New York Mets: Five best left fielders in franchise history
3. Bernard Gilkey
Our number three choice is yet another left fielder that came from outside the organization. After six season with the Cardinals, Bernard Gilkey was traded to the Mets prior to the 1996 season. That first year with the Mets he put in what was, and what held up to be, his career season. Gilkey hit .317, 30 home runs and drove in 117 runs. Playing in the same lineup with Todd Hundley the year he hit 41 home runs certainly didn’t hurt, but Gilkey got the job done and then some.
His numbers dropped down the very next season and never rebounded. In Gilkey’s only other full season with the Mets (1997), he hit .249 with 18 home runs and 78 RBI. He was traded to Arizona late in the 1998 season. Gilkey was a solid left fielder, with fielding percentages of .982 and .989. He never made more than six errors in a season with the Mets, proving that hitting the ball to him was about as automatic as anyone in the league at the time.
Gilkey takes the number three spot because of his fielding ability and the one explosive season at the plate. 1996 for Gilkey was the best these first three guys had to offer. Combine that with Gilkey’s slightly higher fielding percentage and that puts him over the other two. All three are worthy candidates that you could make an argument for any of them in a different order from five to three.
Now we move to the top two.