Why the New York Mets should Trade for Jose Reyes

from Sportsrants.com
Reyes’s best years were as a Met

Jose Reyes is one of the rare players whose most productive time period was with the New York Mets.

A homegrown talent signed by New York Mets’ scouts in the Dominican Republic at the age of 16, Reyes started his career in Kingsport making his way to the Major Leagues just 4 years later just days before his 21st birthday.

In his final season with the Mets, Reyes led the league in batting average before signing a mega-deal with the Miami Marlins becoming the first major free agent lost by Sandy Alderson in his tenure as Mets’ GM.

He spent one year in Miami before being deal to the Toronto Blue who sent him to Colorado in the Troy Tulowitzki trade last month.

Since leaving the Mets, Reyes’s offensive stats have declined and now it is to the point where even his defensive metrics place him among the worst shortstops in the Major Leagues – in fact, they are behind both Tejada and Flores.

At age 32, a player who relied on quickness and speed simply doesn’t have the same quickness and speed he used to possess.

However, this week at Citi Field, Reyes showed a glimpse of what he used to be driving a double into the gap in right center field, and making a wonderful play at short displaying that quick release arm strength he used to display with regularity in his time in New York.

Despite all that, now that Reyes has cleared waivers I would pull the trigger on a move for the shortstop if I was Sandy Alderson.

Colorado was able to unload the albatross that was Troy Tulowitzki’s contract but in order to do that, had to take Jose Reyes’s bad contract in return.

The move saved the Rockies no money in the short run, but saved them from having to pay 4 more years of money as Reyes is only signed through 2018 while Tulo is signed through 2022.

It’s no secret that the Mets really don’t want to add payroll.

The Mets’ moves at and around the deadline were creatively structured to give the 2015 Mets a chance to win, but didn’t add much in the way of payroll as Cespedes’ contract and the other contracts added are up at the end of 2015 including Tyler Cipllard’s.

The Rockies are certainly looking to unload Reyes’s contract and no one is willing to take the contract on – evident in that he was put through and passed through waivers.

The Rockies are resigned to the fact that they must pay Reyes at least some of what is left on the deal, but would perhaps want to rid of at least some of the burden and may be willing to pay a large portion of the deal if the Mets were to part with a Major League player like Flores or Tejada or a slightly higher rated prospect.

The Rockies would most likely look at it as saved money as overall in the long run, they are saving close to 90 million in total money in the straight Reyes for Tulo swap.  Even if they paid 90 percent of the deal, it would overall be a huge savings if you compare it to what they would have paid Tulowitzki.

The reason I believe Reyes fits perfectly for the Mets is threefold:

First, he is still a “New Yorker” .  The former Met still lives on Long Island and I believe would be revitalized with a return to Citi Field.  Despite the fact that the metrics state that he is behind Tejada and Flores I still feel that there are reasons for that decline.  I don’t believe Reyes ever wanted to leave New York and had to due to the lucrative deal he was offered.

Second, he is still productive.  This season he is hitting .274 and has stolen 18 bases.  The Mets currently are a station to station team and Reyes’s ability to steal bases and go first to third would be huge.

Third, he fits two direct needs: leadoff hitter and shortstop.  Despite Tejada’s recent run of success. he is still an average shortstop and Flores is still very inconsistent and seems to do better in a part time role.

In the end, baseball is a game played by humans and I think that the Mets would get the best out of Jose Reyes.  I believe Reyes is a player driven by emotion and he hasn’t had that fire since leaving New York.