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By Brian Joura
The Mets have had two major ownership changes in their tenure. The first one was when Nelson Doubleday and minority partner Fred Wilpon bought the club in 1980 and the other was when Steve Cohen purchased the club from the Wilpons in 2021. Interestingly, both teams wanted to build thru the draft and bring in veterans to improve the club in the interim, giving the rookies time to work their way thru the farm system.
The short-term veteran approach did not work for the early-80s Mets. The first four seasons under Doubleday ownership were a dismal failure and it’s fair to wonder if the 24/7 news cycle of now existed then if GM Frank Cashen would have been run out of town. Among others, Cashen traded for Bill Almon, Claudell Washington, Dave Kingman, Randy Jones, Ellis Valentine and George Foster. None of those were a win for the club. He also traded for Tom Seaver, which was sort of a win but then left Seaver unprotected and lost to the White Sox for nothing.
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