Cleveland Baseball Minor League Collection: 1983 TCMA Lynchburg Mets Dwight Gooden
Man, Dwight Gooden was an amazing pitcher there for a hot minute. It’s still crazy to look at his stats.
At his peak, which I will say was from 1984-1993, he went 154-81 with a 118 ERA+ and 1.169 WHIP for the New York Mets. In 1985 he led the league with 24 wins, and in both 1984 and 1985 led the league in strikeouts (276 and 268, respectively). He was the 1984 NL Rookie of the Year, the 1985 Cy Young winner, and a four-time All-Star.
This was not the same player who signed as a free agent with the Tribe for the 1998 season. He would spend two seasons in Cleveland. In 1998 he went 8-6 with a 3.76 ERA and 127 ERA+. A solid season, but he missed huge portions with injuries and was a disaster in his two playoff appearances. In 1999 the wheels came off, with a 3-4 record and 6.26 ERA before he went down with injuries and was eventually allowed to walk as a free agent.