New York Mets best players at each position since the year 2000

The outfield

Rusty Staub, Cleon Jones, Lenny Dykstra, Darryl Strawberry are just a few of the greatest outfielders to ever put a Mets uniform on. The Mets have had some big bats recently in the outfield now let’s see which three made the cut:

Left fielder: Yoenis Cespedes

Yes I know it has not been the best between Cespedes and the Mets but let us be honest when Cespedes got here he changed the direction of this team.

The Mets acquired Yoenis Cespedes during the 2015 trade deadline while in a division race and bringing in Cespedes did just what the fans wanted. Cespedes recorded 17 home runs and 44 RBIs in his 57 games with the Mets to finish 2015 and led the Mets to their first NL East crown since 2006 and a trip to the World Series.

The following year Cespedes followed that huge finish with an all-star caliber 2016. He recorded 31 home runs and drove in 86 runs and gave the Mets their second straight postseason appearance when they fell short in the NL Wild Card game.

Cespedes finished his Mets career with a .279 batting average, 76 home runs, and 205 runs batted in. His strong arm was also a huge plus in the outfield and not many runners would test that arm; if they were smart.

Centerfielder: Carlos Beltran

No argument hear Carlos Beltran deserves this spot. Carlos Beltran will go down as one of the greatest free-agent signings in Mets history when he signed a seven-year contract worth $119M following the 2004 season.

Beltran spent seven years with the Mets from 2005 to 2011 and he was nothing short of the term Amazin’ while being in Flushing. People love to bring up the NLCS strike when they hear Beltran and the Mets but if it wasn’t for Beltran the Mets might not have made it that far.

In 2006 Beltran tied the Mets single-season home run mark at the time with 41 home runs and he also brought in 166 runs batted in. 2006 was also one of his five all-star appearances with the Mets.

While being with the Mets Beltran also won two silver slugger awards as well as three gold gloves. Beltran did it all with the Mets offensively and defensively and it is one of the many reasons he was a fan favorite here in New York.

Right fielder: Michael Conforto

Michael Conforto wins out the right-field job on the All-2000s Mets team. When you think about the 2015 Mets playoff run obviously the first thing that comes to mind is Yoenis Cespedes but the call-up of Michael Conforto had a huge part in that run. Conforto was called up on July 24th of 2015 and you couldn’t have asked for a better time. Conforto played 56 games to finish the season and batted .270 while hitting nine home runs with 27 RBIs.

Conforto showed off the power when he hit two home runs in Game 4 against the Royals in the 2015 World Series. 2016 was a bit of a sophomore slump but he picked it right back up in 2017 with his first all-star appearance.

From 2017-2019 Conforto hit 27-plus home runs in each of the three seasons and in 2019 finished with a career-high 92 RBIs. Defensively Conforto has played all three outfield positions but it was clear he is more valued in either of the corner outfields positions.

Conforto is only 27 years old and showed us fans and hopefully the team that he is worth a contract extension that we all hope comes very soon.