As I nervously count down the minutes to tonight’s series opener with the Mets, a thought occurred to me that the Mets might not have any Hall of Famers. I know Hall of Fame players have played in Flushing, but have any gone in with a Mets caps on? Turns out yes. Tom Seaver is far and away the best Met of all time and he was enshrined in 1992.1 There’s only one more though and it’s Mike Piazza. The Mets have been around for 63 years now and they only have 1 position player in the Hall and it’s a guy who played his best seasons for another team.2 How can that be?
The Rest
The 80s Mets were notorious for their wasted talent. I feel like everyone speaks reverentially about Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden but only in the sense of what could have been. Gooden’s age 20 season is one for the ages (12.2 WAR and a 1.53 ERA) and he had some solid years after that, but his career was thrown off its inner circle Hall of Fame trajectory by heavy drug use. The same goes for Strawberry, but his peak lasted a little longer and came a little later. Both guys were on their way until they weren’t.
Friday, June 20 at 7:15p – Blade “Rod” Tidwell (R) v. Zack Wheeler
Mets at Phillies – Citizen’s Bank Park
Saturday June 21 at 7:15p – Griffin Canning (R) v. Mick Abel
Sunday June 22 at 7:00p – David Peterson (L) v. Jesus Luzardo
Keith Hernandez probably should be in the Hall of Fame considering he won 2 WS, has an MVP and a runner up, and a batting title with 60 WAR in his 17 year career. He only topped out at 10% of the vote though (I might not like him, but that’s bullshit). Even if he eventually gets in via the Veterans Committee, it is entirely possible he goes in as a Cardinal.
The only player with a chance of getting in as a Met anytime soon is Carlos Beltran. Beltran’s best days were in blue and puke orange including an 8.2 WAR 2006 season and a 7 WAR 2008 season that ended watching the Phillies win the World Series. His 7 years and 31.1 WAR as a Met are his highest total for any team, but that’s less than half his career totals of 21 seasons and 70 WAR amongst 7 total organizations. He also didn’t exactly end things under the best circumstances with the team. Strangely, the only awards or top finishes he ever had in the league are ROY with the Royals and a championship tainted by a cheating scandal in his final games with the Astros. Still, Beltran will probably get elected this year after garnering 70% of the vote last year. Whether he goes in as a Met, Royal, or just an MLB cap is up in the air.
The Now
Of course, there are some current and at least still active Mets who will probably make the Hall of Fame. Francisco Lindor is already up to 52 WAR with 7 seasons of MVP votes in his 11 years. Even if 6 of those years were with Cleveland, he isn’t exactly slowing down. If he’s not a lock already, he will be in another year or two and will probably go in as a Met.
Juan Soto isn’t a lock yet either, but no one doubts he gets in. He has 14.5 years left on that contract and even a bunch of decent Soto seasons will give him enough all-time stats to get enshrined. Unless he gets traded some time in this deal, you assume he will wear a Mets hat when the time comes, similar to when everyone realized Bryce Harper will eventually go in as a Phillie instead of a National in the end.
The only other one with a chance is Jacob deGrom. I honestly do not know if he gets in. He is maybe the most talented pitcher I have ever seen, but his peak is only about 6 years. They were an outrageous 6 years though. I think he gets in on a sheer awe factor, but I thought that about Tim Lincecum and Johan Santana too. Lincecum ended up falling off a cliff and Santana retired early, ruining their chances. deGrom got a late start AND suffered bad injury luck, but he was just so damn good. It is up in the air, but he would probably go in as a Met, even though he too did not end things well with the team.
David Wright
The Mets all-time leader in WAR for a position player is David Wright with 49.1 and it’s not close. He is one of few modern players who played his whole career with the same team and the fans still love him. That whole career spanned 13 real seasons plus 2 games in 2018. There are three great years on his resume in 2007, 2008, and 2012, finishing Top 7 in MVP voting in all 3. His fielding was Gold Glove level throughout his 20s at 3rd base and he was a regular .300+ hitter.
Most importantly though, he was one of the few Mets of the time who was actually likeable. I may hate the Mets as a right of passage, but the late 2000s Mets teams were easy to hate. Not only did they blow division leads in particularly galling fashion and took big Ls sparring with the Phillies in the media, but they had numerous PR issues. Things hit their peak when Beltran, Oliver Perez, and Luis Castillo refused to attend a charity function at Walter Reed Medical Center for wounded veterans. With Wright it was just the opposite. Not only was he a regular with charities, but there is a story about how his car broke down about a mile from an event once and he ran the rest of the way to get there.
Wright’s Hall of Fame candidacy has 3 distinct problems though. First, he has no team or individual awards. The team went to a World Series, but he didn’t win (and he didn’t have much to do with getting there). There are no batting or home run titles on his shelf and his highest MVP finish was 4th. Second, is that injuries shortened his career. Technically, he played 14 seasons, but only 11 of those were legitimate. Even 3 more solid Wright seasons would have put him at about 60 WAR for his career. That would have put him at around 300 HRs and kept his career average over .300. He didn’t get there though.
Lastly, he simply doesn’t have any positive memorable moments for anyone outside the Mets organization. We all remember two of his best seasons for all the wrong reasons. In 2007 he had an MVP level 8.3 WAR, which may have been good enough to win the award if Jimmy Rollins and the Phillies hadn’t erased a 7-game deficit to the Mets with 17 games to play, an all-time baseball collapse. What we do remember of Wright is him standing helplessly as an Aaron Rowand cue shot failed to roll foul down the third base line. Wright stared helplessly as Victorino scored (the picture is the best of its kind I could find, and I probably owe Canada money for it). The following year, Wright had 6.3 WAR and the Mets had a 3.5 game lead with 17 left to play again. Again, the Phillies won the division.3 His last great year in 2012 was wasted on a bad Mets team. Can anyone remember anything about David Wright other than him being pretty good?
That’s the problem. Wright was only pretty good throughout his career but was rarely great. Mets fans of the day like to compare him to Chase Utley, but Utley has the peaks that Wright doesn’t have. Both suffered injuries and are knocked for a lack of counting stats, but Utley has five 7+ WAR seasons, a World Series title, and two very memorable postseasons including the record for most HRs in a World Series (5) and an iconic play throwing out Jason Bartlett at home. Plus, Utley was on the good end of those Mets’ collapses.
Both Utley and Wright just had their 2nd season on the Hall of Fame ballot. Utley finished at 40% while Wright was at 8%. It looks like Chase will get in by 2028 but Wright is probably DOA. These two, who played head-to-head in the same eras on rival teams, are the current barometers for Hall candidacy among position players. If your career was Chase Utley or better, you’re in. David Wright or worse? Sorry.
So that’s how the most valuable Mets position player of all time isn’t making it into the Hall of Fame. He is going to have that title for a very long time too. Lindor is fantastic and maybe better than ever, but he would need around 5 MVP level seasons to pass Wright and he is already nearly 32. Just by Soto being 26 and having so much contract left, it is certainly possible, but he would certainly need to age very well for it to happen. Pete Alonso technically has a chance IF he stays, but as a First Baseman the WAR accountants will not be kind. I don’t have any ill-will against Wright. I do like seeing the Mets without Hall of Famers though.
Phillies Series Previews
- Seaver doesn’t get nearly enough love for his ten-year run of dominance in NY. I will do a write up on him the next time we play. ↩︎
- Piazza played for the Dodgers from 92-98 and put up 32 WAR finishing Top 4 in MVP votes 3 times; in 8 years with the Mets he has 24.6 WAR, 1 Top 4 MVP finish and no seasons as good as his Top 3 with the Dodgers ↩︎
- I know I should be happy enough winning the World Series that season, but Chase Utley had 9 WAR and finished 14th in MVP voting. WTF? ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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