NY Mets: 8 Ex-Amazins who killed it with other teams in 2021

I’m sure this happens to a ton of teams, but I don’t know, it always seems like players instantly become better whenever they leave the New York Mets. It’s not always that way, take Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez for example, but it feels like more often than not, players are better when they take off the Orange and Blue.

Does anyone else think Jacob deGrom wouldn’t ever give up another run if he pitched for any other team, and that the only reason he’s even semi-human is because he pitches for the Mets? I don’t know if I totally believe that (I do), but all I’m saying is it’s not the craziest thought in the world.

So now, in that spirit, here are a handful of former Mets who had really nice 2021 seasons, either by MLB standards or just based on what they’d done up until this point in their careers.

Zack Wheeler

Wheeler is the king of former Mets who found success elsewhere in 2021. After signing with the Phillies last season, he’s turned into the best version of himself — the version Mets fans always hoped he would become. His best season in Queens was in 2018 when he put up a 3.31 ERA over 182.1 innings pitched. In 2019 he threw 13 more innings than he did the last, but with an ERA just a few ticks under 4. Still solid, but far from ace caliber.

Now, in 2021, he might just win the National League Cy Young Award. Wheeler led MLB in innings pitched (213.1), complete games (3), shutouts (2) and the National League in strikeouts (247). He also led MLB in Baseball-Reference pitching WAR by a landslide, with is 7.6 easily clearing Walker Buehler’s 6.7. While Wheeler probably isn’t favored to win the NL Cy Young — that’s likely Corbin Burnes — Wheeler certainly has a legitimate case.

On the season he finished with a 2.78 ERA, 2.59 FIP, 1.008 WHIP and a 150 ERA+, all of which are in the top-5 in the National League. Wheeler’s ERA through two seasons in Philadelphia is almost a full run lower than it was with the Mets. He’s become great, and turned his contract narrative from an overpay — what many people thought it was at the time he signed it — to a steal for the Phillies.

These two former Mets, both on the World Series roster in 2015, had really nice seasons in 2021 — even if they weren’t spectacular.

Steven Matz

Matz’s Mets (say that ten times fast) career was interesting, to say the very least. From the time of his first interview on SNY with Kevin Burkhardt, there was a ton of hype surrounding the southpaw. He started out well but never was able to take that step into becoming a reliable, middle-of-the-rotation starter. By the time the Mets shipped him off to Toronto before the 2021 season, he was coming off of a just horrific season where he threw just 30.2 innings to the tune of 9.68 ERA.

Matz didn’t blow the doors off of anything in 2021, but by the time it was over, he still turned in his statistically best season by pretty much every metric since 2016. He started out on fire, posting a 2.31 ERA through his first five starts, and while he certainly stumbled at times throughout the season, he finished with a very respectable 3.82 ERA. Nothing crazy, but certainly a nice and solid season.

Wilmer Flores

The all-time leader in walk-off hits for Mets, Flores holds a special place in many Mets fans’ hearts. A good role player who could man all four spots on the infield (even if he couldn’t play them that well), Flores was an important part of the Mets teams of the mid-2010s. He was never a star, and he was statistically about an average hitter, but he had an uncanny knack for coming up big in the most important spots.

In 2021, his second year in San Francisco, Flores wasn’t spectacular by any means. He’s not going to appear on any MVP ballots and he’s not going to win a Gold Glove or Silver Slugger. What Flores did do though was have the best season of his career in terms of bWAR, putting up a 1.6 mark. He hit .262/.335/.447 with 18 home runs, tied for the most in his career.

Most importantly, Flores was a key cog in a 107 win San Francisco Giants team that shocked the baseball community. While their season (and especially Wilmer’s) ended unceremoniously, the Giants were one of the best stories in baseball in 2021, and Flores was a key part of it.

Let’s talk about Jenrry Mejia! Yes, you read that right.

No, the first player to ever receive the lifetime ban for PEDs (a ban that he has since been reinstated from) did not pitch in the big leagues this season. He did however pitch in The Mexican League for the Algodoneros de Union Laguna, so that’s something. In 26 games and 28.1 innings pitched, Mejia had a 3.81 ERA and 14 saves, not too shabby.

Really though, this was just an excuse to talk about him. Remember how fun he was when he was on the Mets? There are few things in the last decade of Mets baseball that stand out more than his stomp after he saved a game. For a little while there, he was actually really solid too. He carried a ton of weight in 2014, racking up 93.2 innings pitched in 63 appearances, including 28 saves and seven starts.

The Mets even used him as a starter at the beginning of the

year, and while he wasn’t nearly as good in that role, he certainly wasn’t close to the worst thing Mets fans had ever seen. Then, after he transitioned to the bullpen role, he put up a 2.72 ERA from that point forward. His 3.65 ERA on the year isn’t even that bad, but it doesn’t show just how good he really was.

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Yes, he may have been a bit of a roller coaster ride while on the mound, but what reliever isn’t? The bottom line is he got the job done, and while his time in the bright New York spotlight might have been brief, it was as memorable as they come.