We’re spending the 2025 season looking back at previous seasons, specifically the 50 greatest teams in history, a group that I call the Best 50. Today’s entry, the 1986 New York Mets, is No. 3 on the list, as determined by my new book, Baseball’s Best (and Worst) Teams.
Here’s a quick boilerplate explanation that I’m appending to every story in this series:
I compiled the Best 50 by analyzing 2,544 major-league teams from 1903 to 2024. Those clubs have been ranked by their team scores (TS), which are plotted on a 100-point scale. (A given club’s all-time percentile is the percentage of the other 2,543 teams that it outperformed.)
See my book for an explanation of my TS calculations. The book also offers separate breakdowns of the best and worst clubs for every decade and franchise, comprehensive profiles of the Best 50 (including position-by-position lineups and much more information than you’ll find in this newsletter), and similar summaries of the 10 worst teams of all time.
Now on to today’s profile.
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Team: 1986 New York Mets
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Team score: 96.721 points
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All-time rank: 3 of 2,544
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All-time percentile: 99.92%
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Season record: 108-54 (.667)
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Season position: First place in National League East
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Final status: World champion
The Mets deployed one of the National League’s oldest pitching staffs in 1983. But aging veterans held no appeal for Davey Johnson, who became New York’s manager in 1984. He cleaned house, even saying goodbye to franchise icon Tom Seaver. Johnson built a new rotation of Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, Dwight Gooden, and Bob Ojeda. All were 28 or younger in 1986. Gooden was only 21.
The club’s two best hitters slightly predated Johnson. First baseman Keith Hernandez arrived from St. Louis by trade in 1983, the same year that right fielder Darryl Strawberry was promoted from the minors.
These new elements began to jell in 1985, when the Mets soared to a 98-64 record. But Johnson wasn’t satisfied. “We don’t want to just win,” he said in the spring of 1986. “We want to dominate.”
That they did. The Mets won 20 of their first 24 games, achieved a 10-game lead in the National League East by mid-June, and sailed to 108 victories.
Get the complete lowdown on the 50 greatest (and 10 weakest) clubs of all time
The Mets survived two nerve-racking postseason matchups in 1986.
They prevailed over the Astros in the National League Championship Series, though not easily. Three of the Mets’ wins were by one-run margins, including the decisive 7-6 victory in a 16-inning Game Six.
The World Series was even more dramatic. Boston inched within one out of winning the world title in Game Six, but four consecutive New York batters reached base in the bottom of the 10th inning. Mets third baseman Ray Knight scored the winning run on a famous error by Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner.
The Mets fell behind again in Game Seven, then rallied to snatch the championship, 8-5. It was a suitable way, said Knight, to conclude “a simply unbelievable month of emotional swings.”
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“We had a sense of destiny in 1986,” said Darryl Strawberry, “a belief that it would all come together for us in a great, historic display of baseball power.” Nobody generated more power for the Mets than their right fielder, who topped the club in home runs (27) and slugging average (.507).
Keith Hernandez, a Gold Glove first baseman, batted a solid .310. St. Louis had traded him to New York in 1983 after he clashed with manager Whitey Herzog. “He thought he was going to stick me here to suffer,” said Hernandez. “Didn’t happen. There was such a wealth of talent.”
That description encompassed high-spirited catcher Gary Carter, who drove in 105 runs. Umpire Eric Gregg insisted that Carter was better behind the plate than the renowned Johnny Bench. “He’s the best I’ve ever seen,” said Gregg, “and believe me, we get to work very close to all the catchers.”
Three members of the Mets’ rotation finished among the National League’s five ERA leaders: Bob Ojeda (2.57), Ron Darling (2.81), and Dwight Gooden (2.84).
Ojeda took pleasure in winning Game Three of the World Series against the Red Sox, who had traded him to the Mets. The workmanlike Darling, who had attended Yale, was often overshadowed by his flashier staffmates. “I’m not always great at things,” he said, “but I’m smart.” Gooden was the youngest of the trio — and the biggest star. He was nicknamed Dr. K because of the strikeouts he accumulated (200 in 1986) with his blazing fastball. “A baseball talent like Dwight Gooden comes along once in a generation,” said Hernandez.