On this episode, we welcome Trevor Hildenberger, currently of the Sacramento RiverCats, formerly of the New York Mets, and forever one of the pioneers of Minor League Baseball players unionizing.
We talked a lot about that last bit on the show, but not at all about the Mets, so let’s give Trevor his due here as arguably the greatest strikeout artist in franchise history.
If we’re having an argument, we need to define some terms, and for the purposes of arguing that Trevor is the Mets’ greatest strikeout artist, the most important term is that we are measuring this with strikeouts per nine innings. Since arriving in New York in 2019, Edwin Díaz has a 15.4 K/9 rate, just behind Josh Hader at 15.6 in all of Major League Baseball for pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched over the last four-plus seasons. As it happens, Díaz and Hader each have pitched 208.1 innings from 2019 through this writing — Hader has 362 punchouts, six more than Díaz.
But does an artist really need a substantial body of work to prove their greatness? Or is greatness about what is achieved? There’s only one Sex Pistols album, and they’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (although they correctly refused to attend). So, what about the pitchers in Mets history with a higher strikeout rate than Díaz, but for whom the universe didn’t see fit to log more innings in orange and blue?
Hildenberger is, like Díaz, at 15.4 K/9 as a Met. Only, for Trevor that’s rounding down from 15.43, while for Díaz it’s roudning up from 15.38. Also at 15.43 is Kane Davis, who had 24 strikeouts over 14 innings in 16 appearances for the 2002 Mets. But in more than half of those appearances (9), Davis had either one strikeout or none at all. How can he then be in the conversation for greatest strikeout artist alongside someone (our pal Trevor) who struck out a pair of batters in each of his outings as a Met?
There are four pitchers in Mets history with a higher K/9 than Hildenberger, one of whom is Bryce Montes de Oca. We all hoped to see him adding to his strikeout total this season, currently 6 in 3.1 IP (16.2 K/9), but he’s now recovering from Tommy John surgery. So we can’t really say what we’ve got there.
Three more: Sam Clay, Bob Gibson, and Kenny Greer, each with two strikeouts in a lone inning of work as a Met.
First of all, not that Bob Gibson (though he was a Mets pitching coach), but the one who pitched 97 games for the Brewers from 1983-86, plus the eighth inning of the Mets’ 7-5 loss to the Astros at Shea Stadium on July 25, 1987. Gibson struck out Kevin Bass and the late Ken Caminiti (then a rookie) in his scoreless frame.
You might remember Clay from August 20 of last year in Philadelphia, where he pitched the ninth inning of an 8-2 win in the first game of a doubleheader. Clay struck out Bryson Stott to start what wound up being his only inning as a Met, and should have had the game end on a two-out grounder by Matt Vierling, only Brett Baty made his first major league error. That extended the game, which Clay ended by striking out Kyle Schwarber.
Greeer’s game is the coolest, and he got the win for it. On September 29, 1993, the next-to-last home game for a dismal Mets team, an epic battle took place between Bobby Jones (the main one) of New York and Rheal Cormier of the St. Louis Cardinals. Neither allowed a run.
Jones, in fact, pitched 10 shutout innings. Cormier went seven, followed by Paul Kilgus, Mike Perez, Lee Guetterman, Rob Murphy, and Les Lancaster. Relieving Jones were Jeff Innis for three innings, then Mauro Gozzo for another three… and then, to start the top of the 17th, a 26-year-old out of UMass whom the Mets had acquired 12 days earlier from the Yankees for Frank Tanana.
Greer, in his major league debut, came one pitch from striking out the side. Erik Pappas lined to left on a 2-2 pitch leading off, then Greer got Geronimo Peña swinging and Lancaster looking. In the bottom of the 17th, Eddie Murray (previously 0-for-5) led off with a single and Jeff Kent (previously 0-for-6) doubled him home for a 1-0 Mets win.
The problem with Greer’s case as a strikeout artist is that one of his strikeouts was Lancaster, a pitcher who hit .098 in his career and struck out 64 times in 132 career at-bats. Greer’s got one of the coolest stories for a one-game Mets career (he was on the 1995 Giants for eight games, as well), if not the coolest, but that’s not what we’re here for.
Gibson striking out Bass and Caminiti is neat, but Bass really just had the one good year and Caminiti didn’t get good until later. Clay had the strikeout equivalent of an unearned run.
Hildenberger, on the other hand, got two strikeouts in a scoreless inning at Coors Field, plus one of his strikeouts in Chicago was Willson Contreras, not an All-Star that season, but in seasons both before and since among his three career nods to date.
Also, Trevor came on our show. He’s obviously the greatest. Duh.
Oh, and this is the book Baseball Rules In Pictures that came off the shelf during the show. We will absolutely be digging into it more in the future.
Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Minor League Union