A former Boston Red Sox outfielder who helped the team win 94 games in 1999 and reach the American League Championship Series has died at age 54.
The former New York Mets player was picked up at the trade deadline for Boston’s unlikely run to within three wins of the World Series that year, making news of his death especially poignant for fans who remember that special season at Fenway Park.
Butch Huskey’s death was announced Friday by the Mets, the team that drafted and developed him before trading him away in December 1998.
“We are saddened to learn about the passing of former Met Butch Huskey,” the team wrote, in a statement reported by The Big Lead. No cause of Huskey’s death has been made public.
Huskey was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma, on November 10, 1971, later moving to nearby Lawton, where he earned All-State recognition in both football and baseball at Eisenhower High School. The Mets took him in the seventh round of the 1989 draft, and he debuted in the majors on September 8, 1993, before establishing himself as a regular corner outfielder and first baseman by the mid-1990s. He spent five of his seven big league seasons in Queens, appearing in 414 games and hitting 55 home runs for the Mets before the club dealt him to the Seattle Mariners.
His best season came in 1997, when he hit .287 with 24 home runs and 81 RBI across 142 games for the Mets. That September, he became just the third player to reach the upper deck’s 600 level at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium, joining Willie Stargell and Rubén Rivera, as recounted by The Big Lead.
The Trade That Sent Huskey to Boston
GettyOutfielder Butch Huskey with the Seattle Mariners in 1999 before being traded to the Red Sox that year.
New York shipped Huskey to Seattle that December for pitcher Lesli Brea, and he thrived in a part-time role with the Mariners before Boston came calling. On July 26, 1999, the Red Sox acquired Huskey from Seattle for minor league left-hander Robert Ramsay.
Seattle had grown crowded in the outfield with Ken Griffey Jr., Jay Buhner and Brian Hunter all healthy again.
“Huskey did a good job for us while Buhner was out, but our outfield is Hunter, Ken Griffey Jr and Buhner,” then-Mariners general manager Woody Woodward said, as quoted by UPI. Boston wanted a right-handed bat to pair with lefty designated hitter Brian Daubach for the stretch run.
Huskey’s Role in Boston’s Wild Card Run
Huskey delivered immediately. In 45 games with the Red Sox, he hit .266 with seven home runs and 28 RBI in 124 at-bats, providing pop off the bench and at designated hitter as Boston chased a playoff spot. Boston battled in the American League wild-card race into September before closing strong, with Huskey’s right-handed power complementing a lineup anchored by Nomar Garciaparra and Troy O’Leary. The Red Sox finished 94-68, second in the American League East, and claimed the wild-card berth, in an era when each league had only a single wild-card berth available.
Huskey appeared in all six of Boston’s postseason games that October, going 2-for-10 with a double. The Red Sox knocked off the Cleveland Indians in a five-game American League Division Series, setting up a showdown against the New York Yankees, the first time the arch-rivals had ever met in the postseason. But New York won the ALCS in five games, ending Boston’s pennant hopes.
Huskey played one more full season, splitting 2000 between Minnesota and Colorado, before his career ended after a failed bid to make Cleveland’s roster in 2001. He finished with a .267 average, 86 home runs and 336 RBI across seven big league seasons.
Former Red Sox Outfielder Who Helped Boston Reach ALCS Dies at 54