Jose Reyes

Reyes has played nine years with the New York Mets so far. He may or may not play for them again. Here's a sample of how some of the numbers he's put up rank in team history, and how he might move up if he stays or move down if he leaves.

He's 6th all-time in batting average, sitting just under .292, ahead of Edgardo Alfonzo by a hair but narrowly behind Dave Magadan. John Olerud, David Wright, and Keith Hernandez are also ahead of him. His .341 on-base percentage is 24th in team history. His .441 slugging percentage is 16th, as is his .781 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.


His 1049 games played are tenth all-time. One more full season would vault him to fourth place, although David Wright would probably get to 4th first knocking Jose back down to 5th. Two full years would get him ahead of everyone except Ed Kranepool (and maybe Wright). He'd need five years at nearly 162 games per year to pass Kranepool.

But despite being only 10th in games played, Reyes is already second in at-bats with 4453 and third in plate appearances with 4839. David Wright will pass him in both next year if Reyes leaves. Reyes will pass Bud Harrelson for second in PA's if he plays another year, but would require two rather full years to pass Kranepool for the lead in either category.

Reyes has scored 735 runs as a New York Met, the most all-time. David Wright is only 36 behind, and will easily pass Jose if Reyes signs elsewhere this winter.

The 1300 base hits Reyes recorded in New York are second all-time, again behind only Kranepool. Another 119 would get him the lead, which is easy to do in one year. Wright is barely 50 hits behind Reyes, though, so again he'll move past him next year if given the opportunity.

Those 1300 hits have included 222 doubles, 99 triples, and 81 home runs. He leads substantially in triples, and is unlikely to lose that lead any time soon. He's third in doubles, three behind Kranepool and well behind Wright; if he stays, he'll easily settle in at #2 here. He's 18th in home runs, but could move well up that list into the top 10 if he signs a long-term deal and plays well throughout it. Altogether he's got 1963 total bases, fourth all-time behind Wright, Kranepool, and Strawberry. He would pass Kranepool and slot in at #2 behind Wright's pace in May or June of next year.

His 898 career singles are second to Kranepool, and he would probably get the 152 singles he needs to pass Krane in early 2013. 402 extra-base hits ranks him fifth, behind Wright, Strawberry, Howard Johnson and Mike Piazza. One more season would certainly move him past HoJo and Piazza, and could even get him past Strawberry if he really slugged the ball.

He's eleventh all-time in runs driven in, with 423. And he's a leadoff hitter, mind you. He'd get into the top 10 next year, and could climb near the top over the course of a long-term deal.

His 333 career walks rank 16th, and his 509 strikeouts are 14th. It might take him a few years to get into the top-10 in walks, but he might also be able to hold off on entering the top-10 in K's if he keeps making contact like he did this year.

Stolen bases, stolen bases... Oh yeah, his 370 lead the team by 32% of the next-highest total. That won't be caught for a long time, and if he sticks around he has the opportunity to amass a kind of embarrassingly-large lead. His 92 times being caught stolen are also the most of any Met ever, but only two ahead of Mookie Wilson.

The 1640 times he's been on base, every one of which has tortured the opposing pitcher, are third all-time; other than Wright, only Kranepool is ahead of him. He would need a pretty big year to pass Kranepool, though something like his 2008 form would do it and two years would do it easily.

Amazingly enough, he's been intentionally walked 41 times, the 13th-most in team history. Intentional walks are hard to predict, but he needs just ten more to get into the top-10.

He's eleventh all-time in best AB/SO numbers, at 8.7. Obviously this is a rate stat so it's hard to predict movement, but he struck out so rarely this year that it's hard not to think that he might move up the list with a few more years to go. No chance of catching Felix Millan's absurd 29.1 rate, but he could migrate over 9.0.

His 3337 career outs made are 3rd all-time behind just Kranepool and Harrelson. He'd pass Harrelson next year, but might take as many as three years to take over the first spot. Wright will move past him in one full season.

Finally, according to baseball-reference.com Reyes has been worth 29.2 wins above replacement in his time with the Mets, fourth all-time behind Strawberry (37.7), Wright (32.4), and Carlos Beltran (31.9). Another year at his Mets-career rate of 4.4 WAR/162 would move him easily ahead of Beltran, though Wright would presumably stay in front, and two more years would get him more or less level with Strawberry. Any long-term deal that wasn't a total bust would see him joining Wright as the two best position players in Mets history. According to Fangraphs, meanwhile, thinks he's been worth 33.4 WAR, already ahead of Beltran. Moreover, he's only narrowly behind Strawberry (they've got Wright #1), and would move past him in one non-sucky season.

*Oh, and there's something else that Reyes ranks pretty well on in Mets history. What was that? Hmmm, I can't remember... oh wait, batting titles. Jose Reyes: 1. All Other Mets Ever, Combined: 0.

Basically, Reyes is one of the best Mets of all time. If he stays, then he and David Wright will clearly enshrine themselves as the two greatest Mets position players of all time. It's quite possible that they would vault themselves above the likes of Koosman or Gooden and toward the Seaver stratosphere, as two of the three greatest (Hall of Fame caliber?) Mets ever. If he leaves, he's still one of the greatest Mets ever, and is probably ranked #1 all-time among Mets for excitement, energy, and sheer fun created while in a Mets uniform. It's been a great nine years, Jose. I wish you nothing but the best wherever you land, but I wish most of all that you land back in New York.




(But not the Yankees. If you go to the Yankees, I will have to root against you, so, just don't do it.)





(*This paragraph is an edit; I meant to include it originally but forgot.)