When Jose Reyes inked his name on a six-year, 106 million dollar deal back in December it was admittedly hard to be rationale. The Mets were seemingly letting one of the faces of their franchise walk away to a division rival.
With all that being said, months later it is becoming increasingly apparent that Met fans need to collectively stand up and salute Sandy Alderson for saving the franchise from yet another disastrous contract.
Reyes’ supreme talent has always been well document, but so has his tendency for being a pulled hamstring waiting to happen. The tradeoff with Reyes has always been elite numbers combined with a substantial risk of injury.
That tradeoff is one that is valuable, but even after his MVP-caliber season in 2011 was not worth the Mets forking over more than a hundred-million dollars to Reyes. And now as Mets fans have been able to see firsthand, the elite numbers are not even there anymore.
Chalk it up to a slow start if you want to—but Reyes has spent his time in Miami’s sunshine flirting with the Mendoza Line and failing to provide the dynamic presence atop the Marlins’ lineup that he was expected to do.
Reyes is a player who largely relies on his athleticism to make a difference on the diamond. That was awesome to watch when he was an emerging rookie. But now that he is being paid like the star people have always claimed to be, maybe that athleticism simply isn’t enough.
Reyes is barely producing now when he is 28 and conceivably still in the prime in terms of pure athletic ability. Just imagine the numbers he will be producing as a 34-year-old shortstop at the tail end of his contract.
And one final note on this matter, just for kicks compare Ruben Tejada’s numbers to Reyes’. Not only is Tejada actually producing moreso than Reyes but he is doing it for five-percent of the price.
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April 24, 2012
