New York Mets: Top three players of the 2010 decade

As we wrap up the 2010s, EWB is asking our staff to come up with their top three players of the decade for each team we cover. Today its the New York Mets.

Well, as we get closer to 2020, I was asked by my editor to come up with the top three New York Mets of the past decade. I don’t particularly care to do something like this because the Amazins had far more lowlights than highlights. The only real two highlights of the decade for me was 2015 and the second half of the 2019 season.

If you can come up with more highlights, great! Then you write the article and save me the stress of figuring out how I can make a positive spin on this. But I’ll do it anyway.

For many Mets fans, 2015 was the season we finally were going to be a sustainable long-term winning organization. Yes, we had Yeonis Cespedes in a trade from the Detriot Tigers in exchange for rookie pitcher Michael Fulmer and Luis Cessa. Fulmer could not crack the Mets rotation so he was expendable.

Cespedes single-handedly got the Mets to the playoffs. His hitting was what legends are made of. The Amazin Nation would use all means of social media to re-sign Cespedes because he was the Messiah we were waiting for. So the cheapskate Wilpons had to squeeze every penny out of their piggy bank to get him back. So much to the point, they were bidding against themselves. Well, you know how that turned out.

But 2015 was a special year for the New York Mets. We got to the World Series despite a few handicaps. They had a dead-arm catcher d’Arnaud. A shortstop that wasn’t a shortstop, removed from Tom Hanks’ notion that there is crying in baseball-Wilmer Flores. Finally, a second baseman who treated his glove like it was an oven mitt- Daniel Murphy.

Yet, for all the offense that Daniel Murphy produced during the playoffs to get the Mets to the World Series, he will always be remembered for Game 4 and his mishandling of that hot potato rolling under his glove for an error that started the Kansas City Royals rally.

New York Mets. Jacob deGrom (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /

Anyway, let me go back to the purpose of this article, naming three top Mets this past decade.

The obvious number one is Jacob deGrom. The New York Post named him the player of the decade. How do I dispute that? He won the 2014 Rookie of the Year Award and won the Cy Young Award in both 2018 and 2019. What I may add to that is deGrom may be the least expensive superstar by today’s economic numbers.

My second pick is David Wright. From 2010 to 2014, he was an offensive leader and threat in the Mets lineup. He wasn’t bad as a third baseman either. Unfortunately, the New York Mets faltering in September overshadowed the accomplishments as a player and captain of the Amazins. Even more so with the diagnosis of spinal stenosis that cut a very promising and potential Hall of Fame career short.

Wright tried to make a comeback and for that, I give him all the credit. Just doing regular work with this condition is nearly unbearable. How much so for a baseball player? Many times Wright came through in the clutch. Even the Great Wall of Flushing, initially an intimidating sight that eventually brought the fences in (twice), could not hold a couple of his homers in the park.

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My third and final pick goes to a young kid that wasn’t ready to play defense on a Major League level but boy can he hit! The Polar Bear, Pete Alonso. He belted an MLB rookie record 53 home runs with his massive swings in 2019. NASA is still monitoring some of those shots. Alonso is someone to look forward to seeing entering the new decade.

Although not in the top three, I consider R.A. Dickey and his 2012 Cy Young Award a strong close fourth. He is the first knuckleballer to win this prestigious award with a 20-6 record. That was good enough for Sandy Alderson to show him the door to Toronto for catcher Travis d’Arnaud and a throw-in named Noah Syndergaard. That was even a bigger contribution to the New York Mets that Dickey made.

So there you have it. Honorable mention can go to Jeurys Familia and his 51 saves in 2015, Daniel Murphy with his clutch bat, and Jeff McNeil‘s hitting.

Next. Pat Shurmur gets the ax, what’s next for Giants. dark

Let’s hope we enter this new decade with a fresh start, fresh eyes, and fresh talent. We can hope for many more highlights, titles, and championships with a new manager, Carlos Beltran, and core players like J.D. Davis, Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, Alonso, and McNeil.

Happy New Year and decade-it’s about time!

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New York Mets top three players of this decade

By Joe Noa | Dec 31, 2019

As we wrap up the 2010s, EWB is asking our staff to come up with their top three players of the decade for each team we cover. Today its the New York Mets.

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