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All New York Mets team
In putting together this team I was struck by how few great positional players the Mets have had over the past 50 years. Of course, they compensated by having some truly great pitchers. While the Mets haven’t had an abundance of great positional players, they did have some. So, here goes.
Catcher: Mike Piazza Here’s one of the great players the Mets did have. Mike is one of a number of players who appears on two teams. Mike actually spent more time as a Met than a Dodger. From 1999–2002 Mike’s home run totals were 40–38–36–33. In his 8 years with the Mets Piazza’s 8 years with the Mets, his total WAR was 24.5. While Piazza is the pick here, Gary Carter also had some memorable moments as the Mets catcher. Jerry Grote was an excellent defensive catcher who spent 12 years behind the plate and John “Bad Dude” Stearns had one of the coolest nicknames of all time.
First base: Keith Hernandez At the top end of his career, Hernandez was a gold glove defender, had an OBP of around .400, and had a WAR of 5.0–6.3. That was good enough to nail down this position on this team by a wide margin. Ed Kranepool gets a mention primarily by virtue of his longevity if not his production. Pete Alfonso may eventually take this position by virtue of his power hitting, but for now, Keith Hernandez is still the choice.
