7 former All-Stars who had a recent cup of coffee with the Mets

Carlos Gómez (All-Star seasons: 2013, 2014; Mets career: 2007, 2019)

Gómez’s Mets tenure was a tale of two stints, the second of which I had completely forgotten about until recently. When he first came up to the Majors in 2007, he was a highly touted prospect revered alongside Lastings Milledge and Fernando Martinez. However, Gómez did not get much of a chance to prove himself in Queens the first time around. After appearing in 58 games in ‘07, he was part of a package that the Mets sent to the Twins in exchange for Johan Santana the following offseason. 

Gómez’s career didn’t flourish until he got to the Milwaukee Brewers in 2010. His two All-Star seasons were in 2013 and 2014, during which he had several nearly identical stats:

2013: .284 average, .843 OPS, 24 homers, 73 RBIs, 40 stolen bases

2014: .284 average, .833 OPS, 23 homers, 73 RBIs, 34 stolen bases

As most Mets fans remember, Gómez nearly returned to the Mets in the famous “Wilmer Flores no-trade” incident in 2015. But what received much less of a media frenzy was when, in Spring Training of 2019, he signed with the Mets as a free agent. Gómez was not a major contributor to the Mets in his second go-around, hitting .198 over just 34 games before he was released at the end of June. Still, in his farewell tour, Gómez did provide a truly fantastic performance on May 23, 2019, contributing in myriad ways to a wild win over the Nationals.

Gómez formally retired from baseball in 2021 and was added to the Brewers’ Wall of Fame in a late September ceremony before a game that, coincidentally, was against the Mets.