#518 Wayne Garrett

Red headed third baseman....OK seasons and a fair career but was almost Forrest Gumpian in his role with the Mets ill-advised decision making and witness to events.... his potential of lack thereof prompted the Mets to make their two worst trades one sent Amos Otis away and the other brought had Nolan Ryan depart for Jim Fergosi to upgrade third base...Both trades were disasters for NY....Wayne came out of Braves organization but struggled at plate even at the minor league level...taken in Rule 5 draft by Mets for 1969...Played considerably a lot for a rookie and a .218 BA....reason was he was replacing multiple player called to military service...Came back to haunt the Braves organization in the first NLCS with a .386 BA and a home run (equaling his regular season output)....Was able to hit 12 homers in 1970 but playing time was limited due military service....two bad seasons followed but was still able to hang on by sharing playing time by the failures of other wantabes...Stepped up with career year 1973 hitting 16 home runs sparking the Mets to the WS....(Good pitching overcomes the world’s worse trades)....Wayne was the regular third baseman for one more season...split playing time with Joe Torre in 1975....1976 traded mid season to Expos...MLB playing days ended in 1978, then went briefly to Japan....brother of minor league slugger Adrian Garrett.