Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
By now, you have likely seen the Pete Alonso jorts video. (If not, you need to do yourself a favor and watch it immediately.)You may have even already gone and submitted your All-Start ballot (which if you haven’t, you should here!). This week, we’re looking at which Mets position players are worthy of this vote.
Joe D.
When you scan the Mets’ roster, no player really jumps out at you. Key Mets players like Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, and Dominic Smith have struggled. But if you had to absolutely pick one player to represent the Mets in this year’s All-Star Game, I’m putting my money on Jonathan Villar.
Expected to be bat off the bench, Villar became a significant part of the lineup after injuries to Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil. When you look beyond his .240 batting average, Villar is actually second on the team with a .726 OPS and leads the squad in doubles and stolen bases. Villar also leads the team with six game-winning hits, a testament to how clutch he’s been. If he continues to produce at this current pace, he’ll finish the season with roughly a 2.4 WAR. Quite the steal for the $3.5 million contract he signed.
Rob Piersall
To be honest, I don’t think there are any position players worthy of taking a trip to the All-Star Game this year. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think this will be a year where the Mets might have multiple pitchers, however. Jacob deGrom will likely start the All-Star Game and Marcus Stroman might take a trip to the midsummer classic, too. The Mets’ big two starters pitching in the same game in front of the nation will be really exciting so even if they don’t field any position players, it’s not so bad. Plus, Pete Alonso will participate in the Home Run Derby so the Mets will have some guys sprinkled around the festivities.
Ryan Finkelstein
What Rob said.
Michelle Ioannou
Pete Alonso is the name that comes to mind, and that is mostly solely due to popularity and the fact that he is likely the name that is going to get the most votes. But I must agree with Rob and Ryan — the Mets will be represented by pitchers, not by position players this year.
Matt Musico
I was going to just say, “What Rob, Ryan, and Michelle said,” but that wouldn’t be any fun, now would it?
On the position-player side of the Mets’ roster, you can see that their journey toward staying in first place the last six-plus weeks has been a full team effort. Honestly, if someone told me in February that Jonathan Villar and Kevin Pillar would be among the top five of New York’s fWAR leaderboard in the middle of June while also being a first-place club, I’d be incredibly confused. But those two have been clutch given the circumstances they’ve had to perform under. So, when thinking about any position player on the Mets that’d be All-Star worthy, I think the conversation comes down to one of them.
Ultimately, I also don’t think any position player should be heading to Colorado to play in the midsummer classic, but if I had to pick one, it’d be Villar. Joe touched on some of his statistics, and although some of the season-long ones won’t jump off the page, he’s been a consistent performer for this club. It also seems as if he’s doing something every day to give the Mets a better chance of winning. And when we consider the fact that he was awful in 2020 (66 wRC+ and -0.3 fWAR in 207 plate appearances), it just makes what he’s accomplished thus far even more impressive.
