Heading into the 1999 season, the Mets desperately needed another infielder.  After debating names like B.J. Surhoff, the Mets went with 30 year old Robin Ventura, who was arguably coming off his worst season at the plate since his first full season in the majors.

While Ventura’s bat may have been a bit of a question mark, his glove wasn’t.  At the time he was signed, Ventura was widely regarded as one of the best defensive third baseman in the game – if not THE best.  With him alongside Rey Ordonez, the Mets knew from a defensive perspective they were going to have the best left side of the infield in all of baseball.

As it turns out, it was much more than that.  With John Olerud and Edgardo Alfonzo, the Mets assembled what many regard as the best defensive infield.  Both Ventura and Ordonez would win Gold Gloves giving that infield the metal it needed to prove the point.

More than that, Ventura was rejuvenated as a Met.  In 1999, he had his best every year hitting an astounding .301/.379/.529 with 32 homers and 120 RBI.  He would amass the third most WAR among NL position players, and he would finish sixth in the MVP voting.  As we know, he still had some magic left, as with this help of Todd Pratt, he would launch the Grand Slam Single in Game 5 of the NLCS.

After his Mets career, Ventura would eventually find himself as a manger of the Chicago White Sox, and he would manage Todd Frazier, the player who is now looking to pick up his mantle from the 1999 season.

Frazier has built himself a reputation as a good defensive third baseman.  In 2017, among players with over a thousand innings at third base, he had the third highest DRS trailing just Nolan Arenado and Evan Longoria.  With Frazier now joining Amed Rosario on the left side of the infield, the Mets promise to have the best defensive left side of the infield they have had in decades.  Along with the San Francisco Giants, they are on the short list of teams that can argue they have the best defensive left side of the infield in baseball.

At the plate, Frazier is a good hitter.  Over the past four seasons, he’s averaged a .243/.322/.464 batting line with 33 homers and 86 RBI.  That equates to a 113 OPS+ and wRC+.  Many will knock him for his declining batting average, but it should be noted last year, he had a career best .344 OBP and 14.4% walk rate.  In sum, his batting average is going down, but he’s getting on base more frequently.

Like Ventura, there’s optimism for a much improved season at the plate.  We have already seen him become a more patient hitter at the plate.  We have also seen him post an absurdly low .236 and .226 BABIP in succeeding years.  Part of that is Ventura is a dead pull hitter making it easier to shift against him.  Seeing how low those marks are and how hard he hits the ball, there’s some bad luck involved.

All of this makes him a prime candidate for a turnaround similar to what we saw with Jay Bruce last year.  The Mets will give him the information and will have him work with Pat Roessler.  This should allow Frazier to have a much improved year at the plate.

If that is the case, Frazier is going to have a great year with the Mets.  And while he’s admittedly not as good a player as Ventura was, he can have a similar impact.  Frazier can be the guy in the clubhouse blasting “Mo Jo Rising,” helps create a great left side infield defense, and deepen the Mets lineup.

And if all that happens, this could be a postseason team, which should give us excitement over what heroics we are about to see next.