The risk of acquiring him didn't pay off, of course, but the logic behind the deal was actually (for once) understandable. Especially since all he cost them was a middling minor leaguer who never advanced beyond A ball (Dawrin Frias).

I fondly remember Eric O'Flaherty, actually, but obviously not because of his time with New York.

He fit the mold of that era's New York Mets pitcher—an astoundingly recognizable name, but when you look at the stat log you see he didn't actually do much with New York. Others that come to mind are Terry Bross, Jeff Musselman and Wally Whitehurst. I think their name recognition stems largely from the fact that they pitched smack dab in the middle of the era of hyper-produced baseball cards. So even though they didn't do much, you were constantly seeing their names on cards, so they engrained themselves deep in your mind anyway.

He was a good minor league pitcher, though. 22-11 with a 2.31 ERA between 1987 and 1988.

At one point, he was on the farthest periphery of my "Hall of Fame" dark horse list. Not so now. Usually I'd say it was him going to the Mets that killed whatever sliver of a chance he had. But by watching his play, he alone killed it.

What is cool though is that before he became a star he signed an autograph for me through the Astros in 2012.

Stanek posts a 6.06 ERA. Maton posts a 2.51 ERA in about twice as many games.

So what do the Mets do? Ditch Maton and bring Stanek back. Dumb dumb dumb.

Maton, right now, has a 0.00 ERA, 11.1 K/9 and 0.618 WHIP in a league-leading 12 appearances.

Should've brought Maton back instead (or, at least, as well).

Maton was a reliable, though all-too-short-lived reliever. Can't go wrong with his 2024 performance (regular season, at least). It was fairly unsung additions like him that helped them turn the tide and become a true playoff team.

Wish you had a longer MLB career, Joe. ("Sic transit gloria.")

He wouldn't have been a savior, but he could have been more useful than they let him be.

He also didn't sign the autograph request I sent to him in 2019.

And he was good from beginning to end. First five seasons: 2.73 ERA, 164 ERA+. Next five seasons: 2.35 ERA, 177 ERA+. Last five seasons: 3.04 ERA, 146 ERA+. Double wow.

I've argued in the past on another website that he belongs in the Hall of Fame, as no matter how you dice it, he was one of the best, if not the best, relief pitchers who never saved many games (he finished with 21 saves). As he was the best in his role, and the Hall rewards the best, perhaps he should be in.

Of course, the Mets being the Mets didn't recognize how awesome he was. They took him in the 2008 Rule 5 Draft and gave him just 4 appearances in 2009. His 0.00 ERA was too low for their liking, so they let him go to Texas, with whom he had a 1.94 ERA the rest of the way.

Ditching O'Day was one of the big Mets blunders that doesn't often get talked about.

Also, it should be noted that though his Mets tenure wasn't great, he was second on the Norfolk Tides in wins with 10 in 1993, behind Bobby Jones' 12.

It came on July 29, 1976 — 9 years to the day that The Door's "Light My Fire" reached #1 on Billboard.

Due to the Mets being desperate to find starters following Seaver, Matlack and Koosman in 1975, Tate got rushed to the majors at just 22 years old. My first exposure to him came when I recently listened to that season's Mayor's Trophy exhibition against the Yankees. He entered the game in the 7th inning and gave up 6 runs while only getting two outs as the Mets lost, 9-4. He obviously had some bright spots over the course of the remainder of the season, but further seasoning in the minors would have served him much better instead of being thrust into the big league spotlight so quickly.

After spending most of the 1975 season in the Mets rotation, Tate wound up back in the minors the following year and never made it back. Unfortunately, he suffered a torn rotator cuff a few years later that forced an early retirement. And according to Wikipedia, he died from COVID back in 2021.