Extreme teams: Mets and Nationals
New York reached its pinnacle in 1986 (not 1969), as did Washington in 2019
The New York Mets and Washington Nationals both stunned the baseball world by winning unexpected world championships.
The Mets finished ninth in the 10-team National League in 1968, then vaulted to an improbable World Series victory in 1969. The Nationals barely broke .500 with an 82-80 record in 2018, then skyrocketed to a world title in 2019.
Those two franchises — the Mets and the Nationals — are the subjects of today’s eighth installment in my 15-part series about the extreme seasons for all 30 Major League Baseball franchises. (A story about a successive pair of clubs, as determined by alphabetical order, is posted each Friday.)
Our focus is on the Modern Era, the period since 1961. I’ve calculated team scores (TS) for all 1,656 clubs that took the field between the era’s initial season and 2022. (Click here to learn more about the TS formula.) Scores are plotted on an equalized 100-point scale, allowing us to compare teams from different seasons — and thereby determine the best and worst versions of each franchise.
The following are today’s top and bottom clubs.
Best year for the Mets: Yes, the 1969 Mets were truly amazin’, as Casey Stengel would have said. But no, they weren’t the franchise’s ultimate squad. That honor belongs to the 1986 Mets, who streaked to a 108-54 record, then defeated the Boston Red Sox in a memorable World Series. First baseman Keith Hernandez batted .310 and won a Gold Glove. Right fielder Darryl Strawberry led the club with 27 home runs, while catcher Gary Carter set the pace with 105 RBIs. Starting pitchers Bob Ojeda and Dwight Gooden respectively notched 18 and 17 wins.
Worst year for the Mets: The inaugural version of the Mets, the 1962 squad, is remembered for its atrocious 40-120 record. The 1963 squad improved by 11 wins, yet its TS was actually worse — the worst, in fact, in team history. Why? Primarily because of its horrible offense. New York was shut out 30 times in ’63, as opposed to six in ’62. Rookie second baseman Ron Hunt led the 1963 Mets with a .272 batting average. Pitcher Al Jackson amazingly won 13 games.
Best year for the Nationals/Expos: This franchise came to life in 1969 as the Montreal Expos, not moving to Washington until 2005. Its only world title was the 2019 triumph in the latter city, which ranks as its best performance. Those Nationals rode a wild-card berth all the way to a seven-game World Series victory over the Houston Astros. Third baseman Anthony Rendon scored 117 runs and drove in 126, leading the team in both categories. Pitcher Stephen Strasburg went 18-6 with a 3.32 earned run average, and fellow starter Max Scherzer was 11-7.
Worst year for the Nationals/Expos: Montreal’s initial squad would prove to be the worst in franchise history. The Expos suffered 110 defeats in 1969, finishing 48 games behind the first-place club in the National League East. (That leader, coincidentally enough, was the previously mentioned 1969 Mets). Right fielder Rusty Staub won the hearts of Montreal fans with his .302 batting average and 29 home runs. Pitcher Bill Stoneman topped the club with 11 wins, one of them a no-hitter.
Scroll down to see the top and bottom 10 lists for both franchises between 1961 and 2022. Rankings for all 30 big-league clubs can be found in the print edition of Baseball’s Best (and Worst) 2023 Yearbook.
Each team is listed below with a specific season in brackets, followed by its regular-season win-loss record, postseason results (if any) in parentheses, margin between runs scored and allowed per game, and Modern Era percentile.
Postseason outcomes are abbreviated this way: P for a playoff appearance, L for a league title, and W for a World Series championship.
The Modern Era percentile is the share of all 1,656 teams between 1961 and 2022 that the given club outperformed, based on relative scores.
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Top 10 for Mets (1962-2022)
1. Mets [1986], 108-54 (WLP), plus-1.27 margin, 99.9% in era
2. Mets [1988], 100-60 (P), plus-1.07 margin, 94.5% in era
3. Mets [2006], 97-65 (P), plus-0.64 margin, 94.4% in era
4. Mets [1969], 100-62 (WLP), plus-0.56 margin, 93.2% in era
5. Mets [1987], 92-70, plus-0.77 margin, 91.8% in era
6. Mets [2000], 94-68 (LP), plus-0.43 margin, 91.1% in era
7. Mets [2015], 90-72 (LP), plus-0.43 margin, 90.2% in era
8. Mets [1990], 91-71, plus-1.00 margin, 88.6% in era
9. Mets [1985], 98-64, plus-0.78 margin, 87.1% in era
10. Mets [2022], 101-61 (P), plus-1.02 margin, 85.0% in era
Bottom 10 for Mets (1962-2022)
1. Mets [1963], 51-111, minus-1.69 margin, 0.2% in era
2. Mets [1965], 50-112, minus-1.57 margin, 0.4% in era
3. Mets [1962], 40-120, minus-2.06 margin, 0.5% in era
4. Mets [1964], 53-109, minus-1.27 margin, 0.7% in era
5. Mets [1967], 61-101, minus-1.07 margin, 1.7% in era
6. Mets [1983], 68-94, minus-0.65 margin, 3.0% in era
7. Mets [1982], 65-97, minus-0.70 margin, 4.2% in era
8. Mets [1966], 66-95, minus-1.08 margin, 4.7% in era
9. Mets [1979], 63-99, minus-0.69 margin, 6.5% in era
10. Mets [2003], 66-95, minus-0.70 margin, 8.6% in era
Top 10 for Nationals (1969-2022)
1. Nationals [2019], 93-69 (WLP), plus-0.92 margin, 95.6% in era
2. Expos [1994], 74-40, plus-1.15 margin, 95.1% in era
3. Nationals [2014], 96-66 (P), plus-0.81 margin, 94.7% in era
4. Nationals [2012], 98-64 (P), plus-0.85 margin, 89.5% in era
5. Nationals [2016], 95-67 (P), plus-0.93 margin, 89.5% in era
6. Nationals [2017], 97-65 (P), plus-0.91 margin, 88.4% in era
7. Expos [1979], 95-65, plus-0.75 margin, 88.2% in era
8. Expos [1980], 90-72, plus-0.40 margin, 80.5% in era
9. Expos [1982], 86-76, plus-0.50 margin, 79.0% in era
10. Expos [1981], 60-48 (P), plus-0.45 margin, 78.2% in era
Bottom 10 for Nationals (1969-2022)
1. Expos [1969], 52-110, minus-1.29 margin, 2.4% in era
2. Expos [1976], 55-107, minus-1.25 margin, 2.8% in era
3. Nationals [2008], 59-102, minus-1.14 margin, 3.6% in era
4. Nationals [2022], 55-107, minus-1.56 margin, 4.5% in era
5. Nationals [2009], 59-103, minus-1.01 margin, 4.7% in era
6. Expos [2001], 68-94, minus-0.88 margin, 8.1% in era
7. Expos [2000], 67-95, minus-1.01 margin, 8.8% in era
8. Nationals [2006], 71-91, minus-0.78 margin, 12.6% in era
9. Nationals [2007], 73-89, minus-0.68 margin, 13.1% in era
10. Expos [1971], 71-90, minus-0.66 margin, 13.3% in era