For the catchers, first basemen, second basemen, third basemen, and the shortstops, click on the links.
After a prolonged holiday break, we are back to the list with left fielders. Left field has usually been a place where teams will stick their poorest defensive players, so this will be a position with stronger hitting credentials than the shortstops we profiled a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the Mets have also tended to start part-time players in left field a lot, so there are few truly eye-popping seasons here, but some darned good half-seasons, so let’s take a look at the list.
Honorable Mention: Steve Henderson (1977, 1979), Kevin McReynolds (1989), Cliff Floyd (2003), Fernando Tatis (2008)
Steve Henderson was a good, not great, journeyman outfielder who gave the Mets two good years, albeit in part-time work. Kevin McReynolds is not a man held in high regard by Mets fans, particularly after the man he was traded for, Kevin Mitchell, won an MVP in 1989, but it is important to remember that he was a consistent power threat that was a good bet to hit 50 or more extra base hits a year while he was on the team. Cliff Floyd would have made the list if he had played more than 108 games, but as is the story of his Mets career, he didn’t stay on the field enough. Fernando Tatis will likely be the most unlikely player to make any of these lists, and again would have made the list with a full season, but he was an unexpected bright spot for the 2008 Mets.
#10: Moises Alou, 2007
| R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SB |
| 51 | 112 | 19 | 1 | 13 | 49 | 27 | .341 | .392 | .524 | .916 | 3 |
But this right here probably ranks as the best part-time season by a Mets player in history. Mets fans ultimately won’t remember Moises Alou fondly, I suspect. If he had made it onto the field even a little bit more in 2008, the story might be different. Then again, we may not have seen Fernando Tatis’ excellent season, either – or at the very least, there would have been a logjam when Ryan Church came back. Anyway, in a little more than half a season, Alou hit over 30 extra base hits, hit for a high average (which propped up his OBP) and gave the Mets their longest hitting streak in team history to close the season and, along with David Wright and Carlos Beltran, helped keep the Mets from being finished off before the last day of the season and gave them hope. You can’t blame the collapse on Alou, because he was at his absolute best during that period.
#9: Tommy Davis, 1967
| R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SB |
| 72 | 174 | 32 | 0 | 16 | 73 | 31 | .302 | .342 | .440 | .782 | 9 |
I don’t know much about Tommy Davis. He only spent one season with the Mets, after which he was traded to the White Sox for Tommie Agee. Can’t really complain about that one, as we’ll be seeing Tommie Agee on lists to come. But I do know that 48 extra base hits during the dead ball era is really good, particularly playing half his games at Shea. He didn’t walk much, wasn’t much of a base-stealer, but he gave the Mets solid power, leading the 61-win Mets in both home runs and doubles. Since he played on a terrible Mets team over 40 years ago, and only played one season at that, he is a prime candidate to get forgotten by most Mets fans, which is why I’m happy to shine a bit of a light on a player who kept that year’s Mets team from being significantly worse.
#8: Rickey Henderson, 1999
| R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SB |
| 89 | 138 | 30 | 0 | 12 | 42 | 82 | .315 | .423 | .466 | .889 | 37 |
With apologies to Jose Reyes, this stands as the best season by a Mets leadoff hitter in history. Eighty-two walks! A .423 on base percentage! If Jose Reyes did that today, people wouldn’t give him crap over his celebrations because he’d be the MVP of the league. But Rickey wasn’t particularly loved for his time in New York (which seems to be a recurring theme here). Maybe it has to do with his playing cards with Bobby Bonilla as the Mets were playing the Braves in a do or die NLCS game against the Atlanta Braves? But Rickey’s year was pretty great, although he was another player who didn’t stay on the field enough (then again, he was 42). You’ll hear more great stories about Rickey next week, after he is inducted into the Hall of Fame, but Mets fans should remember him for the season where he played cards with Bobby Bonilla in the clubhouse, and simultaneously was the best leadoff hitter the Mets would ever know.
#7: John Milner, 1976
| R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SB |
| 56 | 120 | 25 | 4 | 15 | 78 | 65 | .271 | .362 | .447 | .809 | 0 |
Milner always seemed like a sad case to me. He was a pretty solid hitter who had good patience and decent power for the time. Surely, he was a better hitter than Ed Kranepool. Yet the Mets never really gave him a shot. Whenever Kranepool would go down, or one of their corner outfielders would go down, Milner would step in, hit double digit homers and doubles, walk once every 8-10 plate appearances, and then go right back to the bench. Alas, Milner came up in the 70’s, where things like walking were not as appreciated, and the things Milner didn’t do (like hit .300 or avoid strikeouts) were held against him. If Milner had come up today, he’d be seen as a good starter; instead, he was seen as a good fill-in, but nothing more. Still, this season represents his peak as a Met, and it was a good one; 44 extra base hits in 511 plate appearances is nothing to sneeze at.
#6: Cliff Floyd, 2005
| R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SB |
| 85 | 150 | 22 | 2 | 34 | 98 | 63 | .273 | .358 | .505 | .863 | 17 |
Cliff Floyd, when he was healthy, was a dangerous hitter. This 2005 proves it; I mean, he even stole 17 bases! You forget that Floyd was not a one-dimensional slugger. This was the one year that Floyd managed to stay on the field enough to play a full season, and he delivered in spades, with 34 homers, 22 doubles, a .505 slugging percentage, the aforementioned steals, and 63 walks. This was Floyd’s last truly good season, as injuries would keep him off the field in 2006 (fortunately, the Mets didn’t miss him too much) and he became a part-time player the past two seasons. It’s a shame that he was a guy who could never stay healthy; the 2006 Mets might have vanquished the Cardinals if Floyd had more than three at-bats (when he could barely move, no less).
Next: Left Fielders 1-5
This season stood as the gold standard for Mets shortstops for almost thirty years. Take a look at that beauty. The only thing Buddy did this year was walk; those 63 walks were good to pump that OBP up to .351. Of course, 17 extra base hits are nothing to write home about, which is the only reason this season won’t be ranked higher. He also played a good defensive shortstop, so I don’t mean to hate…but when from 1962 to 2004, this season ranks as the #1 best season ever by a shortstop in franchise history…well, that doesn’t speak to well for the franchise’s shortstops.
Here is your #1 proof that the New York Mets have failed to employ even passable hitting shortstops for the franchise’s entire history between 1962 and 2004; Kaz Matsui had the best offensive season in Mets history in 2004. Matsui was positively HATED his entire time in New York, yet compared to other Mets he was positively terrific, thanks mostly to those 32 doubles and going 14 of 17 on stolen base attempts. Of course, Matsui also wasn’t nearly as good as these other guys defensively, making his bad hitting stick out…but you can’t win ‘em all.
Jose Reyes is, by far, the best hitting shortstop in Mets history. In 2007, when it was all said and done anybody could talk about was what was wrong with Reyes. The guy just had the second-best season by a Mets shortstop in team history, and the story was what was wrong with him? If there was something wrong with Reyes in 2007, then there must have been something seriously wrong with Mets shortstops for the first 35 years of the team’s existence, because none of those seasons could hold a candle to Reyes in 2007, other than Reyes in 2006.
Kevin Elster was generally not a good hitter. He didn’t draw walks. He didn’t hit for power. He didn’t hit for average. This season really isn’t good at all by any objective measure. I have nothing good to say about Kevin Elster in 1989, no fond remembrances, nothing notable at all, other than the ten homers he hit here were only the second time in team history where a Mets shortstop hit ten or more home runs. Actually amend that statement – it was only the second time in team history where a Mets shortstop hit ten home runs, because neither hit more than ten. It would remain the second time in team history where a Mets shortstop hit ten home runs for another 17 years.
You know what makes Eddie Bressoud’s 1966 season notable? He hit ten home runs this season, the first time in Mets history a shortstop hit ten home runs. Elster would become the second man 23 years later. Jose Reyes would become the third man 17 years after that (and he actually hit MORE than ten homers!). He also drew a decent number of walks. Other than that, I can’t think of a single thing to say about Eddie Bressoud and his 1966 season.
Kevin Elster makes the list twice! Just think of all the greats that didn’t make the list if not one, but TWO Kevin Elster seasons made the cut. And this is before Kevin Elster suddenly and inexplicably developed power in his early to mid 30’s, to boot. Do you see why I waited a week to post the shortstops list now? I’d almost rather talk about Mets rumors that surely will never come to pass than talk about this awful list of shortstops. Seriously, two Kevin Elster seasons! How did that happen?
You want to know how utterly unnotable Jose Vizcaino’s stay with the Mets was? As you can tell, I have tried to include images with each of these columns, ways to remember the greats that have played with the Mets. When I tried a Google Image Search for “Jose Vizcaino, Mets,” this was the only image that came up with Jose Vizcaino in Mets gear. This was it! Vizcaino hit a fluky .287, which helped cover for his lousy walk rate somewhat, and added an impressive 21 doubles. Other than that, awful season. #6 in Mets history.
Howard Johnson, like Bret Saberhagen, had a weird even year/odd year thing going. Every other year, he would have a great season, followed by a down season. It continued in 1991, following a disappointing 1990 season, HoJo bounced back with a huge 38 homer/34 double/30 steal season. Call it the 30/30/30 club, the second time he pulled off such a feat. Throw in a career-high 117 RBIs, and you’re left with a damned fine season on a team that went nowhere.
David Wright’s first full season in the big leagues…and it’s the 4th best offensive season at third base in Mets history. I’d say that’s pretty good. In fact, in 2005 this season would have ranked second in Mets history. You could start to see the traits that would make David Wright great develop in this first season. High number of walks, 40+ doubles, 27 homers, 100+ RBIs…there is a lot to love here.
Here is where I suspect a lot of folks will be surprised. 
Howard Johnson set a Mets record in 1989; most extra base hits in a season. How can a season where a man hits 80 extra base hits not rank #1? Throw in 41 steals, and you have a hell of a season. Howard Johnson was really underrated, mostly because he played on teams that had Darryl Strawberry, Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter, and other big hitters, and by the time HoJo became a regular, the Mets had already peaked and were settled into a series of second place finishes.
Alfonzo is the first Met to make these lists at two different positions. While he was high atop the second base list, he just makes the third base list despite a good season. He moved to third base because of the Mets’ acquisition of Roberto Alomar the season before, plus Alfonzo had spent time in 2001 hurt, so it was thought that moving to third base may be beneficial for him defensively. The Alomar trade turned out to be a bust, of course, and Alfonzo was gone after the 2002 season, supposedly in part because Fonzie wanted to play second (though he would only play six more games there the rest of his career).
I had forgotten that Bobby Bonilla had even played third base for the Mets. Alas, he played all 107 games he played in the strike-shortened 1994 season at third base and was doing quite well before the strike. He hit for power, average, and drew walks at a high rate. From a hitting standpoint, Mets fans really couldn’t ask for much more from Bobby Bo in 1994, he had a terrific season.
I am sure Joeadig is going to give me flack for not ranking Ventura higher. Ventura was his favorite player from those teams. But hey, it’s not for any lack of love on my part towards Ventura; he was great in 1999, and as recently as four years ago, this would have ranked fourth on this list. Alas, it’s not Ventura’s fault David Wright happened.
Did you know that before John Stearns joined the team in 1977, the most home runs hit by a Mets catcher in one season was 8, by Duffy Dyer in 1972? For the first ten seasons in team history, the highest home run total hit by a Mets catcher was 7, and for the first fifteen seasons, that total was 8. Stearns hit 12 in 1977, and followed up with 15 in 1978. With Stearns only 26, it looked like he was ready to usher in a new era of Mets catchers who could handle the bat.
The first of three straight great seasons out of Hundley. Before 1994, Hundley was not much of a hitter. In 902 career at-bats, Hundley hit 19 home runs in the majors. He hit 16 in 291 at-bats before the strike ended the season. He still wasn’t much of a hitter, only hitting .237 with a .303 on-base percentage, but suddenly developed power he clearly lacked before.
Another guy who will be making multiple appearances on this list, Mike Piazza will go down as the greatest offensive catcher in Mets history. This season was probably the last year Piazza was truly an elite hitter for a full season; the next two seasons would be marred by injury and the move to first base, and his 2005 season was nothing particularly special, at least by his standards.
On one hand, Gary Carter is definitely getting short-changed on this list; if we included defense, his 1986 season would have found its way onto the list, and this season would be a top three season rather than a top ten season. It also feels like Gary Carter should be on here more, but the truth is, after 1985, his hitting declined sharply; he was merely good in 1986, and was not a good hitter after that point.
By this point, Hundley had established himself as one of the best hitters at any position in all of baseball. Yet, within a few years, Hundley would suffer an elbow injury that hastened the end of his Mets tenure, and his career was never the same. Of course, Hundley’s name popped up on the Mitchell Report as a player who received steroids from Kirk Radomski. Now, I’m not going to cast aspirations on Hundley, but here was a guy with 50 career home runs through 1995 who suddenly hits 41 and 30 out of nowhere? I’ll just say it looks fishy.
Spoiler Alert: Mike Piazza has the top three seasons on this list. I am sorry to ruin the suspense here, although I suspect most of you would have guessed that Piazza topped the list. Looking at his 2001, you can see what set him apart is similar to what makes David Wright great; his ability to hit over .300 consistently, with power and patience at the plate, drawing walks and finding his pitch to hit.