Today, of course, is the much-ballyhooed return of Jose Reyes to Citi Field. While it isn’t quite Piazza’s return (which SNY just showed), it certainly warrants some consideration. We all know Reyes was a very good player for the club these last years but his impact might not be fully appreciated by most. Reyes is no less than the Mets’ career leader in runs, triples, and steals. Perhaps even more impressive than those numbers, however, is he is second in hits. So long as we’re being honest, I didn’t know he was quite that impactful…and I blog for this team. So when considering Reyes’ return, it appears necessary to at least give him the respect he deserves for being one of the best players our team has seen, championship or no championship.
The whole ESPN-generated “the Mets never offered Reyes a contract” nonsense is, of course, just that. The fact is there was no way we were going to pay what the Marlins paid. While I find it hard to conceive of a situation where absolutely no effort was made on the part of the Mets, I have a strong feeling that the club knew his price would simply be too high to earnestly compete. Is it worse to suffer the minor inconvenience of having to hear this no-offer story today or the embarrassment that would have come with the realization our best offer for one of our best all-time players was likely $15-20 million away from being considered in earnest? I vote the former. We knew he wasn’t coming back.
So what to make of his return then? The din of mixed cheers and boos was telling. No one’s really sure. The fact is Reyes never had a strong personality we assigned to him as a player, making it difficult to ascertain how we remember him and thus, how we ought to receive him now. Outside of his stellar contract ½ year, he was never a grinder. He never did the little things well. He didn’t walk, didn’t play with particular intensity, etc. He was never a vocal guy, never a real leader. He was never the big bat and rarely the best player on the team. He was always relatively cheerful, but more often than not, just came off as somewhat lackadaisical. Ultimately, we all knew he could be the best when he wanted to be, but did he really want it? It’s why his Mets career numbers are somewhat surprising. Because he got them largely piecemeal, in spurts of good and bad play interspersed with injuries and questions of character.
No one can say they wanted to see Jose Reyes go. But not many would say he was worth the long-term investment required to keep him either. On the one hand, he’s one of those players that the minute he leaves, you’re looking for a replacement with his skill set. On the other hand, I don’t find Mets Nation to have been particularly endeared with him. Asked to name a reason I’d have wanted him to stay, my first response was that I wanted to see him and Wright do something great together. For better or worse, he was the homegrown guy the Mets never seem to come up with. He was ours. But now I fear that by the time I figure out what losing Reyes really meant to me, I may have to consider what Wright meant instead.
17 comments
SpencerRealDirtyMets
4/24/2012-10:24pm at 10:24 pm (UTC -4)
And may I add, the grit and passion weren’t bad.
srt
4/24/2012-10:31pm at 10:31 pm (UTC -4)
Well written article here.
Unbiased, factual and non rose colored glasses evaluation of Reyes’ time here.
That being said, watching him tonight in a Miami uniform was hard. More so for the memories and believing it would be Wright and Reyes forever together – than anything else.
That being said, I’m fine with not paying more than Miami did to retain him.
Time to move on.
Stickguy
4/24/2012-10:46pm at 10:46 pm (UTC -4)
good piece. Hard to argue with it. I said in the dugout that I think many fans (some of the more vocal posters on another blog) are over-romanticizing him.
yes, he was exciting when on. He also had long stretches of not being there, sometimes when he was playing. And he was never a guy you wanted coming up in a big spot. On base maybe!
the team stats? Well, he came up young and played a lot of years, and back when he stayed healthy he was getting 700 PAs or so. Basically, he just accumulated a lot of hits by having so many ABs. and the steals were part of his game.
even last year, the BA was gaudy, but also an outlier after 3000+ ABs, and other than that, he was not particularly special or out of career norms. Plus of course, he was hurt again, and 2 different players in the 2 halves.
yes, it would be nice if he was here, but doesn’t break my heart that he moved on. And the whole “homegrown” bit is just not that big of a deal to me.
Hazmet
4/24/2012-11:32pm at 11:32 pm (UTC -4)
Who?
darknova306
4/25/2012-12:52am at 12:52 am (UTC -4)
Don’t care. Moved on.
NJstuckinTX
4/25/2012-9:32am at 9:32 am (UTC -4)
agreed.
kingman 26
4/25/2012-10:25am at 10:25 am (UTC -4)
He “didn’t play with particular intensity”?
Not sure if you watched any baseball from 2005–2008, but this statement is highly questionable, and I am being kind here.
And his 2006–2008 numbers–while he definitely faded down the stretch–were excellent, all-star years. He was a near-great all-around player those years.
And Alderson himself I believe was quoted as saying the Mets never made a “formal offer” to Jose.
Jose took the ONLY big offer he received.
I am not Jose’s biggest fan, I totally agree with not giving him the same contract the Marlins did, and I will always believe that the early-game dugout dances fired up the opposition unnecessarily, especially coming from a dugout full of underachievers in 2007 and 2008.
But it’s just not being real to deny how good he was when healthy, or how much he meant to the near-success of the 2006–2008 years. Whatever his faults, the problems in 2007–2008 were overwhelmingly due to bad pitching and Minaya’s utter inability to understand the importance of depth and good secondary players.
To me, the real issue for many fans is that NO ONE is to blame here. Jose took the only great offer he received, which happened to be in a place he wanted to be. The Mets were in horrid financial straits and did not want to give an injury-prone player such a huge deal.
I cannot blame either side. I think this is where many have problems. Because there’s really no one to blame here.
trs86
4/25/2012-10:34am at 10:34 am (UTC -4)
I agree that there is no one to blame. I also agree with both sides of the passion debate. Jose when there was something in it for him? Passionate as hell. If he was in pouting mode then no chance.
wanny
4/25/2012-10:38am at 10:38 am (UTC -4)
I’m with Kong. Passion was never one of Jose’s faults. There was one incident early on when Willie had to yank him for not hustling to first. And to Jose’s credit he learned from that. I don’t recall seeing him pout or loaf on the field.
Sometimes, perhaps too often, his aggression and passion got the best of him as he was not always the smartest on the bases.
trs86
4/25/2012-11:08am at 11:08 am (UTC -4)
Oh I think there were plenty examples of him pouting. I think it was discussed plenty of times especially while Castillo was here and how Luis was a bad influence.
wanny
4/25/2012-11:14am at 11:14 am (UTC -4)
discussed by whom and which examples of when he was pouting on the field and not playing hard?
trs86
4/25/2012-11:17am at 11:17 am (UTC -4)
Eh, I don’t remember specifically I just remember the maturity and pouting debate concerning the change from Valentin to Castillo being discussed on multiple sites especially Mattsblog.
kingman 26
4/25/2012-11:50am at 11:50 am (UTC -4)
The Castillo influence thing is part of Met Nation urban lore, kind of like the Legend of Gritty McHudson and his being a “great clubhouse guy” and how Jason Bay was “defensively challenged”–nonsense bull spread by lazy writers and idiot Internet commenters.
It’s horsesh*t, spread by idiots at Metsblog. One person writes some nonsense about what a bouncer at an LI nightclub told him, it gets repeated and commented on again and again, and it becomes lore.
Baloney.
TRS, you know I was often frustrated by Jose, and yeah, he did pout once when Manuel wanted to take him out of a game, and Willie did bench him long ago, but overall, I just think it is untrue to say that this was a regular occurrence. Saying he did not play with intensity is patently false and absolutely ridiculous.
His entire game when healthy WAS intensity. When he hit a ball in the gap, he didn’t run the bases with intensity? That’s not even a joke, it is so ridiculous.
Jose was brittle as hell, I definitely think he was soft (the classic example being hiding behind Alomar Sr when Olivo came after him and letting Alomar take the punch), he was not a clutch player in 2007 and 2008 while Wright was, and I disliked the dugout dances for an underachieving team.
But Jose was indeed intense, the pouting was very rare, and the Castillo stuff is Metsblog/MMO-type drivel.
wanny
4/25/2012-12:00pm at 12:00 pm (UTC -4)
I think there was concern that Jose would miss Valentin’s leadership but I don’t think there was ever any actual instances to which the switch from Valentin to Castillo was referenced as a cause for Jose’s behavior. In fact, at the time Luis was acquired, I think he had a pretty good reputation. It wasn’t until LUIS became a pouter that there was any concern.
In fact, 2008 was their first full season together and Reyes was ridiculously good: .297 .358 .475 with 16 HRs and 55 SBs.
trs86
4/25/2012-12:41pm at 12:41 pm (UTC -4)
I think it came up because of his awful September 2008. As for intensity, I guess maybe it’s hard to judge. I saw a very selfish player who played as hard as hell… when HE wanted to.
wanny
4/25/2012-12:48pm at 12:48 pm (UTC -4)
when did you see him not playing hard? just because he was awful in september doesn’t mean he wasnt trying.
and how do you know what he wants to do and when?
trs86
4/25/2012-1:04pm at 1:04 pm (UTC -4)
I don’t but that doesn’t change my perception of Jose being a me first player. Sorry. Either way time to move on.