The Mets Need To Resign Reyes

If The Mets want to stay relevant they need to keep Reyes.

The Mets have done a lot of dumb things in the last ten years; they gave Carlos Beltran $119 million dollars, they traded Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano, and they gave up half of their farm system for Johan Santana who has been a shell of his former self.

The Mets have become a big joke in major league circles and their money woes have only been topped recently by the Los Angeles Dodgers who filed for bankruptcy. Things were so bad that majority owner Fred Wilpon decided to rip everyone from his star third baseman David Wright to his superstar shortstop Jose Reyes.

Wilpon in particular said about Reyes that “he’s crazy if he thinks he’s getting Carl Crawford money” this offseason… if Wilpon had any sense in that old and decrepit skull of his he may want to rethink that statement.

Even though they sit nine games out of first in the NL East, the Mets have a decent shot at the wildcard at 5 games back and its mostly due… no wait, it’s because of the out of this world play of Jose Reyes. Coming into Thursday’s play Reyes leads the national league in batting average, runs, triples, doubles and hits, is second in stolen bases and in the top 10 in slugging and OPS. In other words without Reyes the Mets would be swimming with Jimmy Hoffa rather than having an outside shot at the playoffs.

And this is the guy that Wilpon wouldn’t give $142 million to, yet gave Beltran $119 million after one good stretch in October?

Reyes has The Mets eyeing a wildcard spot in the National League.

Beyond what he does on the field Reyes is the face of the team off of it. I know a few years ago the Mets had Wright positioned as their man of the moment but Wright hasn’t been that guy. Reyes is electrifying, he’s currently one of a handful of players that you HAVE to see play when he comes into town. Reyes is a marketable figure that you can bank on bringing in large amounts of revenue for your team. Who wouldn’t like having Reyes at the top of their order creating havoc on the base pads and then having the charisma to sell watches afterwards? You’d be crazy to think he’s not worth that.

Where I would see an owner not wanting to pay Reyes is due to his spotty injury history. Reyes has missed 155 of 324 games in the last two years, which would be a concern for anyone that has money to burn. Also in the years before his injuries Reyes was faded down the stretch when the Mets needed him most.

During their historic collapse in 2007, Reyes batted .205 and had an OBP of .279 as the Mets eventually lost their grip on the NL East to the Philadelphia Phillies and the next year Reyes faded again. As electrifying as he is Reyes still needs to prove himself when it matters down the stretch to show that would be worthy of such a huge deal.

After the bomb contracts given to Beltran, Santana and Carlos Delgado you could understand why the Mets would be hesitant to give another deal like that to Reyes. However, with the current state of the Mets Fred Wilpon would be stupid to let Reyes walk away to sign with another team and give fans in Queens even less of a reason to watch the Mets.

The smart thing to do for the Mets would be to sign Reyes and build around him for the future. It would give the fans a reason for hope and keep the Mets relevant.

However, with the way that things have gone for the Mets in recent years they may do exactly the opposite. They’re not called “The Mess” for no reason you know.

Baseball Preview Day 3: Meet The Mess

Fred Wilpon and the Mets are baseball's biggest joke.

Growing up in New York there are lines crossed with which baseball teams you have to follow.

 

The Bronx and Staten Island are primarily Yankees fans, Brooklyn and Queens were partial to the Mets and Manhattan is always split in half.

 

Being that I am from Brooklyn I should have been a Mets fan growing up. My mom was a Mets fan, my Dad was a Mets fan, my uncles, aunts and cousins were all Mets fans. Yet somehow during the Steve Sax, Randy Velerde and Luis Polonia days I was always partial to the Yankees.

 

I couldn’t tell you why I was more partial to the Pinstripes, but I was. Both teams had great play-by-play guys, Phil Rizzuto for the Yanks, Ralph Kiner for the Mets, both teams were at the bottom of their divisions and going to Yankee and Shea stadium really wasn’t too different to me because both places were dumps.

 

Yet I liked the Yankees more. My first games was a Yankees game, my first hat was a Yankees hat, and my favorite player at the time was still Andre Dawson so I couldn’t like the Mets anyway because I would always want Dawson’s Cubs to go off on the Mets.

 

20 years later when I look back on those times and my subconscious decision-making I’m so happy that I became a Yankees fan, because the Mets stink.

 

Actually let me rephrase that…  the Mets are the biggest mess in baseball ever.

 

As a fan of this team there isn’t a single reason that you should look forward to this season. You’re team is bleeding money thanks to the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, your lineup cant produce runs in any way shape form or fashion, your star players can’t stay on the field and your pitching staff is horrendous.

 

Mets tried to talk themselves into Oliver Perez, fail. They gave Carlos Beltran 119 million 7 years ago in hopes that he would be the piece that put them over the top, fail. They traded for Johan Santana in hopes that he would carry their staff to the top of the division, fail. Jason Bay, Luis Castillo, K-rod, J.J. Putz, fail, fail, fail.

Oliver Perez... insert joke here.

 

There have a laundry list of deficiencies that have hindered this team on off of the field. Whether its Jose Reyes’s health or K-rod knocking out his girlfriends dad, Johan’s sex scandal or the Willie Randolph firing. The Mets have been baseballs best soap opera for years and the hits just keep on coming.

 

When you look at the Mets have some talent on paper. Ike Davis was a mid-season call-up last year that showed potential and, Mike Pelfrey could possibly be a top of the rotation guy and the face of the franchise, and David Wright, is one of the best third basemen in the game. Yet on the field they have no cohesiveness, no consistency, no nothing.

Watching the Mets is like a lesson in futility. They were 24^th in the league in runs scored, hits and home runs,  22^nd in batting average, 25^th in OBP. Their pitching was mediocre as well by being 18^th in the league in WHIP and BAA, and that was due in part to Pelfrey and Santana.

 

They made mistakes in crucial situations, they were a sideshow of errors that came with a blooper reel in the field that seemed to happen every other day. There were times where I think I saw Wright mutter to himself “two more years and I’m out of here,” and I wouldn’t blame him.

 

Would you want to play for this team? This is a team with no identity, a dark future, an owner who needs money, a fan base that’s embarrassed to come to the park and watch them and in their division they are an easy choice for 5^th.

 

The Mets bad decision from the Beltran and Santana deals, to the quick trigger release of Randolph, to the Madoff scandal, have crippled them to the point where they could easily be one of the worst teams in the league.

If you were David Wright, you'd be feeling like this too.

Entering this year they don’t have Santana until the summer time, the are still concerned about Beltran’s health as well as Reyes’, and their only hope in their rotation is Chris Young, who hasn’t been healthy in 3 years, Pelfrey, Jon Niese and the ageless wonder R.A. Dickey.

 

And you thought the Yankees had pitching problems.

 

If you want any good news, Beltran’s contract comes off of the books this year and there is optimism with Davis and David Murphy possibly playing everyday, and that’s about it.

 

The rest is one big snowball that hasn’t reached the bottom of the hill yet and seems to be rolling along at a steady pace.

 

The Yankees problems with pitching, age and deciding the future of the team would be welcomed in Queens. At least have some idea about what’s going on and on what to do about it. The Mets on the other hand are taking it day-to-day, not knowing what will happen next.

 

It’s a sad story of a team that 5 years ago was a World Series contender and three years ago was a front-runner in the NL East. Nowadays they would be thankful enough to have a day without something going wrong.