All-time New York Mets roster based only on WAR

What if the all-time New York Mets roster was decided by nothing other than a single statistic? All-defining one known as WAR is the place to start.

Using Baseball-Reference as the place for these numbers, we’ve created the all-time Mets roster relying only on this number they accumulated while with the team. Amazingly, WAR got it almost perfectly correct. Active players even made the ball club.

Let’s waste no time and begin with our starters in the field.

All-time NY Mets starting lineup based only on WAR

C – Mike Piazza (24.6)
1B – Keith Hernandez (26.6)
2B – Edgardo Alfonzo (29.6)
3B – David Wright (49.92)
SS – Jose Reyes (28.2)
LF – Mookie Wilson (20.8)
CF – Carlos Beltran (31.1)
RF – Darryl Strawberry (36.6)
DH – Howard Johnson (22.0)
P – Tom Seaver (76.1)

We’re going with a DH here simply to make it modern and because this lineup feels so much deadlier with Howard Johnson in his prime there. He’d make the roster anyway. These nine position players actually are the top 9 in WAR which spreads out nicely to give us a perfect starting lineup.

Exactly how would we order them? Let’s see:

1-Jose Reyes
2-Keith Hernandez
3-David Wright
4-Darryl Strawberry
5-Mike Piazza
6-Carlos Beltran
7-Edgardo Alfonzo
8-Howard Johnson
9-Mookie Wilson

Order them however you’d want. This is an all-time starting lineup and we have way too many good players to choose from. Jose Reyes at the top is the one obvious place we’re all in agreement with. It’s everything in the middle we can toy with. Don’t forget to separate the lefties and righties a little bit. We’ll be playing the all-time Phillies roster based on WAR which means an older yet still equally as effective Tug McGraw will be coming out of their bullpen, too.

I’m not sure there is another team out there where the top 9 players in WAR for position players could make such a perfectly defensive team. Because we are putting together a full roster, we now need to dive a little deeper and create our bench. We’ll do our best to not skip over anyone.

All-time NY Mets roster based only on WAR bench players

Lucky for us, the next four players to make up our bench are nearly perfect to round out the ball club.

C-John Stearns (19.6)
INF-Bud Harrelson (18.7)
OF-Brandon Nimmo (18.7+)
UT-Jeff McNeil (18.2+)

We get a backup catcher, an infielder with a glove, an outfielder who can play center field as well as the other two positions, and then the ultimate utility man. These are conveniently the next four players listed on the WAR charts for the Mets. Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil add a modern flare to the team. They get a plus sign next to their names. Their WAR totals are as of the start of June 2023.

If there is one possible change to make it might be to swap out Bud Harrelson for the next guy on the WAR list, Cleon Jones. This Mets roster already has Howard Johnson as a potential backup infielder. Adding Harrelson and Jeff McNeil might be a little overkill. This gives them with only Brandon Nimmo as a true backup outfielder. McNeil could easily serve this role anyway. And because he recently nudged himself above Cleon Jones and his 18.1 WAR with the Mets, he’ll be here when this hypothetical game never takes place.

Others just missing the cut are John Olerud (17.3), Lenny Dykstra (16.5), and Pete Alonso (15.8) as well as Kevin McReynolds (15.8).

We have a pretty good roster so far. Now we turn our attention to the pitching staff.

All-time NY Mets starting pitching staff based only on WAR

We’ve already revealed the most obvious ace of the staff, Tom Seaver. What about the rest of the guys? Here’s how the full starting five would look.

SP1-Tom Seaver (76.1)
SP2-Dwight Gooden (41.6)
SP3-Jacob deGrom (41.2)
SP4-Jerry Koosman (39.5)
SP5-Al Leiter (28.0)

Every generation of Mets fans has a guy in this rotation. Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman cover the ones who’ve lingered around for a long time. Dwight Gooden has fans from the 80s. Al Leiter gets those who fell in love with the team in the 90s. Then there’s Jacob deGrom who gets the youngest generation of all the most excited.

None of these pitchers are active with the Mets and barring a return by deGrom to Queens the numbers aren’t changing. In fact, none of the Mets pitchers currently on the team or still active in baseball are all that close to joining this list.

Sid Fernandez (27.6) was the next man who had a chance to possibly make it. Instead, we’ll settle with just two lefties in the rotation.

Theoretically, we might want to separate Koosman and Leiter in the rotation. Back-to-back lefties might not work out so well.

You could have probably named these five as your starters without even WAR. But now we’ve arrived at the final part of any all-time roster, the bullpen. Who will be summoned in relief to finish games for this team?