The shortstop position has seen an incredible evolution since the Mets’ inception in 1962 until today. The days where a team could get by with a severe lack of offense in the six position as long as they could pick the baseball up off the dirt and slap the occasional single are long gone. The Cal Ripkens, Barry Larkins, and Alex Rodriguezes of the world made sure those players belonged in baseball’s past.
But the Mets were behind the curve. The history of shortstops in blue and orange is one devoid of almost any star power. Most of the best teams in Mets’ history are sorely lacking in any offensive thump out of the shortstop position. The 1969 and 1973 Mets featured a fan favorite in slick-fielding Bud Harrelson, but Harrelson barely hit his weight. The 108-win 1986 Mets dominated the National League despite a .539 OPS and 52 OPS+ from starting shortstop Rafael Santana. The 2000 Mets had a revolving door of shortstops after Rey Ordonez was hurt, with Mike Bordick and Melvin Mora getting the majority of the play. The only Mets team to make a World Series with any semblance of offensive production at shortstop was the 2015 squad with Wilmer Flores, and he still posted just a 95 wRC+ with abysmal defense. We all know what happened to his lighter-hitting, stronger defensive counterpart Ruben Tejada.
The Mets history at the shortstop position is a history of light-hitting and good defense, with the occasional productive stop-gap and one extremely productive outlier. It should be noted that one of the best offensive producers to ever man shortstop for the Mets, Howard Johnson, was omitted from this list because the majority of games he played as a Met came as a third baseman.
Here is the list of the five best seasons by a shortstop in New York Mets history, beginning with the most recent season by a Mets’ shortstop.
5) Amed Rosario – 2019
Amed Rosario debuted for the Mets in 2017 as a fresh-faced 21-year-old, riding on the exciting coattails of being ranked the best prospect in baseball at the time. Depending on who you asked, Rosario was a consensus top-three prospect across all baseball. He was noted for his line-to-line hitting approach, ability to spray line drives, gap-to-gap power, raw speed, and defensive acumen. Though the shortstop the Mets got for the first season-and-a-half of his career sometimes resembled those glowing reports, the product the Mets got most of the time often struggled.
Rosario hit just .256 with a .676 OPS in his first full season in 2018. His defense struggled as well, as he made 16 errors and was worth -16 defensive runs saved. As the team moved towards 2019, there was talk that a move to center field could be in his future. Rosario even continued to struggle in the early parts of 2019, but then something clicked.
From June 1st onward, Rosario batted .307, finishing with a .287 average overall. He ranked fourth in the National League in base hits with 177, a career high. He blasted 15 home runs and knocked in 72 runs. Though the metrics still are not kind to Rosario at shortstop, as he still had -10 DRS in 2019, there were noticeable improvements for him as the season progressed. Both his hitting and defense only got better as the summer wore on. Overall, Rosario posted 2.7 fWAR, one of just five individuals in team history to post a number that high as a shortstop. The other four will appear on this list in short order.
4) Rey Ordonez – 1999
The 1999 New York Mets had the best defensive infield of all time. That’s not hyperbole; the four starters on that ’99 squad, John Olerud, Edgardo Alfonzo, Robin Ventura, and Rey Ordonez, saved more runs by total zone (TZ) than any other starting infield in baseball history. Ordonez paced the infield with a whopping TZ of 33, followed by Ventura at 27, Olerud at 12, and Alfonzo at 9. Ordonez was also the flashiest.
It was common practice for Ordonez to make highlight reel plays both up the middle and to his backhand side. He saved countless runs for that ’99 squad by any metric, including traditional ones, as he committed just four errors in over 1300 innings at the position. It may have been the best defensive season a Met has ever had.
If Ordonez had anything even resembling an offensive toolset, he could have been a truly special player. It’s incredible still that his ’99 season was his best offensive season ever as a Met, even despite an OPS of .636 and an wRC+ of just 62. His only home run of the year was a grand slam in September.
Even with the poor offensive numbers, Ordonez put up a very strong 3.0 fWAR, a testament to his dominance on the defensive side.
3) Asdrubal Cabrera – 2016
The 2016 Mets were trying to defend a pennant and finish what they couldn’t the previous year. With Daniel Murphy departing to the Nationals and no true shortstop on the roster, the Mets needed to bolster their infield and their offense. They brought back Yoenis Cespedes to solidify the middle of the order. They traded for Neil Walker to fill Murphy’s spot. But perhaps the most valuable move they made that offseason was signing veteran, switch-hitting shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to a two-year deal.
Cabrera hit .280 with an .810 OPS and a wRC+ of 120. Cabrera hit 23 homers and drove in 62 runs for that 2016 squad. Though his range at shortstop had diminished since his days in Cleveland, he was still a dependable defender, making the routine plays (and the occasional flashy one) and posting average defensive metrics. He was a consistent member of an injury-plagued team. Despite missing three weeks in August due to a knee injury, Cabrera still played in 141 games for the Mets. He hit over .400 in his first week back from the disabled list with three homers, earning NL Player of the Week honors for the week ending on August 27th.
Cabrera slashed an OPS of .970 with six home runs in September as the Mets made their late push to host the NL Wild Card game. One of those home runs was perhaps the defining moment of the Mets’ 2016 season, and easily the biggest moment Cabrera had in his strong two-and-a-half seasons in blue and orange. It came in the 11th inning of a September 22nd game against the Phillies. Jose Reyes had tied the game with a huge home run in the ninth inning, but the Mets were once again trailing by two when Cabrera came to bat with a pair of runners aboard and one out against Edubray Ramos. Cabrera sent the ball over the orange line in right field and sent his bat into orbit, eliciting a rare double “outta here” from Gary Cohen.
Though Cabrera felt slighted by the Mets when he became a free agent and was not offered a chance to return, his time as a Met will always be considered a success. His strong 2016 made sure of that.
2) Bud Harrelson – 1971
Buddy Harrelson made his debut for the ’65 Mets as a fresh-faced 21-year-old. He would go on to anchor the Mets infield for 13 seasons, winning a ring as a slap-hitting defensive wizard at shortstop in 1969. He would be inducted to the Mets Hall of Fame in 1986, the same year he won his second ring with the team as their third base coach. For the first 40 years of the team’s history, shortstop was synonymous with Bud Harrelson.
Harrelson never hit much. His batting average never cracked .260 for a season and he only hit six home runs in those 13 seasons with the Mets. But, he always played a strong defensive shortstop and found his niche as an offensive player. 1971 was his most valuable season in terms of WAR, and also best exemplified how Harrelson could help his team.
Harrelson had the second highest batting average of his career in 1971 at .252. He spent most of his time in the first two spots in the batting order, consistently getting on base at a strong .319 clip relative to his batting average. Harrelson walked 53 times, whereas he only struck out 59 times the entire season. He was also a threat on the base paths, as he stole a career-high 28 bases.
But the bulk of Harrelson’s career-high 3.8 fWAR came from the defensive side of things. Harrelson’s 16 errors for the season and fielding percentage of .978 do not look impressive on paper. However, he posted his best mark in total zone for his career at 17. That means Harrelson was getting to baseballs that few other shortstops of his era were reaching. Naturally, more errors happen when you can reach more baseballs. Harrelson won his only Gold Glove award in 1971, a testament to how strong he was in the six-hole.
Harrelson stood alone as the best shortstop the Mets ever had for a long time based on his consistency and glove alone. Of course, that is not the case anymore.
1) Jose Reyes – Multiple
In terms of fWAR, Jose Reyes has the four most valuable seasons ever by a Mets shortstop. For the sake of highlighting more players, we’ve condensed Reyes’ best seasons into one spot at the top of our list. In his prime, Reyes could do it all.
At the height of his game, Jose Reyes was a superstar. He could impact the game at any moment because of his wide-ranging tool set. He’s obviously famous for his legs. Reyes was among the most prolific base stealers of the 2000s. Reyes stole an astounding 78 bases in 2007, ironically only his fourth best season in terms of WAR. It should be noted that all four of those seasons, 2006-2008 and 2011, all fall extremely close together by WAR. In each of those four seasons, Reyes posted fWARs between 5.6 and 5.8. It’s honestly a toss-up to decide which season was most valuable. Reyes stole 64 bags in ’06, 56 in ’08, and 39 in an injury-shortened ’11.
Reyes’ legs also helped defensively. Though never a Gold Glover, Reyes was always considered a strong defender up the middle. He posted strong defensive runs saved figures of 9 and 11 in 2006 and 2007, respectively. He had an excellent ultimate zone rating of 11.6 in 2007, his best defensive season. Reyes also had a cannon of an arm. His memorable short-arm throwing motion often sent out absolute lasers to the first baseman.
But the separating factor between Reyes and the other strong defenders or fast runners on this list is that he could absolutely rake at the plate. Reyes never hit below .280 in those four strong seasons, with his best average coming in his batting title-winning 2011 season, in which he hit .337. He had a career-best wRC+ of 142 that year.
Not only did he hit for average, but Reyes had legitimate power in his bat that developed as he got older. His best power season was 2006, where he blasted 19 homers, 30 doubles, and 17 triples, along with 81 runs driven in. He also hit for the cycle in that season.
Reyes’ next best power output came in 2008, where he homered 16 times with 37 doubles and 19 triples. When Reyes drove baseballs that didn’t leave the ballpark, he was liable to end up on third base unless the defense acted quickly.
Reyes’ 2011 season was likely to become far and away the best by a shortstop in team history had he not hurt his hamstring mid-season. Despite playing only 126 games, he still won the batting title, the only Met to do so in team history, stole 39 bases, and posted an fWAR of 5.8. It’s incredible to think of what might have been had Reyes stayed healthy during those first few years at Citi Field.
Despite the questions and controversies that arose in Reyes’ career after he left the Mets in 2012, the switch-hitting speedster is without a doubt the greatest Met to ever play the position.
