Talk about turnover. ESPN’s Adam Rubin has a list of the Mets with the most seniority. Except for David Wright, hardly anyone remains who was with the Mets when they were a contending team.
After Wright, the rest of the top ten is Mike Pelfrey, Johan Santana, Daniel Murphy, Jon Niese, Bobby Parnell, Fernando Martinez, Josh Thole, R.A. Dickey and Jason Bay.
No wonder Wright is unlikely to be traded anytime soon. Who will the fans come out to see? Whose jersey will they buy?
At least the Mets still have Ike Davis (14th on the list).
If the player came from the Mets’ organization, seniority is defined as when the player made his major league debut. That explains why Fernando Martinez ranks so high, when in terms of actual playing time he would be a lot lower.
Except for Dickey, everyone on this list is a big question mark. It’s reasonable to expect Dickey to continue to be a mid-rotation pitcher. But many of the others could be anywhere between an All-Star or a bust.
Even when the Mets were good, people used to debate over whether they should break up the core. Now Wright is all that’s left, and there’s no new core in sight.
Maybe in a year from now, some of these players will have shown they can be part of a new core.
Maybe Bay can regain his form with the new fences. Maybe Murphy can play second and stay healthy. Maybe Niese can continue to develop. Maybe Parnell can finally figure it out.
A return to form from Santana would be the best thing, but now it seems questionable if he can pitch at all.
But it’s just as likely that most of the Met “veterans” will not be part of a new core, and that the rebuilding process has a long way to go.
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