It is June 2011; the baseball season is in full swing. As a New York Mets fan, I am watching on with no real expectations of this current Mets team that has a crippling financial lawsuit looming over the owners of the team. However I am enjoying watching Jose Reyes swing the bat better than I have ever seen him do in any part of his career to date. He is the only real positive note of the 2011 New York Mets season up to date. However he becomes a free agent in the off-season and the Mets’ financial plight means that they might struggle to offer a long-term deal, similar to that of Carl Crawford’s Red Sox deal. That leaves the Mets with the ultimate quandary of whether to trade Reyes whilst he is so hot at the plate and is showing he can stay healthy. I am going to present my case of why the Mets should maybe think about attempting to keep Reyes and instead offload the face of the franchise David Wright.
If we look at recent seasons Reyes has struggled to stay healthy in last 2 seasons or so despite displaying durability early on in his career. David Wright until 2009 was compiling a very commendable stat line for his career that displayed him as an RBI machine and also could hit for contact. However since the move to Citi Field in 2009, a widely renowned ‘pitchers’ ballpark that is big in dimensions and means that power hitting is a premium. The dimensions however are catered to the strengths of Jose Reyes with the space around outfield means it will be easier for him to hit triples and round the bases. If we look at this season where even trading both players has been mentioned, it has been Reyes that is having a career year. Obviously this must have something to do with the fact he is in his final year of his contract looking to get a lucrative deal but it is also the first year since the Mets have been at Citi Field that he has been fully healthy. Reyes is in line to have career highs in hits, doubles, triples, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, and career low strikeouts. Obviously he will cool down as the season wears on but the fact is that Reyes is in his best ever form whilst David Wright seems to have regressed in the last couple of years.
David Wright is recognised as the face of the New York Mets franchise but since 2008 he has not been the same David Wright as the previous years. I know he has played with injury this year but he seems to strikeout a lot more these days than he used to, his batting average has gone down and after his 2007 season, his season hit count has gone down by as many as 30 hits. Fact is now that for a man that usually bats in the cleanup spot in absence of Beltran or bats third when he is available is that he strikes out far too much (increased to 161 K’s in 2010), meaning we either leave runners on base or this offers no real protection to the cleanup hitter. His walk count has been down in recent years, (but 2011 has improved) meaning he has become undisciplined at the plate. If we quickly gloss over the fielding element of both players, Wright is a multiple gold-glove recipient and is a quality infielder, but also Reyes is a very good defensive player at a premium position within baseball. Reyes has a much more exciting game, plays in a more important position; he also brings in the fans to games when he is turning out great performance after great performance like this season. It is unbelievably hard to find a man as electric on the bases to lead off like Reyes does as well. Once he gets on base, he can wreak havoc and put himself in run scoring positions time after time. Sure there is the boneheaded play with him now and again, whether it is a base-running error or a fielding error but the fact is few players are as dynamic as Jose Reyes and his exciting style is what can take the New York Mets to another level.
I am not saying at all that I want to see the Mets get rid of David Wright. In an ideal world I would love us to keep all of our marquee talent and build a team equipped to challenge but our financial position means we are not able to fulfil this ambition. In my opinion if we look at the ballpark we currently play in, we should be looking at players that can hit for contact and speed to make use of the dimensions instead of trying to bring in power hitters (see Jason Bay). Having said that, the way Reyes is playing now I would rather sacrifice David Wright in the off-season and keep Reyes as he is the spark our offence feeds on and when he is hot, the Mets offence tends to follow suit. But will I be saying the same comments come September?
LETS GO METS!
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