Every baseball club wants a handful of young players to build a competitive team around. It’s part of the reason why some are willing to tear an organization down to the bottom and start from scratch. A lot of things could go wrong, but a lot of things could go right — just ask the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros about that.

Despite the lack of results in 2019, the New York Mets have a good chunk of intriguing young talent on their current big-league roster. The two players that stand out from the rest right now are Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso.

Alonso already owns the Mets rookie home run record, and with 30 dingers through 90 games, he looks primed to break the franchise’s single-season homer record of 41. As for McNeil, his .349 batting average is far-and-away the best in baseball on the eve of the unofficial start of the second half. With 72 games left to play, he’s also within earshot of breaking John Olerud‘s single-season franchise batting average record.

As the Mets boast two high-achieving and homegrown infielders (McNeil should just be in the infield all the time), it’s hard to not think about the last time there were two players doing this kind of stuff: David Wright and Jose Reyes. The end of their careers in orange and blue didn’t at all go how anyone hoped, but they still provided us with some amazing memories over the years.

One thing McNeil and Alonso have already done that their predecessors weren’t able to achieve, though? Getting selected to an All-Star Game in their first full big-league season. Reyes debuted in 2003 and Wright was right behind him in 2004, but they each didn’t secure their first trip to the midsummer classic until 2006.

So immediately, these two current Mets are distinguishing themselves from an era of baseball in Flushing that came to an official end last September. When Reyes and Wright took the left side of the infield one final time, it was easy to think about the good times and how much fun it was to watch them play. However, I couldn’t help thinking about what could’ve — or should’ve — been with those two in playing for the Mets in their respective primes.

The 2006 season was supposed to be the start of a tremendous era. Instead, it just ended up being an era of “Man, what could’ve been” and “Jeez, the Mets had two franchise-altering players in their prime and have nothing to show for it.” When I think about McNeil, Alonso, and their future with the Mets, this is what keeps me up at night (well, that and my toddler). Call me jaded, but we’ve all seen this story way too many times. Heck, it’s even happening right now — Alonso and McNeil are both having career-defining years and the Mets are barely better than the Miami Marlins with a little under half the season left to play.

Obviously, the thought of the Mets potentially wasting future production from Alonso and McNeil is a bit premature, as is comparing them as a duo to Wright and Reyes. After all, neither has accumulated a full year of big-league service time yet. Plenty of things can happen between now and the future, and both ballplayers will need to show a willingness and ability to adjust to what opposing pitchers will inevitably throw their way. Based on what we’ve seen from them thus far, though, it certainly seems as if they’re each up for the challenge.

When Wright and Reyes hugged each other on the field last September, I did wonder how long it would be before New York would have another duo like that — hyped prospects that landed in the big leagues at nearly the same time before both playing at a consistently high level. Turns out we didn’t have to wait long at all. Now we just have to hope what happened with Wright and Reyes won’t happen to Alonso and McNeil, too.

And as it stands, it’s up to Brodie Van Wagenen to make sure that doesn’t take place. It would be awfully unfortunate to be playing another “what if” game in 10 years.