The Rockaway Wave
Originally Published August 23, 2024
In the offseason ahead of the 2010 season, the New York Mets signed veteran knuckleballer R.A. Dickey to a minor league contract. At that point in his career, Dickey was a 35-year-old journeyman who had a 5.43 career ERA in just 144 games from 2001-2009. He wasn’t even always a starting pitcher — just 48 of his appearances to that point were starts.
He made just one start in 35 appearances in 2009 for the Minnesota Twins, but it was overall his best year yet. He recorded a 4.62 ERA over 64 and 1⁄3 innings, and it was the first time in his career he finished a season with an ERA under five.
Despite this, he was only able to sign a minor-league deal with the Mets. Dickey didn’t even make the Opening Day roster, with the Mets running out a rotation of Johan Santana, Jon Niese, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey, and Óliver Pérez instead. It might be hard to believe today with the benefit of hindsight, but Dickey started the year in Triple-A. He even made eight starts for the Buffalo Bisons before the Mets called him up to the big league squad.
From the moment Dickey was promoted in 2010, he flourished. He threw six innings of two-run ball in his Mets debut and followed that up with six scoreless in his next start. By the end of the season, he made 26 starts, threw 174 and 1⁄3 innings, and posted a 2.84 ERA. He even threw one scoreless inning in relief against the Washington Nationals on the second to last day of the season on just two days’ rest.
The rest is well-known history. Dickey followed up his breakout 2010 with a strong 2011, putting up a 3.28 ERA in 33 games and cracking the 200-inning mark for the first time in his career. Then in 2012, he reached the top of the mountain. At 37 years old, Dickey posted a 2.73 ERA in a National League-best 233 and 2⁄3 innings and won the NL Cy Young Award. He became the third Mets pitcher to win the award, following Tom Seaver’s three wins and Dwight Gooden’s one.
Then just like that, his Mets career was over. About one month after Dickey was named the 2012 NL Cy Young Award winner, the Mets traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays along with catchers Mike Nickeas and Josh Thole. In return, the Mets received catcher John Buck and prospects Noah Syndergaard, Travis d’Arnaud, and Wuilmer Becerra.
The trade was not all that well-received at the time. Dickey was a fan favorite, had just won the Cy Young the year before, and was easily the team’s best pitcher at that point. A lot of fans were not happy to give him away for a bunch of kids who had never played a game in the big leagues.
As it turned out though, that trade would end up being one of the best ones the Mets ever made. Dickey wasn’t nearly as good in Toronto, and while he was still a capable starter, he finished his four-year tenure in Canada with a 4.05 ERA.
Meanwhile, in Queens, d’Arnaud debuted in 2013 and eventually turned into the Mets’ No. 1 catcher. The backstop missed a lot of time due to injuries over his seven years with the team, but when he was on the field he was a decently productive player.
Syndergaard instantly became one of the top pitching prospects in the organization and made his debut in 2015. Both he and d’Arnaud were big parts of the team’s run to the World Series in 2015, but Syndergaard especially so.
The man so affectionately nicknamed “Thor” made 24 starts for the Mets down the stretch to the tune of a 3.24 ERA. He made three postseason starts as a rookie including the first-ever World Series game played at Citi Field. He was the winning pitcher in that game too, and he remains the only Mets pitcher to earn a World Series win at Citi Field.
Syndergaard was with the Mets through 2021 before his unceremonious split from the organization. The Mets gave him a qualifying offer, but he declined and signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Angels. The Mets, after losing a player in free agency who they extended a qualifying offer to, were granted a compensation pick in the 2022 MLB Draft.
With that compensation pick, the Mets selected Nick Morabito, an outfielder from Gonzaga High School in Washington D.C. Morabito, the subject of The Brooklyn Cyclones Report back in June, has been one of the most productive bats to don a Cyclones uniform this season.
The outfielder dominated Single-A St. Lucie to begin 2024 before being promoted to High-A Brooklyn in early May, one day before his 21st birthday. He hasn’t been quite as dominant with the ‘Clones but he’s still been good, slashing .282/.361/.347 with two home runs, two triples, 11 doubles, and 41 stolen bases in 80 games.
He’s one of the fastest players in the organization, and Cyclones manager Gilbert Gómez has often emphasized how much his speed changes the game. From stolen bases to great outfield defense and even to causing errors because infielders know they have to rush the play, Gómez has spoken very highly about what Morabito brings to the table.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing though for the team’s primary center fielder. Morabito started out hot after his promotion and finished May hitting .320 in 19 games. For the month of June, that number dropped to .289, and in July, it was .256.
Gómez noted how it’s always an adjustment period for players who are in their first year of full- season ball like Morabito is.
“He has right now over 340 plate appearances,” Gómez said in mid-July. “Usually, when that wall hits, sometimes it takes some time to understand, ‘Maybe I need to do less to get more.’ But I think he’s finding ways to keep himself fresh.”
Since that comment, Morabito is hitting just under .300 with an OPS over .700, right about back on track for his season averages in Brooklyn.
On Monday, the Cyclones posted on X that Morabito is the only player in all of Minor League Baseball to have 50 stolen bases, 50 runs scored, 50 walks, and a .300 batting average on the season. He doesn’t quite have those marks all with Brooklyn, but he does when factoring in his numbers in St. Lucie to open up the year.
Morabito is having a breakout season, and the only reason he’s doing it in the Mets organization is because they signed Dickey. The Mets signed Dickey, eventually traded him for Noah Syndergaard, and then took Morabito with a compensation pick they received for Syndergaard leaving in free agency. Without the original minor league deal back in 2010, Morabito isn’t a Met.
Over 14 years after the original signing, Dickey’s Mets legacy is still alive in Brooklyn.
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