Historical Look At Players The Mets Should Have Kept, Let Go

The New York Mets have had seen many players leave the organization either through free agency or trade and many went on to perform well in other organizations. Contradictory to what many say, players have also left the organization and performed poorly.

In that spirit, let’s breakdown five players the Mets should have held on to and five they should have let go. Players in this exercise will be historical in nature, and not include any active players such as Zack Wheeler, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, etc.

Five Players They Should Have Kept

Kevin Mitchell

Kevin Mitchell only played 115 games with the Mets before they shipped him off to San Diego Padres, who a few months later traded him to the San Francisco Giants. As a Giant, Mitchell went on to slash .278/.356/.536 (.892 OPS) with 143 home runs across 624 games. He made the All-Star team twice with them and won the National League MVP in 1989. That season he hit 47 home runs and drove in 125 runs. Injuries impacted him in his 30s, but those were all years past what the Mets had under team control.

Mitchell did have off the field issues which led to his trade as MMO outlined in 2018. Despite former manager Davey Johnson’s pleas and disagreements with then general manager Frank Cashen about whether or not Mitchell was a negative influence, the Mets moved him.

Nolan Ryan

Another Mets World Series winner, Nolan Ryan, was traded because he walked too many batters. His 6.1 walks per nine was higher than at any other stop in his career, however, one would argue his 5,714 career strikeouts made up for it. Even with his high walk rate as a Met he threw 510 innings to a 3.58 ERA. This one is probably more hindsight based because Nolan Ryan was not striking batters out with the Mets at the rate he would throughout the rest of his career. As a Met he averaged 8.7 strikeouts per nine. Immediately after the trade he jumped to 10.4 with the Angels.

All said, the Mets traded a legend and a Hall of Fame which easily puts him on this list.

Justin Turner

It is easy to look at Justin Turner‘s .696 OPS as a Met and argue the Mets should have cut him. The issue is that the swing change that led to the success through his career happened during the 2013 season while working out with Marlon Byrd and his hitting instructor Doug Latta. That second half of 2013 with the Mets Turner slashed .292/.330/.434 (.764 OPS). He got progressively better as the season went on slashing .357/.357/.571 (.929 OPS) his final month as a Met.

Justin Turner took that new swing to the Los Angeles Dodgers and in his first year slashed .340/.404/.493 (.897 OPS) and across nine years in Los Angeles put up an .865 OPS with 156 home runs in 1075 games. Even worse for the Mets was that they desperately needed a third baseman across many of those seasons due to David Wright‘s injuries.

Daniel Murphy

Daniel Murphy not being brought back was another one that did not make much sense at the time. Often you do not want to pay a guy solely because of postseason heroics, but Murphy as a whole was a solid Met slashing .288/.331/.424 (.755 OPS) across 903 games. Had he gone on to sign a monster seven-to-eight year contract you could easily look at his later seasons and justify not retaining him. But he did not sign that contract. He signed a very reasonable three-year, $37 million deal. During that contract with his new team he slashed .329/.380/.550 (.930 OPS) with 54 home runs in 342 games. And he did it for the Washington Nationals, a direct National League East competitor.

David Cone

The Mets allegedly assumed that David Cone would require a five-year extension to retain, but Cone and his agent have disputed they set that as a prerequisite. Whatever the reasons, it was a clear failure at the time not extending him and it only got worse after. The Mets traded Cone away from the worst team money could buy and he wont he 1992 World Series with Toronto. He was a plus pitcher through his age-36 season making multiple all star teams, winning the Cy Young Award in 1994. The Mets had multiple opportunities to bring him back in free agency and never did.

Five Players They Were Right to Let Go

R.A. Dickey

R.A. Dickey was a great story breaking out with the Mets and winning the 2012 Cy Young award. He also had the three best seasons of his career as a Met. While he did have some success in Toronto in 2014 and 2015, it was nowhere near the level he did with the Mets and his four years there he put up a 4.05 ERA compared to a 2.95 ERA in Queens. That trade brought both Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud to the Mets.

Noah Syndergaard

Speaking of Noah Syndergaard, the end of his Mets tenure was a weird one. Syndergaard only pitched 30 starts with the Mets twice across his six years in Queens but when he was healthy he was an ace pitching 718 innings to a 3.32 ERA. His 2022 season was good, not great, pitching to a 3.94 ERA across 134 2/3 innings. He only pitched one more season after that in the majors struggling heavily to a 6.50 ERA and has not pitched since. He tried a comeback in 2025 signing a minor-league deal with the White Sox but could not break their 102-loss roster.

Ron Darling

Ron Darling is still a Mets icon thanks to his work in the Mets’ booth with Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez. And, as a result, will forever be known not just as a Mets World Series winner, but an all-time great. Across his nine years as a Met he threw 1,620 innings to a 3.50 ERA and 1.29 WHIP. He never had gaudy strikeout numbers but he regularly went deep into games.

The Mets traded him in 1991 to the Montreal Expos where he struggled, was traded to the Oakland Athletics, and ended the season with mixed results. He bounced back in 1992 but that was his last good season. After his 1992 season he signed a multi-year contract with Oakland but two years later he was released during his age 34 season and retired.

Edgardo Alfonzo

As a Met, Edgardo Alfonzo slashed .292/.367/.445 (.812 OPS) with 120 home runs across 1,086 games. He had multiple six-plus WAR seasons and left after one of his best seasons at age 28. After that he never had a season where he was an above average hitter by OPS+ or WRC+. Across the four-year contract he signed after leaving the Mets he dealt with nagging injuries and he retired at age 33.

John Maine

John Maine was never a world-beater but he was a solid Met. The perfect type of player to have through arbitration and then part ways. He pitched 542 innings to a 4.17 ERA and 1.31 WHIP before a shoulder surgery that ended his 2010 season. The Mets non-tendered him that offseason and he bounced around on minor-league deals. He had a brief appearance in the majors in 2013 before retiring from major league baseball and becoming a volunteer pitching coach at his alma mater.

Conclusion

There are many more names that could end up in both categories like Mike Scott, Carlos Gomez, and John Olerud in the keep category or Jose Reyes, Lee Mazzilli, and Howard Johnson in the let go.

When we look at the current crop of former Mets it seems clear that letting Wheeler go was a mistake. Nimmo’s 2026 season is making it look like that was the right move. McNeil’s also makes it clear it was a smart idea there as well. Alonso had a great 2026 but he is on a five-year deal with a play style that usually doesn’t age well and tends to age quickly. That contract could look very different a year from now. Michael Conforto meanwhile seems to flip the script one way or another every year.

Players come and go. They all perform differently. However, this is always an interesting exercise.