Mets Trade Talk: 10 Reasons It's a Mistake NOT to Move Jose Reyes

The New York Mets should have traded young superstar Jose Reyes while they still had the chance.

Those are words that I’d never thought that I would think, feel or say. It is unpopular in the New York media and even more unsettling in my heart. But now, the club is gambling with fate and—even worse—an open market for a stellar athlete.

It’s tough to gage whether holding on to Reyes past the trade deadline was the right decision, but as sources have said that the Mets are only taking calls for Carlos Beltran, it has become clear that Jose Reyes will remain in Queens for the remainder of the 2011 season.

After that, however, the future of the franchise is unwritten.

As a huge advocate for the “Sign Reyes” campaign, I was pleased to learn that Reyes would not be traded at the July 31st deadline.

As a journalist, however, I was forced to consider the implications of what it meant that the Mets had not yet signed the shortstop. Maybe his departure could have brought brighter things for the team?

In his tenure with the Mets, they have only made the playoffs one time and suffered one of the worst collapses in baseball history. Maybe his presence isn’t as important as the fans have made him out to be.

Maybe it should have been time to move on. Only we were too caught up with Carlos Beltran rumors to even notice.

One thing is certain: Jose Reyes will remain in the Mets uniform for the rest of 2011. When the trade deadline passes us by and the month of August comes around once again, we will be attached to the flashy star.

At what cost, however, are we holding onto him for?

We’ll have Reyes and that was my initial ideal, but let us put all of the weight of the universe on our backs for a moment and as Mets fans, simply consider 10 reasons why this might not be the best move.

Jose Reyes is my favorite player of all time. These are just points that we need to think about. Nothing is definitive, but what is journalism without casual thought provoking debate?

10. “In the Past, Pitching Has Won Championships”

Fact: Pitching is absolutely imperative to any playoffs run.

The best teams in baseball also have the best pitching, and when teams battle it out in the playoffs late in the season, they are forced to rely on depth and serious talent. Look at what the San Francisco Giants did last year.

Despite their notable lack of a recognizably proven, hot bat, they were able to piggyback on the successes of their young aces, guns and stud relievers in Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Jonathan Sanchez and Brian Wilson.

In the NL East, the Phillies now own the best record in baseball. In the past few years, they have built their team as a title contender by adding top pitchers in trades and acquisitions for Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt.

In a staff that already had Cole Hamels and a young standout in Vance Worley (6-1, 2.02 ERA), the Phillies are a dominant force to be reckoned with. The Mets may have had the right idea in building for a pitchers park in Citi Field, but their actual pitching staff has been poor this year.

To build around a singular position player in a league where pitching wins championships seems to be a sure fire way to continue finishing just outside of the playoffs.  

9. “The Mets Have Not Won With Jose Reyes”

Jose Reyes was called up to the New York Mets in 2003. That makes this his ninth official season with the major league club.

The fact of the matter is that the organization only made the playoffs once in his entire tenure thus far assuming they do not make a wild-card run this season.

I’m a fan of Jose Reyes and by no means blame him for any of the troubles that the Mets have had in the past, err, decade. But with Reyes as the face of the franchise, they have finished fourth in the NL East in two consecutive seasons, and in 2007, they suffered what I have determined to be The Worst Collapse in Baseball History.

This doesn’t mean that their shortcomings have been at the direct fault of the young star, but the fact remains to be that Reyes’s Mets have not been winning teams.

Maybe a team built around Jose Reyes isn’t meant to succeed? Maybe a change of scenery would help both the club and the player see their first World Series? 

8. “Jose Reyes Is Too Fragile to Sign a Big Contract”

Let’s think about this for a second. Let’s say that the Mets did re-sign Jose Reyes.

In our hypothetical, they sold the ship, scrapped salaries with Beltran and Rodriguez and put every dollar on the most coveted prize: Reyes. Three months into the 2012 season, Jose Reyes tears his ACL and is forced to miss the entire season.

In truth, Reyes is an injury prone player. He practices hard and relies on his legs for success. As he continues his career, it’ll be more difficult to rely on his legs as he gets older. He just came off of the DL this season, and despite the fact that he was in the middle of an MVP season he had to miss time this year.

In his first season, he was forced to miss a month due to a sprained ankle. In 2004, he suffered a sprained hamstring and was on the DL until June 19th. In 2009, Reyes suffered from a calf injury and then tore his hamstring.

Last season, Reyes was on the DL with a hyperactive thyroid gland and missed the beginning of the season. Reyes missed time this season due to a pulled hamstring.

To put that much money on a player with such a troubled past with injuries is a very scary scenario. 

7. “The Mets Simply Don’t Have Carl Crawford Money”

I don’t need to bring up the recent scandals that the Mets have been in. Mets fans know about the comments in which owner Fred Wilpon said that the Mets were “bleeding cash.” We also know that word from the Reyes camp was that he wants “Carl Crawford Money.”

If you’ve seen Crawford’s contract ($142 million, seven years), you’ll recognize that the New York Mets simply do not have that kind of money. To invest all of that money in one player would be a dangerous maneuver from a baseball standpoint.

The Mets have a poor pitching staff, and it would be a major financial strain on the franchise to fix that if the Mets put all of that money in one place. This is the easiest reason to trade Reyes. It’s simple.

His contact is up at the end of the season. He has said that he wants “Crawford Money.” Wilpon has said that he will not give Reyes “Crawford Money.” When he becomes a free agent at the end of the season, what reason do we have to believe that he will come back to the Mets?

It’s an open market, and he can get more money from a more competitive team. Who doesn’t want the superstar that can bring them to the World Series?

6. “Rebuilding Requires a New Identity and Face of the Franchise”

The Mets have made the playoffs once since 2001. They’ve finished fourth in the division two seasons in a row. This is a team that needs a new identity. How do the Mets deal with this?

With the recent K-Rod trade, as well as the consistently swarming rumors of Carlos Beltran trades, it has become pretty obvious that the Mets are rebuilding. What the ownership might be overlooking, however, is that it is paradoxical to rebuild without changing the face of the franchise.

Baseball is an example of commercialism. Jose Reyes is the face on the billboards, and Jose Reyes is the name on the back of most Mets fan’s jerseys. When baseball fans think about this franchise, they think about Jose Reyes.

Scouts worry about how to stop him on the basepaths. Players around the league, including A-Rod, recognize him as the “greatest player in the world.” Reyes owns the Mets.

If they’re rebuilding, they have to find a new face for it to be a more successful transition. Otherwise, they’ll be stuck in a limbo that allows them to miss the playoffs once again.

5. “The Division Is Too Strong to Win on the Back of One Player”

The Phillies are the best team in baseball. Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Roy Oswalt and top prospects that include names like Domonic Brown will strike fear into every single club in the league.

They’re simply difficult to compete with and have one of the deepest rosters in the game. The Braves also bring an impressive team, with top young talents in Jason Heyward, Brian McCann, Freddie Freeman and Jair Jurrjens leading one of the best pitching staffs in the game.

The Marlins have proven superstars in Hanley Ramirez and Josh Johnson, and Mike Stanton, Gaby Sanchez and Logan Morrison could help the team for years to come.

Even the Nationals could be a force to be reckoned with, as they’ve been loading up on the top young talents in the game. With a team that already features Ryan Zimmerman, Danny Espinosa, Michael Morse and Wilson Ramos, young phenoms like Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon could make this team the team to beat by 2015.

What are the Mets supposed to do? Their current formula, whatever that contraption may be, isn’t working and the future looks intimidating with such a strong division playing around them.

By focusing their monetary attention only on one player in Jose Reyes, there’s virtually no way that he could compete with the depth that the rest of the division already brings.  

4. “The Mets Could Have Had a Say in Where Reyes Played”

In a recent article about Derek Jeter, I talked about how much it would hurt for Mets fans to see Jose Reyes hoist a championship trophy for the New York Yankees.

The nature of the game is simple. It’s a manifestation of capitalism. The top markets will bring in the top players. That’s the reason the Yankees and Red Sox have recently always been in contention on every major move.

While it might seem like a smaller deal right now, if Reyes comes along as a free agent the most likely suitor would have to be the Yankees. Jeter is aging, as we’ve all seen, and his numbers haven’t been the same as it was in his prime.

Reyes, on the other hand, is entering the prime of his game right now. The Yankees can afford him. The Yankees don’t mind crossing rivalry players (see: Damon, Johnny).

If the Mets could, by any means, protect Reyes from going to a team that could come back to haunt them, then that could save years of heartbreak for seasons to come. 

3. “Jose Reyes Could Have Given the Mets Top Dollar Value During a Career Year”

This season, Jose Reyes has been having an absolute career year. He has been the most difficult player to strikeout, led the league in hits and batting average and dominated the basepaths with triples and stolen bases.

He is a career .292 hitter that is tearing up the ball this season while batting .353, the highest of his professional career. His professional OPS is .782, and his 2011 campaign of .923 makes an absolute mockery of that.

In 2011, the Mets could have gotten more than the top dollar for Reyes. Instead, they might be backed into a situation similar to what the Cleveland Cavaliers faced with LeBron James. LeBron James left Cleveland with nothing, and in turn the Cavs finished with the second to worst record in the NBA.

If Reyes abandons the club at the offseason, the Mets will be left with nothing in a situation where they could have rung in A-grade pitching prospects like Madison Bumgarner. 

2. “The Organization Is Lying to Fans to Keep Them in the Seats”

On July 25th, the Mets sit a hefty 8.5 games back of the Wild Card spot in the National League. Realistically, the Atlanta Braves are likely to hold onto their lead and make the playoffs this season.

That effectively translates to the speculation that this season may be another one in the books for the team. The only thing left is essentially ticket sales.

If the Mets traded Jose Reyes, that would be a public display of throwing in the flag. If Reyes was traded, many fans would more than likely give up on the season as well and stop going to the games.

A team already low on cash needs the revenue from ticket sales, so many believe that the Mets didn’t trade Reyes because they needed to put people in the seats for the remainder of the 2011 season even though they plan to let him go during free agency.

From a baseball perspective, that could not be a more disgusting reason to not trade Reyes. If this turns out to be true and Reyes leaves the Mets this season because we needed to sell tickets in New York for a few months, this could be devastating for the future of the organization, one that could have capitalized on value for the shortstop.  

1. “Trading Reyes Would Be the Best Move for Baseball”

Some feel that the best situation for baseball would be to let Reyes blossom outside of the organization.

Those who are in this school of thought tend to argue the point that he has had a troubled and roughed past in Queens, and the superstar could be winning multiple championships if he were playing for a storied franchise like the Red Sox or the Yankees.

Reyes has legendary potential, and if the Mets continue to finish at the bottom of the division his successes could be a waste of such incredible talent. As a Mets fan, this hurts me. As a baseball fan, it might make sense.

I understand how frustrating it is to be associated with this team. Every year, it’s been the same story intermixed with different heartbreaks. Reyes is a superstar athlete, and over the next decade, he will likely continue his reign as one of the best players in the MLB.

Hopefully, he continues as a New York Met. If things don’t go as planned, however, Mets fans like myself could be regretting their inability to move Reyes at the deadline.