Ah, the New York Mets. They went into the 2011 season with the spectre of the Wilpons involvement in the Bernie Madoff scandal hovering over them, and with new management in GM Sandy Alderson and manager Terry Collins, it was really expected to be a reset year for the Mets. There wasn’t much of a youth movement this season for the Mets, but the team cut ties with a lot of its high-priced veterans (Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez were flat out released, and Carlos Beltran was traded at midseason) to begin it’s rebuilding process.
WHAT WENT RIGHT
Jose Reyes was the NL MVP over the first half of the season, before his recurring hamstring injuries started to eat his playing time, resulting in the free agent to be Reyes playing in just 126 games. But over those 126 games, he was amazing: .337/.384/.493, and 39 stolen bases. Pretty damn good season for him. Daniel Murphy got a good bit of playing time at second and first this year, and was a huge breakout player, posting a .320 batting average and an .810 OPS before getting injured in a collision at second base and getting knocked out for the season. Beltran had a fantastic year before being traded to the Giants, and had a .904 OPS in 98 games for the team.
WHAT WENT WRONG
The Mets rotation was just kind of there, with a staff made up of three and four starters. None of them could really carry a team very well. The bullpen wasn’t great, with Pedro Beato, Jason Isringhausen and DJ Carrasco all logging a decent bit of innings and not putting up great results. Offensively, David Wright had another bad, injury-laden year. Angel Pagan looked nothing like the player that broke out big time in 2010. Ike Davis played in just 36 games, but those 36 games were excellent. Year two of the Jason Bay experiment was even worse than year one, with the former top free agent accumulating less than 1 fWAR in 123 games. The team was ravaged by injuries to their lineup all year, with the team high in games played being 126. Seriously?
SURPRISES
Murphy’s 2011 season was a huge surprise. A guy who hit .266 in 2009, and missed all of 2010 recovering from Tommy John surgery, hits .320 in his return to the majors? It’s astounding. I also found it surprising that RA Dickey was able to replicate his 2010, posting a 3.28 ERA in 2011 despite being a guy who has never been able to catch on anywhere for an extended period in the majors. Sure, he only won eight games, and didn’t strike a ton of guys out….but he threw over 200 innings, and kept his ERA and all qualifiers under 4.00. That’s valuable for a team, but more for the middle of the rotation than the top of it.
DISAPPOINTMENTS
Wright getting hurt and struggling yet again is a major disappointment for a team that’s turned him into the franchise cornerstone. He just doesn’t look like the superstar that he did just a couple of short seasons ago. Pagan’s season is a huge disappointment as well, as his BABIP fell, and his batting average fell as a result. His defense also pulled some Jeckyll and Hyde crap, going from great the past two seasons to neutral this year. And then, there’s Mike Pelfrey….oh, Mike Pelfrey. His ERA was nearly higher than his strikeout rate (4.74 ERA, 4.88 strikeout rate). His strikeout and groundball rates have both declined over the past three years, neither of which is a good omen for future success.
2012 CHANGES
It’s going to be a very different Mets team in 2012. Reyes, Willie Harris, and five members of the team’s pitching staff are free agents this offseason. The guaranteed contracts for 2012 sit at just $66.8 million right now, after the team had a payroll of $142.8 million in 2011. But Johan Santana will be back from shoulder surgery to help patch up the rotation a little bit.
POSITION BATTLES
Shortstop will be up for grabs, if the team doesn’r re-sign Reyes (which I don’t think will happen). The team will probably start Murphy at second with David returning to man first base. They have a decision to make in right field too, depending on whether or not they feel like Lucas Duda is the man for the job, or if they should look at external options.
