Former Met Butch Huskey dies at 54
The Mets' Butch Huskey against the San Francisco Giants at Shea Stadium on Aug. 26, 1997. Credit: AP/Mark Lennihan
Butch Huskey, the slugging utilityman who spent portions of five seasons with the Mets, died Friday, the team announced.
Huskey, 54, was a highly touted prospect who showed flashes of significant talent and was rotated from his natural third-base position to rightfield and first base. The cause of death was a blood clot in a lung, according to Jay Horwitz, the team’s vice president of alumni relations and longtime media relations director.
“I just want to acknowledge it’s a sad day with the passing of Butch Huskey this morning,” interim manager Andy Green said before the Mets played the Nationals. “I just want to send prayers and thoughts to his family. I know all of our Mets family is thinking of him and the people who love him today.”
The Mets, who held a moment of silence for Huskey before Friday’s game, said via X: “We are saddened to learn about the passing of former Met Butch Huskey.” They also posted a photo of Huskey at bat in 1997 during the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier.
The righthanded hitter changed his uniform number from 10 to 42 in 1995 in honor of Robinson and was grandfathered in when baseball retired the number in 1997, making him one of the final players to don “42.’’
Huskey, a four-time recipient of the “Doubleday Award,” given to the Mets’ top-performing minor-leaguer, made his major-league debut in 1993 and played 13 games before spending 1994 in the minors. His best season with the Mets came in 1997, when he had a .287/.319/.503 slash line and hit a career-high 24 homers in 142 games.
That was the season in which hit a ball into the 600 section of the Phillies’ Veterans Stadium — one of only four players to do so before the stadium closed in 2003.
Huskey at times struggled to find a consistent defensive role with the Mets. After losing the third-base job to Jeff Kent in an infield realignment in 1996, he moved to right but didn’t acclimate well to the position, eventually sharing a platoon at first base. By 1997, Edgardo Alfonzo had cemented the third-base role.
Huskey was traded to the Mariners after the 1998 season and rounded out his career with the Red Sox, Twins and Rockies before retiring in 2000. He was a career .267 hitter with 86 homers and 98 doubles in parts of seven seasons.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
