A reunion with Jose Reyes seemed inevitable all off-season. For most of the off-season the Mets needed at least a second or third basemen. The Mets also had a depleted bench in terms of players with major league experience. No team was really biting on Jose Reyes (and a bunch of other players at well). Resigning Jose Reyes just seemed destined.
Then one day Jose Reyes drove to Citi Field and snapped the emoji with the hand on the chin (the inquisitive one?). The whole fan base knew at that time Jose Reyes was coming back. Later in the day the Mets signed him.
When the Mets signed him, I didn’t make an opinion about how I felt with the decision. If Reyes was going to start, then this was a bad move for the Mets. If the Mets were going to acquire a new infielder, making Jose Reyes a bench player and displacing Matt Reynolds from the 25-man, then this would be a good move.
The Mets signed Frazier, Reyes is now a bench player, and now we can really look at these projections:
| Jose Reyes | ||||||||
| Source | PA | AB | H | R | HR | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| Baseball Prospectus | 481 | 90.503 | 63 | 10 | 0.263 | 0.318 | 0.392 | |
| ZiPS | 492 | 114 | 65 | 12 | 0.255 | 0.311 | 0.405 | |
| Steamer | 271 | 245 | 61 | 30 | 6 | 0.249 | 0.309 | 0.388 |
| ESPN | 241 | 60.973 | 36 | 7 | 0.253 | 0.317 | 0.411 | |
| MLB.com | 280 | 70 | 45 | 8 | 0.25 | 0.307 | 0.418 | |
| Baseball Reference | 508 | 459 | 116 | 66 | 13 | 0.253 | 0.313 | 0.405 |
| Average: | 438 | 306.25 | 85.41267 | 50.83333 | 9.333333 | 0.253833 | 0.3125 | 0.403167 |
| 2017 Stats: | 561 | 501 | 123 | 75 | 15 | 0.246 | 0.315 | 0.413 |
Since Reyes is going to be a bench player and we don’t need to worry about his defense that much, I’m not that upset with Reyes riding the bench. The computers see his slash line returning to normal a bit, a slightly higher average, a similar OBP and a drop in slugging.
What computers really struggled with is playing time. Only ESPN and Steamer seeing a reduced role for Reyes (I think both were ran after other infielders were signed by the Mets). It’s also crazy to think about how much playing time he got with the Mets last year. I never thought he would get above 500 plate appearances nor did I think he would get 15 homers.
I’m still not happy the Mets gave Reyes a second chance. I still find it hard to root for Reyes. That’s never going to go away. This doesn’t fit with the article as a whole but it needed to be said.
