New York Mets: Five failed Mets reunions with former players

Failed Mets Reunion with Jon Niese

Some will argue that Jon Niese’s first stint with the Mets from 2008-2015 was already a bad one. I would disagree with this. Although he was never a top starter in their rotation, he gave them several quality years even when the team wasn’t winning a whole lot of games.

Niese’s time with the Mets came to a close after the 2015 season when he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for infielder Neil Walker. Niese was coming off a 9-10 season with a 4.13 ERA. In need of a replacement for Daniel Murphy, the Mets were able to move on from a starting pitcher.

Niese didn’t have too much success in Pittsburgh. In 18 starts and five relief appearances, Niese went 8-6 with a 4.91 ERA. He didn’t last all year because in mid-2016 he was traded back to the Mets.

The reunion didn’t work out well, but you already knew that. All of these reunions ended badly.

Niese made a pair of starts and four more relief appearances for New York. In those 11 innings, he went 0-1 with an 11.45 ERA. The acquisition didn’t provide the Mets with much more than someone to eat up a few innings down the stretch.

This also marked the end of Niese’s big league career. He has bounced around with several ball clubs in the years since but has yet to make it back to the show.

Expectations were much lower for the Niese reunion than they were some others on this list. For our final failed reunion, let’s explore the time when one of the greats in Mets history came back and things didn’t go so well.