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5 former Mets players still in MLB the team gave up on too early and whether it was justified
When is the right time to give up on a player? The New York Mets have made their fair share of mistakes. They’ve traded a ton of studs too soon. Plenty of talented players have been allowed to walk away in free agency.
The funny thing about quitting on certain players is that when we look back at many of them it’s easy to understand why in certain circumstances the front office did move on. There does come a point when enough is enough and you have to cut ties.
Looking exclusively at active players, it’s these five former Mets who stand out the most as players the team gave up on too early on.
1) The NY Mets gave up on Travis d’Arnaud too early
Travis d’Arnaud is one of those players the Mets probably should have gotten rid of when they did. This one affected me personally because I was on the other side of the world when the Mets designated him for assignment in early 2019. After missing all but 4 games in 2018, d’Arnaud got off to a bumpy start in 2019 going just 2 for 23. He’d leave New York and slowly begin to resurrect his career elsewhere.
After a very short stop with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a game, d’Arnaud ended up with the Tampa Bay Rays where he’d hit .263/.323/.459 while tying his career high of 16 home runs. He has now spent the 2019-2023 seasons with the Atlanta Braves where he won the 2020 Silver Slugger and was an All-Star in 2022. Despite sharing playing time with Sean Murphy in 2023, he got off to a strong start prior to landing on the IL with a concussion.
It’s almost tough to blame the Mets for giving up on him. In parts of seven seasons in the Big Apple, d’Arnaud batted .242/.303/.401. He was not the star we thought he would become. It just stinks that he ended up with the Braves and won a championship with them in 2021.
2) The NY Mets gave up on Justin Turner too early
For nearly a decade Mets fans have had to suffer knowing the team gave up on Justin Turner too soon. In this instance, it’s a little less justified than with d’Arnaud. Turner was a part-time infielder for the Mets for several seasons where he put up pedestrian numbers. His 2013 campaign included a .280/.319/.385 slash line. It wasn’t bad but the team decided to non-tender him in the offseason.
He’d join up with the Dodgers and put together a big season in 2014. Turner hit .340/.404/.493 in 322 trips to the plate. He slowly became a core member of their lineup and would continue to pound baseballs in Hollywood through the 2022 season.
Turner also happened to win a World Series after leaving the Mets. Now with the Boston Red Sox in 2023, he’s a guy the Mets had no clue would become a player to land on a list like this.
The pain of seeing Turner become one of the best third basemen in baseball for as long as he did is especially painful considering the carousel of players the Mets had at the position around David Wright’s absences. Turner could have been a huge difference-maker in Queens. Instead, he became a friend turned enemy.
3) The NY Mets gave up on J.D. Davis too early
Throwing in the towel on J.D. Davis in the middle of the 2022 season is very fresh. The Darin Ruf trade was bad enough before the plane tickets were even booked. Witnessing Davis mash baseballs early on in 2023 for the San Francisco Giants makes it even harder to believe this trade happened.
It feels clichéd at this point to reference the Ruf trade because of how front-of-mind it is for Mets fans. I hate to sound like a broken record. What’s one of those? I don’t want to beat a dead horse. That just sounds cruel. Let’s relate this to a Facebook reel that plays over and over again.
The Mets were desperate for some kind of output from the DH spot at the 2022 trade deadline. After acquiring Daniel Vogelbach from the Pittsburgh Pirates, they seemed to have a plan to start him against righties and Davis versus lefties. Instead, they shipped Davis and three prospects out to the Giants for Ruf who had far less defensive versatility and a lot more age on his body.
Everything that could make this trade a massive failure has already happened. It all began with the front office giving up on Davis who would have been a solid fit to stay with the team then and produce for them now.
4) The NY Mets gave up on Wilmer Flores too early
Fan-favorite Wilmer Flores hit .262/.303/.424 in his six seasons with the Mets. He had the ability to come up with clutch hits like no one else. After the 2018 season when the health of his knees was questionable, newly anointed general manager Brodie Van Wagenen gave him the Justin Turner treatment and non-tendered him.
Flores went on to hit .317/.361/.487 for the 2019 Arizona Diamondbacks. He latched on to the San Francisco Giants a year later where he has continued to put up similar numbers that he did while in New York. The 2022 campaign was definitely a down year but Flores did rip a career-best 19 home runs and 71 RBI despite batting .229.
This one hurts in the heart far more than the brain. Flores would have remained a superb bench player for the 2019 Mets. Don’t think so? That was the year they planned to have Jed Lowrie on the roster.
Van Wagenen made a lot of unfriendly decisions for the Mets including this move. Flores should have remained with the Mets as a part-time player for at least another season. He wasn’t pricey nor was he an ill-fit or coming off of a bad year. As a corner infielder and occasional second baseman, Flores would have had plenty to offer the Amazins. It still looks wrong for him to wear another team’s uniform.
5) The NY Mets gave up on Paul Sewald too early
The Mets should have held onto Davis. They never should have moved on from Flores as quickly as they did. With Paul Sewald, nobody can blame the front office for waving goodbye. In 125 games as a reliever for them from 2017-2020, Sewald had the misfortune of going 1-14 with a 5.50 ERA. Bad luck seemed to follow him throughout his tenure with the ball club.
He became a free agent after the 2020 season and has been with the Seattle Mariners ever since. To the surprise of everyone in existence, Sewald has been a quality back-of-the-bullpen arm and regular closer for the Mariners almost from the start.
Mets fans will recall Sewald calling out the Mets organization in 2022 for giving up on him too early. He’s not wrong but he also did nothing to show he was a major league reliever during his time with the ball club.
d’Arnaud definitely wore out his welcome in New York due to poor performance, however, it’s Sewald who has surprised everyone the most with a complete career turnaround. Nobody should feel bad about letting Sewald leave. All credit goes to him. It’s hard to be as mediocre for as long as he was in New York and suddenly start to perform at such a high level. Anyone who says they saw this coming is a liar.
2 Mets prospects who will be stars, 1 who could join them. dark. Next