Matt Harvey
Aside from Tom Seaver, David Wright is quite arguably the best Mets player to ever don a Mets uniform, let alone the number five. Wright was so great during his career, John Olerud‘s named doesn’t even come into consideration.
The Mets drafted Wright with the compensation pick they received from the Colorado Rockies signing Mike Hampton. With Wright, the Mets drafted a player who grew up a Mets fan and would do everything he could do to ensure he would only wear a Mets uniform in his career.
No matter what you say about Wright isn’t enough. He was a real five tool player who was a seven time All-Star, two time Gold Glove winner, and a two-time Silver Slugger. The Gold Glove may be a misnomer as it was his hands that were pure gold.
Really, Wright did whatever he could do to improve as a player. He worked with boyhood idol Howard Johnson to put together the last 30/30 season in Mets history. On that note, he has just about every offensive record in Mets team history. That includes his putting together one of, if not THE best, ever campaign in Mets history in 2007.
While the story of the 2007 Mets was collapse, that was not Wright’s story. In September of that year, he hit .352/.432/.602. In the ensuing year, he hit .340/.416/.577. That was Wright in a nutshell. He was always there when his team needed him, and his contributions were overlooked across baseball. Still, even as a young player, he was a leader and the type of player you built your team around.
While Wright was a known commodity and superstar, many finally took notice during the 2013 World Baseball Classic that everyone seemed to take notice of what every Mets fan had known for nearly a decade. David Wright was clutch and a great baseball player who was the one of the absolute best players in the game.
During that WBC, he would become known as Captain America. It was not too long thereafter he would simply be known as Captain. Seemingly days after, he was named Mets captain joining Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter, and John Franco as the only Mets to receive that honor.
Mostly, when we look at Wright he was the player who stayed. After it was him and Jose Reyes igniting the Mets in 2006 and taking this team to the precipice of a World Series, it was just him as the Mets rebuilt around him. He would still play at a high level, and he would join Matt Harvey as starters for the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field.
After all the losing at Citi Field, he appeared ready to lead the Mets to their first postseason in nearly a decade. Instead, he suffered what was effectively a career ending injury. While it effectively ended his career, it would not take 2015 away from him.
Wright overcame the spinal stenosis to homer in his return to baseball in an August 24 game against the Phillies. He would slide home pumping his fist scoring a key run against the Nationals in a huge comeback victory. He was there in Cincinnati celebrating with his teammates as they won the sixth NL East title in team history.
In Game 1 of the NLDS, he had the game winning two RBI single off Pedro Baez in the seventh to help Jacob deGrom and the Mets take the first game in what would be an epic five game series. Aside from Game 3 of the NLCS, Wright’s bat mostly went silent after that game, but it would come alive again in the first ever World Series game played at Citi Field:
This side of Mike Piazza, that was about as uplifting and dramatic a home run you will ever see. Even with the Mets losing that series and with him being unable to play more than 37 games in 2016 before really shutting it down forever, even if he did desperately try to return, Wright would have one last Citi Field moment.
Mets fans came out and sold out Citi Field in a completely lost season to say good-bye to Wright. Everything he did was cheered loudly. He was so loved that Pete O’Brien will forever be scorned by Mets fans for not letting a foul pop up drop in Wright’s final plate appearance.
As Wright left the field that day, Mets fans teared up a bit and reminisced about a great career. There were the big hits including the walk-off against Mariano Rivera. There was his rise to stardom in 2006 finishing second to just Ryan Howard in the Home Run Derby. He wore that ginormous helmet after being beaned by Matt Cain. Again, he did anything to play.
Through it all, Wright had a Hall of Fame caliber playing career making him easily the best position player the Mets ever developed. He’s easily the best player to have his entire career with the Mets. He will soon have his number retired. With a little luck, he will be inducted into Cooperstown.
But for now, he is the best Mets player to ever wear the number 5.
Editor’s Note: This is part of a series highlighting the best players in Mets history by highlighting the best Mets player to wear a particular uniform number. In this case, this is not saying Wright was the fifth best player in Mets history, but rather the best Mets player to wear the number 5.
Previous
1.Mookie Wilson
2.Mackey Sasser
3. Curtis Granderson
4. Lenny Dykstra
The concern with Noah Syndergaard having Tommy John surgery isn’t just his being gone for the 2020 season and a significant portion of the 2021 season. The larger problem from a Mets perspective is this team has not had the best history with Tommy John surgeries and rehabilitation.
Jeremy Hefner
The Mets don’t have to look any further than their pitching coach Jeremy Hefner. Back in 2013, he was putting together a promising campaign when it was discovered he had a torn UCL. During his rehab from Tommy John, things were not going well, and it was discovered he would need to undergo a second surgery. He would only pitch one season in the minors after that before retiring.
Matt Harvey
Hefner was rehabbing at the same time as Matt Harvey. When it was discovered Hefner needed the second surgery, the Mets had eased the throttle off of Harvey who was pushing to pitch in 2014. In 2015, despite agreements on his innings limit, the Mets reneged and pushed him to pitch, and Harvey would throw more innings than anyone in the history of baseball after their Tommy John surgery.
In 2016, he was just not good with everyone trying to figure out what was wrong with him. It took a while to discover he had Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Despite noticeable muscle atrophy, the Mets pitched him in 2017 leading to a stress reaction. Really, that was all but it for him as a Met and possibly his career. The big unknown is how the Mets handling of him affected his shoulder and/or aggravated or caused the TOS.
Bobby Parnell
Harvey would not be the only Mets pitcher to return in 2015 from Tommy John. The other notable pitcher to return was Bobby Parnell. After discovering a torn UCL the day after the 2014 Opening Day, Parnell underwent the surgery. A year later, a Mets team hoping to stay in the pennant race activated him well before the end of the 18 month rehabilitation period. Parnell didn’t have his fastball, and his command was shot. By the middle of August, he had pitched to a 6.38 ERA before being put on the DL with arm fatigue. He’d only pitch 5.1 Major League innings after this season.
Zack Wheeler
While Parnell was someone whose injury was discovered a day into the 2014 season, Zack Wheeler‘s torn UCL was discovered on the eve of the 2015 season. Wheeler had surgery, and he was slated to return in the middle of the 2016 season to help the Mets return to the postseason. During his rehab, he’d have issues with his stitches, and he would suffer a flexor strain when he was finally able to step on a mound again.
He wasn’t able to step onto a Major League mound again until April 2017, and he would have to be shut down that season due to a stress reaction in his right arm. Really, Wheeler wasn’t right until the 2018 season, which was three years after the first surgery.
Steven Matz
A Mets pitcher having this level of difficulty in their Tommy John rehab is not anything new. In fact, that was exactly the case with Steven Matz when he was in the minor leagues. After being drafted in 2009, it was discovered he had a torn UCL, and he needed to have Tommy John surgery.
Matz really struggled with the rehabilitation, and there was a significant amount of scar tissue. At one point, they were concerned he was going to need a second Tommy John surgery. The advice was to just pitch through it. Matz would do just that finally making his professional debut in 2012. His Tommy John issues would not re-emerge until 2017 when he needed ulnar nerve transposition surgery.
Jacob deGrom
When Matz underwent the surgery, he joined reliever Erik Goeddel and ace Jacob deGrom in having the surgery. With respect to Goeddel, he had Tommy John when he was in high school well before he was a member of the Mets organization. However, with respect to deGrom, he had his surgery and rehab as a member of the Mets organization.
With deGrom, he had seemingly appeared to be the one Mets pitcher who had a normal Tommy John surgery and rehabilitation. Yes, there were difficult times when he told Frank Viola he wanted to quit, but that was part of the normally grueling rehabilitation process and return. Ultimately, deGrom would become a Rookie of the Year winner, and he would introduce himself to the world with an incredible All-Star Game appearance and a postseason for the ages.
As noted with Harvey and Wheeler, Mets pitchers were dropping like flies in 2016. In addition to Harvey and Wheeler, Matz went down with a massive bone spur. It was then discovered during a pennant race, deGrom needed the ulnar transposition surgery. As we have seen, the surgery went well, and after a pedestrian 2018 season (by his standards), he has returned to be the best pitcher in baseball.
Keep in mind, the Mets checkered Tommy John history isn’t just recent. Jason Isringhausen would have the first of his three Tommy John surgeries with the Mets. Looking back at Generation K, he, Paul Wilson, and Bill Pulsipher would all have arm issues leading to them never pitching in the same rotation.
Position Players
The Mets haven’t had Tommy John issues with pitchers only. T.J. Rivera underwent the surgery in 2017, and he attempted to return too soon struggling in 22 at-bats. The Mets would release him, and he would play in the Atlantic Leagues for the Long Island Ducks before landing a minor league deal with the Philadephia Phillies. We will see if he can return.
Last year, we saw the Mets botch the handling of Travis d’Arnaud. Even with the team playing well with a tandem of Wilson Ramos and Tomas Nido, the team rushed d’Arnaud back to the majors before one full year of rehabilitation. He would have one of the worst games you would ever see a catcher have leading to the Mets rage cutting him.
He would first land with the Dodgers and then the Rays. Notably, he didn’t start really playing well until July, which was roughly 15 months after the surgery, which is much closer to the recommended 18 months.
This is not an extensive history, but it is a good snapshot of the struggles the Mets have had dealing with Tommy John surgeries. Perhaps, it is of no coinidence much of this has coincided with the Wilpon taking over majority control of the Mets, and as Pedro Martinez and others have noted, Jeff Wilpon’s interference with medical decision making has been a real issue.
Seeing the Tommy John problems the Mets have had, we get a better sense of why Seth Lugo was so unwilling to go through the process, and we see some of the dangers which may very well face Syndergaard as he attempts to return from the surgery before hitting free agency.
During Spring Training, there was what seemed to be a contrived race for the fifth starter spot in the rotation between Steven Matz and Michael Wacha. That was even with the case of Matz being the better of the two, and really being a better pitcher than Rick Porcello over the past few seasons.
As we were headed towards the end of Spring Training, we really had no indication of who was in the lead for the spot, and we even heard the Mets were toying with the idea of mixing and matching Matz and Wacha as the fifth starter using them based upon the match-ups.
Of course now, it is a moot point as no one quite knows when or if we are going to play baseball again. When that happens, there is going to be an abbreviated return to Spring Training before we get back to games. Typically speaking, that would be fine as players, especially pitchers, were ramping up to begin the season.
However, teams have shut down their Spring Training facilities to their players and sent them home. Players live in different areas of the country, and places where they would typically go to work out have been shut down as well to help prevent the further spread of COVID19. In the end, this means we have no idea how in shape players will be.
That’s not an issue of laziness or them not being serious about their craft. Rather, it is a practical reality based upon the reality of the situation. It is difficult to ask people to be prepared for the season when they can’t work out at a facility or work with an instructor. To a certain extent, you know they are all doing something, but it may not be sufficient.
For pitchers, that is going to be especially dangerous. As has been noted, there is a fear the ramp up, cool down, and abbreviated re-ramp up can lead to pitcher injuries. This is going to demand teams be judicious in how they use pitchers and allow them to use the earlier part of the season as an extended Spring Training.
Fortunately, the Mets are actually well-built to do that with their having six starting pitchers.
With their having six starting pitchers, they can institute a plan similar to that they implemented at times during the 2015 season. There was push-back from some of the starters, namely Matt Harvey, but ultimately using pitchers like Jon Niese in the rotation and later Logan Verrett, it did help keeps arms fresh. That was a key to the Mets winning the 2015 pennant.
That’s exactly what the Mets need to do here. They need to use a six man rotation to help keep these pitchers fresh and to help them get through the season. They can do it strategically by taking into account the off days. At times, they can mix in Robert Gsellman here and there given his presence as the long man in the bullpen, and possibly, they can use a Stephen Gonsalves or Corey Oswalt for the occasional spot start or even as an “opener” for starts made by the other pitchers in the rotation.
In the end, this is still a Mets team built on pitching, and they need to keep their pitchers fresh and healthy to succeed in 2020. That is going to require them to utilize a six man rotation at times, so in the end, it means that Porcello, Matz, and Wacha will all win a spot in the rotation.
From there, the Mets can judge based upon who is pitching best in the regular season, and they can adapt to injuries in the even they unfortunately come.
When we discuss player’s health and injuries, fans always want to know, and the media has a duty to report the things they know to the public. Of course, in the case of Matt Harvey, the media and fans can become aware of health information and act juvenile.
Seeing that reaction, and seeing the procedure didn’t prevent him from starting on Opening Day against the Royals, you go back to whether we should know about a player’s health issues, especially those which do not keep a player off the field.
This issue was brought back to the forefront with Brandon Nimmo‘s heart scare. Actually, we don’t know if it was or was not a heart scare. However, that is where some people’s minds went when they saw the reports Nimmo was undergoing a precautionary screening for reasons unknown or unspecified by the manager Luis Rojas.
No one really had an idea what was the reason for the tests, and many Mets fans were worried about the fan favorite. We didn’t know if this was a serious issue leading to a future J.R. Richard situation, or if this was a complete non-issue. It wouldn’t be until his wife said there was really no issue for fans to have any sort of relief.
https://twitter.com/chelseajnimmo/status/1233138341006258176?s=20
As we would later find out directly from Nimmo, himself, he has a larger heart and an irregular heartbeat. This led to him joking he has a larger heart because he has “a lot of love to give.” Gallow’s humor aside, we’re all fortunate Nimmo is alright, and he is healthy enough to play baseball in 2020.
Seeing that he is healthy enough to play, and his heart condition doesn’t interfere with his ability to play, you do have to question why the Mets made a player’s personal health issues available for public consumption. Do we really have the right to know about things personal to Nimmo when it has no impact on his play on the field or his ability to even play? Shouldn’t some things be left private.
Digging deeper, they kept the issues with Yoenis Cespedes‘ heels secret for years. Why did the Mets feel we needed to know about Nimmo’s heart issue which may or may not have kept him off the field, but we didn’t need to know about Cespedes’ heels which was impacting his ability to hustle and stay healthy, and more to the point would eventually require him to undergo major surgery?
In the end, all that matters is Nimmo is alright. His health is the number one priority. Looking past that, we really need to reassess whether information like this NEEDS to be made public and why the Mets choose to make information like this public while keeping other information a secret.
In 2013, the Louisville Cardinals beat the Michigan Wolverines to win the NCAA Championship. It was on CBS, and the game is still on YouTube. It was televised, and if you did not see it, you can still take time to watch the game if you still want.
What’s weird about that is supposedly that game never happened.
Due to a recruitment scandal, Louisville needed to vacate their wins, and Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino was fired by the university thereby ending a storied career in disgrace. There is article after article about it, and there are many references to the scandal and the game.
And yet, the game supposedly never happened. It never happened despite it being well documented. That extensive documentation proves the old axiom you cannot rewrite history to be true. You can’t post hoc say Louisville didn’t win a game when you can still watch it and read about it.
Therein lies the problem with stripping championships. They happened, and no matter what you do, those games still happened. The Louisville Cardinals won the 2013 NCAA Championship much like the 2017 Houston Astros won the World Series.
As we know, the Astros cheated to do it. They cheated in a similar fashion to how the New York Giants did in 1951 when they won the pennant when Bobby Thompson hit the “Shot Heard Round the World.” That game, much like the seven game 2017 World Series, happened.
To date, that game and the 1951 pennant has not been vacated. No, not even with the reports of the New York Giants extensive sign stealing scheme. Like with the Astros, there were rumors it was happening, but there would be no Mike Fiers whistle blowing until 51 years later when first base coach Herman Franks came forward.
Unlike the Astros players initial response, the other Giants players, Thompson included, admitted to it. However, akin to Jose Altuve and the buzzer rumors surrounding his own famous pennant clinching homer, Thompson denied getting the sign in the famed homer off of Ralph Branca.
The fact is the Shot Heard Round the World remains a part of history. The same can be said about the Astros 2017 World Series. Really, it is more than just that series, it was an entire season.
Where do you stop. Does Altuve gets stripped of his MVP award? How about Justin Verlander‘s ALCS MVP and George Springer‘s World Series MVP awards? With Cody Bellinger‘s statements and Aaron Judge deleting his congratulatory tweet, that seems like it might be palatable. What next?
Do you take away the Astros offensive stats? Is that really going to unring the bell? Look at it from a Mets perspective. Matt Harvey is still a free agent struggling to return from TOS, Seth Lugo is still in the bullpen, and Chris Flexen is still pitching in Korea.
Again, no matter how much you want to pretend the Astros 2017 World Series title never happened, it did, and there are long standing ramifications. That includes players like Clayton Kershaw never winning a World Series ring. Much like the Michigan Wolverines, the Dodgers aren’t going to be named the World Series champions post hoc.
No matter how much we want it to not have happened, the Astros won that World Series, and really you can’t change history. Even if you strip it away, it still exists. If you attach an asterisk to it, it still exists. There is nothing you can do to make it not happen because it did.
So no, don’t strip it away.
However, there are reasonable things Major League Baseball could do. They could tell the Astros they need to remove the pennants and similar denotations of their World Series. After all, while you can’t make it unhappen, you can put barriers in place to stop the Astros from celebrating that World Series.
It’s not great, but it’s something, but that is what you are left with because you can’t say nothing happened because it did.
Today, the offseason is officially over, and Spring Training officially begins with pitchers and catchers reporting to St. Lucie. Looking at the way the contracts are structured, this could be the last year this rotation reports, and in very short order, this rotation could be almost completely dismantled over the ensuing few years.
Marcus Stroman and Rick Porcello are free agents after the 2020 season.
Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz are free agents after the 2021 season.
Jacob deGrom has a player option after the 2022 season.
This is what remains from a homegrown group which led the Mets to the 2015 pennant and brought the Mets back to the 2016 postseason. We have already seen Matt Harvey and now Zack Wheeler (on neither team) leave for very different reasons. Now, the Mets have to assess who is next.
Ideally, the Mets would be moving quickly to lock some of these starters up. After all, Syndergaard and Matz are coming off down years, and the Mets have a year of control to use as leverage in negotiations. Seeing how Matz finished the season, Syndergaard’s offseason workouts geared towards pitching better, and Jeremy Hefner already working on getting the most out of both, they may get very expensive very soon.
Like Matz, Stroman and Porcello are local kids who grew up Mets fans. We have already seen Porcello leave some money on the table to pitch for the Mets. Could Stroman do the same knowing he gets to pitch for his hometown team and his being born to pitch on this stage?
Sure, you could argue the Mets should be looking to maximize on the value of some of these pitchers on the trade market. At some point, the team also has to look to the future when pitchers like David Peterson, Thomas Szapucki, Matthew Allan, and others are ready to contribute.
The payroll obligations, along with having to pay players like Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo have to be balanced. The Mets also have to balance that against building the type of team which would discourage deGrom from exercising his opt out.
Of course, the question is who exactly is negotiating these contracts. Not too long ago, we thought that would be Steve Cohen, and what many assumed were bottomless pockets. Now, with that deal falling apart, we don’t know.
Sure, the Mets say they are going to sell the team, and they are no longer going to insist on having control over the team, but we have seen this show. It has previously ended with deals falling apart, and the Mets moving to sell off minority shares as as short term fundraising scheme.
Long story, short, here, the Mets need to figure out their ownership, and they need to figure it out fast. There is a lot more riding on the sale of the team than the 2020 season and the ability to add payroll, if necessary, at the trade deadline. As noted, the Mets need to figure out the pitching staff for 2021 and beyond.
The sooner they figure it out, the better. Once they have clarity on that issue, they will know who exactly are trade chips, and how exactly the Mets can build the 2020, 2021, 2022, and beyonds World Series contending teams.
There wasn’t John Franco blowing an eighth inning lead. Armando Benitez didn’t blow a 10th inning save opportunity. Kenny Rogers didn’t walk Andruw Jones with the bases loaded.
Instead, Frank Clark got Jimmy Garopollo into a grasp only Eli Manning could’ve wrestled out of leading to the drive ending on downs.
A Damien Williams touchdown and Kendall Fuller pick later, and the Chiefs somewhat improbable comeback was accomplished, and they were Super Bowl Champions.
Twenty years later, Mets fans got to finally see Pat Mahomes win a title.
No, it wasn’t with the same team or even the same sport, but Mahomes is a champion. Still, with him wearing his father’s Mets jersey on occasion, as a Mets fan, you couldn’t help from feeling happy for the family.
With the Chiefs winning their first Super Bowl since Super Bowl IV, you also couldn’t help but feel optimism the Mets own drought will soon end.
Like the Chiefs for so many years, the Mets seemed snake bitten facing many brutal losses and horrific moments since their last title.
Rogers walked in Jones. Todd Zeile‘s bounced back and Timo Perez didn’t run it out.
Roberto Alomar completely lost it. On that note, the team traded away Jason Bay too soon and signed him too late. There was also the mishandling of his and Ryan Church‘s concussions.
There were so many mishandled injuries. Pedro Martinez was inexplicably forced to pitch, and the Mets at least tried to prevent Carlos Beltran from getting knee surgery.
Of course, we have Beltran looking at an Adam Wainwright curveball and his teams teams collapse in the ensuing two years leaving everyone but Tom Glavine devastated. That’s nowhere near as bad as the embarrassment leading up to Beltran’s firing.
That cast a shadow over his World Series. Mets fans should be so lucky.
Terry Collins can completely blew the series with bad decisions which backfired all series long. Jeurys Familia‘s quick pitch didn’t fool Alex Gordon, and a year later, he was flat out beat by Conor Gillaspie.
This all meant David Wright, forced to retire too soon from spinal stenosis which robbed him of the Hall of Fame, never won a ring. To a lesser extent, there’s the career Matt Harvey never got to have due to his TOS.
Throw in the Madoff scandal and the Wilpons being the Wilpons, and this franchise seems as snakebitten as they come. That’s how the Chiefs fans once felt.
They don’t feel that way anymore. That changed with Mahomes, who is now a champion.
For the Mets, they have Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto, Jacob deGrom, Jeff McNeil, Brandon Nimmo, Noah Syndergaard, and more. Combine that with the impending sale of the team, and there’s hope.
Maybe, just maybe, 2020 will be the year for the Mets.
It may sound ridiculous, but so is Andy Reid managing the clock well and having terrific game management in the fourth quarter to help the Chiefs win a Super Bowl.
In the aftermath of the penalties levied on the Houston Astros for the sign stealing scandal, the team made the right decision in hiring Dusty Baker as their new manager. Based on his experience, he was the best man for the job.
In San Francisco, he had to deal with the strife between Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent. That was nothing compared to Washington.
Baker took over for Matt Williams in the season after the Nationals saw Jonathan Papelbon choke Bryce Harper in the dugout. Even with the Nationals beginning the following season with both players on the roster, Baker would lead the team to consecutive NL East titles.
In sum, Baker can handle these situations adeptly. Arguably, there is no one better than him to handle him. However, seeing this Astros team in action recently, it may not be enough.
Public comments made by Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Justin Verlander were not well received publicly. From a player perspective, this is an organization flailing, and looking at their roster, they don’t really have a veteran who can help guide them through this process and to be a spokesman for the team.
This is a team who needs Curtis Granderson.
Between his time with the Yankees and Mets, he’s experienced it all. He was there for the drama between Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. To that end, he was also with the Yankees and A-Rod dealing with the Biogenesis scandal.
With the Mets, he dealt with the Matt Harvey drama. He was there for Scott Boras causing a stir saying the Mets should shut him down. He was there when Harvey missed a postseason workout and was suspended by the team for not showing up to the clubhouse.
There was the news cycles created when Harvey was sick, and there was Harvey’s struggles with TOS.
Granderson was also with the Mets when the team brought back Jose Reyes after his domestic violence suspension.
Overall, Granderson has seen just about everything in his time with the Mets and Yankees. Through it all, he has been on teams facing intense media scrutiny which only heightened with scandal and team drama.
There may not be anyone better able to help those Astros players through what they’re about to experience.
More than that, this is clearly an Astros team whose public image has been destroyed. They’re easily the most reviled organization in baseball and perhaps in all of sports.
Yuli Gurriel made a racist gesture purportedly mocking Yu Darvish during the 2017 World Series.
They traded for Roberto Osuna. It went lower when Brandon Taubman harassed female reporters following the ALCS. Now, suspicions of their cheating have been confirmed leading to the firing of Jeff Luhnow and AJ Hinch.
Every time an Astros player opens their mouth they come across as smug and out of touch. At the moment, none of their players appear likable, and those who once did, now look like hypocrites.
There is no one more genuine and likable than Granderson. He’s a three time Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award, and he’s won the Roberto Clemente Award for his extensive charitable work.
Granderson would go a long way towards restoring credibility in that organization, and it would go a long way towards helping those players who simply don’t have a clue. That’s important because they’re going to face more media scrutiny this year than they ever have.
With teams having an extra roster spot this year, it makes all the more sense. Keep in mind, Granderson showed last year he has something left in the tank with his still having sufficient speed to be backup outfielder and his having a .829 OPS as a pinch hitter.
Overall, the Astros need help getting their team through this season from a PR perspective. Hiring Dusty Baker was a very good first step. Now, they need to sign Granderson.
As this decade closes out at midnight today, the Mets will actually enter their seventh decade of baseball. Before proceeding forward, let’s take a look at the best moments from each year of this decade:
2010
We didn’t realize it at the time, but the best moment of the year was the Mets drafting Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom.
On the field, it was Angel Pagan hitting an inside-the-park home run and starting a triple play in the same game.
2011
In a moment no one saw coming, Chris Capuano had a two hit shutout where he struck out 13:
2012
Johan Santana pitches first no-hitter in Mets history with a little help from Mike Baxter.
2013
This was the year of Harvey, and there was a lot to choose from with his near perfect game, bloody nose game, Harvey’s Better game, and others, but it’s hard to top him and David Wright starting the All Star Game at Citi Field.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=lW6Hq41hy1o
2014
Every single defensive play made by Gold Glove winner Juan Lagares:
2015
With this being the fifth pennant in Mets history, there are many moments, but perhaps the biggest is Daniel Murphy‘s postseason heroics:
2016
The Mets would need to make a late charge to make the postseason in consecutive seasons for the second time in team history. The lasting image from that run was Asdrubal Cabrera‘s walk-off homer:
2017
After an injury plagued 2016, Michael Conforto would emerge as an All-Star, and his season was highlighted by an impressive homecoming:
2018
It was melancholy, but we got to see Wright play one final game as a member of the New York Mets:
2019
This was Pete Alonso‘s year, and the biggest moment of the season was his breaking Aaron Judge‘s rookie home run record: