this year in his 35 relief appearances and one start going 3-5 with a 4.50 ERA and a 1.323 WHIP.

In his nine year career, Petit is 23-32 with a 4.58 ERA and a 1.276 WHIP.  Whether or not his option is picked up by the Nationals, we should see Petit pitch in his tenth major league season in 2017.

Gaby Hernandez

The Mets traded their 2004 third round pick with Dante Brinkley for Paul Lo Duca.  Lo Duca was the emotional leader for the 2006 Mets that almost went to the World Series, and Hernandez never pitched in the major leagues.

Hernandez would bounce around from the Marlins to the Mariners to the Red Sox to the Royals to the White Sox and finally to the Diamondbacks.  While Hernandez had shown some early promise with the Mets, he never realized it.  He topped out at AAA where he would pitch for four seasons going 30-36 with a 5.80 ERA and a 1.562 WHIP.

Hernandez has not given up on his major league dream.  Since 2012, Hernandez has been pitching in the Atlantic Leagues.  Over the past three seasons, he has pitched Winter Ball.  He made 25 starts and two relief appearances for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, he was 7-10 with a 4.88 ERA and a 1.216 WHIP.  At the moment, the 30 year old Hernandez has not been signed to play for a Winter Leagues team.

Mike Jacobs

The Mets 1999 38th round draft pick was part of the aforementioned trade that helped the Mets acquire Delgado.  The Mets were largely able to use Jacobs as part of the trade because of the tremendous start to his career.

In 2005, Jacobs hit .310/.375/.710 with 11 homers and 23 RBI in 30 games.  While Jacobs continued to be a power hitter after leaving the Mets, he would never again reach those levels.  Eventually, his impatience at the plate caught up to him, and he would only only last seven years in the major leagues.  His penultimate season was with the Mets in 2010 when he was unseated by Ike Davis as the Mets first baseman.

After being released by the Mets, Jacobs has spent the past six seasons in AAA with a 13 game cup of coffee for the Diamondbacks in 2012.  In Jacob’s seven year career, he hit .253/.313/.473 with 100 homers and 312 RBI.  As a Met, he hit .290/.360/.645 with 12 homers and 25 RBI.  If he had enough at-bats to qualify, Jacobs would have the highest slugging percentage in Mets history.

At this point, it is unknown if the 35 year old Jacobs will continue playing professional baseball in 2017.

Philip Humber

The one theme that is developing here is that while these players didn’t have a big impact in the majors or the Mets, Omar Minaya utilized these players to help the ballclub. Humber is a perfect example of that.

The Mets 2004 first round pick (third overall) had an inauspicious start to his professional career needing Tommy John surgery in 2005.

With that Humber would only make one start in his Mets career, and it wasn’t particularly good.  With the Mets collapsing in the 2007, and the team having a rash of starting pitcher injuries, the team turned to the highest drafted player in their system.  Humber kept the woeful Washington Nationals at bay for the first three innings before allowing Church to hit a two run homer in the fourth and then sowing the seeds for a huge rally in the fifth inning that would see the Mets once 6-0 lead completely evaporate in a frustrating 9-6 loss.  This would be the last time Humber took the mound for the Mets.  In his Mets career, he would make one start and four relief appearances with no decisions, a 6.00 ERA, and a 1.333 WHIP.

Still, he showed enough to be a major part in the trade that would bring Johan Santana to the Mets.  Santana and Humber would both enter immortality.  Santana would throw the first no-hitter in Mets history.  Humber would become perhaps the unlikeliest of all pitchers to throw a perfect game.  It was the 21st perfect game in baseball history.  He joined David Cone as the only ex-Mets to throw a perfect game.  He joined a much longer list of seven former Mets, highlighted by Nolan Ryan, who threw a no-hitter AFTER leaving the Mets.  Humber would also become the pitcher with the highest career ERA to throw a perfect game.

In all, Humber played for five major league teams over his eight major league seasons.  In those eight major league seasons, he has gone 16-23 with a 5.31 ERA and a 1.420 WHIP.  He threw his last major league pitch in 2013 in a season he went 0-8 in 13 starts.  In 2014, he pitched for the Oakland Athletics’ AAA affiliate.  In 2015, he pitched for the Kia Tigers of the Korean Leagues going 3-3 with a 6.75 ERA and a 1.855 WHIP in 11 starts and one relief appearance.

Humber had signed on with the San Diego Padres and was invited to Spring Training in 2016.  He was released prior to the start of the season, and he did not throw one pitch for any professional team in 2016.  He is currently 33 years old, and at this point, he has not announced his retirement.

Carlos Gomez

Gomez has been far and away the best player on the list of the 2006 Mets top prospects.  He would be moved with Humber as a centerpiece in the Santana trade.

In Gomez’s early career, it was clear he was a Gold Glove caliber center fielder.  He made highlight reel play after highlight reel play for the Twins.  However, it was clear from how he was struggling at the plate, the projected five tool player wasn’t quite ready to be the hitter everyone anticipated he would be at the major league level.  Eventually, the Twins traded him to the Milwaukee Brewers, and in Milwaukee, Gomez would figure it out.

In Gomez’s five plus years with the Brewers, he won a Gold Glove and was a two time All Star.  He was also a coveted player at the 2015 trade deadline, and he almost became a New York Met again in exchange for Zack Wheeler and Wilmer Flores.  As we all remember, Flores cried on the field, and the Mets front office was disappointed in Gomez’s medicals causing them to rescind the trade due to a purported hip issue.

Gomez would then be traded to the Astros, and the Mets would appear to be vindicated for their decision.  Gomez played 126 games for the Astros before being released and picked up by the Texas Rangers.  In Texas, Gomez began playing like the player the Mets coveted at the 2015 trade deadline.  The 33 game burst came at the right time as the 30 year old Gomez will be a free agent for the first time in his career this offseason.

Overall, Gomez has played for 10 years, and he is a .257/.312/.415 hitter with 116 home runs, 453 RBI, and 239 stolen bases.  He is still a good center fielder, and he may still have a couple of good seasons in front of him.

Fernando Martinez

From the moment the Mets signed him as a 16 year old amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic, F-Mart was seen as a top prospect.  Many imagined he would become a five tool player like a Carlos Beltran.  Instead, his career went the way of Alex Ochoa.

F-Mart was the first big prize Minaya brought in when he become the General Manager of the Mets.  Understandably, he was considered untouchable in trade discussions.  As it turns out, the Mets wished they moved him when they had the opportunity.

F-Mart would only play in 47 games over three years with the Mets hitting just .183/.250/.290 with two homers and 12 RBI.  Eventually, with him not progressing as the Mets once hoped he would, and a different regime in place, F-Mart would eventually be put on waivers and claimed by the Houston Astros.  With the Astros, he would only play in 52 games over two years, and he would just hit .225/.285/.424 with seven homers and 17 RBI.

In 2013, the Astros traded him to the Yankees for minor league depth.  After the 2013 season, F-Mart would become a free agent, and he would find no suitors.

In 2014, he only played in the Dominican Winter Leagues, and in 2015, he played in only seven games in the Mexican Leagues.  Given how he has bounced around and seeing how many major league teams have either passed on him or have forgotten his existence, it is hard to believe that he is just 28 years old.

Hernandez is undeterred, and he is still playing baseball.  Right now, he is playing alongside current Mets shortstop prospect Luis Guillorme for Spain in the World Baseball Classic qualifying rounds.  Spain would go 0-2 in the European Qualifier and will not be a finalist for the World Baseball Classic.

Anderson Hernandez

The Mets acquired Hernandez from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for backup catcher Vance Wilson in 2005. Hernandez intrigued the Mets because he was an exceptionally skilled defensive shortstop.  The question with him was whether he was ever going to hit.

Despite these questions, and with Kaz Matsui starting the year on the disabled list, Hernandez would actually be the Mets Opening Day second baseman.  On Opening Day, he would show everyone why he was so highly regarded defensively with an impressive over the shoulder catch.  However, Hernandez would also show he would never be able to hit at the big league level.  That fact may have forever changed Mets history.

Despite hitting .152/.164/.242 in 25 games with the Mets, he would make the NLCS roster.  In Game 7 of the NLCS, with the Mets trailing 3-1, Jose Valentin and Endy Chavez led off the inning with back-to-back singles.  Instead of going to Hernandez to pinch-hit for Heilman to get the bunt down, Willie Randolph went to an injured Cliff Floyd to try to win the game.  Floyd would strike out, and Hernandez would enter the game only as a pinch runner for Lo Duca, who had worked out a walk to load the bases.  From first base, Hernandez got a good view of how the series would end.  Had Hernandez been able to hit just a little bit, it is possible he would have been sent up to bunt, and maybe things would have gone differently.

Overall, Hernandez never did show the ability to hit at the major league level.  The Mets gave up waiting.  In 2008, with the Mets desperate for relievers to plug in holes to a decimated bullpen, Hernandez was traded to the Nationals for Luis Ayala.

Hernandez would play for four teams in six seasons hitting .241/.300/.314 with four homers and 60 RBI.  While he did show he was skilled defensively, he could never hit enough to stick in the majors, and as a result, his major league career was over in 2010 when he was 27 years old.

From 2011 – 2013, Hernandez would play in AAA.  For the past three seasons, he has played in the Japanese Leagues.  In every season since 2006, the 33 year old has played in the Dominican Winter Leagues for Tigres del Licey.  It is unknown at this point if he is going to play for the Tigres this year or if he will return to the Japanese Leagues next year.

Brian Bannister

Bannister was the Mets 2003 seventh round draft pick out of USC.  He would become the first ever Brooklyn Cyclones pitcher to pitch a game for the New York Mets.  Bannister had earned that right by beating out Heilman for the fifth spot in the 2006 Mets Opening Day rotation.  There were a myriad of reasons including but not limited to Heilman’s importance in the bullpen.

Bannister’s career would get off to quite the start with him going 2-0 with a 2.89 ERA and a 1.393 WHIP.  While he struggled with his command and couldn’t go very deep into games as a result, the Mets were willing to stick with him through those five starts.  Unfortunately, Bannister would suffer a hamstring injury at the end of April that would linger for most of the year.  By the time he was healthy, John Maine was already a fixture in the rotation.  With the Mets acquiring Perez at the trade deadline, there was no longer a spot for him on the major league roster.

With there no longer being any room for him, the Mets moved him in the offseason to the Kansas City Royals for Ambiorix Burgos.  It was a trade that was detrimental for both players.  Bannister would pitch four years for the Royals going 35-49 with a 5.13 ERA and a 1.417 WHIP.  Burgos’ Mets career was marked by ineffectiveness, injury, and domestic violence.

After going 37-50 with a 5.08 ERA and a 1.421 WHIP in his five year major league career, Bannister had signed a two year deal to pitch for the Yomiuri Giants.  Bannister would never pitch for the Giants.  After an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, Bannister retired from baseball.  Since the 2015 season, the 35 year old Bannister has been a professional scout for the Boston Red Sox.

Alay Soler

In 2003, Soler defected to the Dominican Republic from Cuba.  The following year he would sign a three year $2.8 million contract with the New York Mets.

Soler would only pitch for the major league club in 2006.  He would make eight starts highlighted by a complete game two hit shut out of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Unfortunately, the rest of his starts weren’t as great, and he would finish the year going 2-3 with a 6.00 ERA and a 1.578 WHIP.  His contract would expire at the end of the season, and the Mets would not re-sign him.

Soler would pitch in 14 games, mostly out of the bullpen, for the Pittsburgh Pirates AA affiliate in 2007.  In the following two seasons, Soler would return to the tri-state area pitching for the Long Island Ducks and Newark Bears of the Independent Leagues.  He would not pitch well at either stop, and no one would offer him a contract to play professional baseball in 2010.  In 2011, he pitched in two games in the Puerto Rican Winter Leagues.  Since that time, the 37 year old Soler has not pitched in professional baseball.

At this time, it is unknown as to what Soler has been doing in his post-baseball career.

What is known is that while the top prospects from the 2006 season largely did not pan out, then Mets GM Omar Minaya was able to utilize a number of the players to improve the 2006 and 2007 Mets teams that fell just short.  This has left many fans wondering what would have happened if Milledge was moved at his peak value or what would have happened if Hernandez learned how to hit.  Things may have gone very differently in both of those seasons.

Still, while you could call each of these prospects, save Gomez, a bust.  It is notable that nine of the 10 players played in the major leagues for multiple seasons.  Three of the players played in the postseason, and one won a World Series.  There have been All Star appearances and a perfect game from this group.  While you expected more, each player left their own mark on the Mets and the game of baseball.

Editor’s Note: this was first published on Mets Minors.