Jose Reyes recently told reporters to no surprise, that he wants to end his big league career in New York with the Mets.
The question, since he’s started hitting, is do the Mets want him back?
Reyes began the season as one of the worst players in the majors and was slashing only .184/.261/.286 on June 15 while playing well below average defense.
In 258 plate appearances since June 16, Reyes is hitting .296/.362/.522 with a 133 wRC+ and has struck out only 14% of the time in that span.
Reyes has played shortstop, second and third this season, though he has been below average defensively at all three spots. He’s also played one game in left and one in center field.
Overall this year, Reyes is hitting .242/.313/.407 with 13 home runs, 51 RBI and 21 stolen bases.
There’s no denying that Reyes has looked like a different player at the plate after his early season struggles.
As a whole though, he has struggled against right-handed pitching this year (.229/.297/.368) and has crushed lefties (.280/.364/.533). This seems to be a trend with the 34-year-old after hitting only .239/.293/.371 against righties last year and .380/.456/.740 vs lefties.
So the question becomes, how valuable is a utility player that stinks at defense and is best served playing against lefties. He does have the added element of speed with 21 stolen bases this year and has been the Mets best baserunner this year according to FanGraphs.
With Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith likely to be starters on the 2018 infield the Mets will certainly be looking for a veteran presence to surround them, but should Reyes be one of those guys?
