New York Mets: Five best right fielders in franchise history
3. Rusty Staub
They called our number three choice “Le Grand Orange” because of his red hair. We call him the third best right fielder in franchise history. Rusty is an interesting guy to analyze. It’s not often that a player has two separate stints with a team, both of which being worth remembering. But that is exactly what we have with Rusty Staub. The two stints were almost like two different careers but both of which were successful.
The second stint was from 1981-1985. He was signed as a free agent in December of 1980 and returned to the team in a pinch-hitting role. In 1983, he tied two major league records, consecutive pinch hits with eight and most RBI with 25. Currently we don’t see a lot of pinch-hitting specialists anymore. Younger readers might remember Lenny Harris being one for the Mets more recently. Rusty Staub was one.
Staub’s first stint with the team came after being traded to New York from Montreal back in 1972 and he was the starting right fielder through the end of the 1975 season when he was traded away. In 1975 Staub drove in 105 runs, marking the first time a Met had driven in over 100. Someone on this list will equal the feat later on. He recorded more than 140 hits in each year of that first stint other than 1972. He was a fine player then, and as a pinch hitter later on.