3 Mets players we wish Statcast was around to track

3) Jose Reyes wreaked havoc on the basepaths in the mid-2000s, and his sprint speed compared with other great baserunners of his era could have been useful.

Jose Reyes made his major league debut the day before his 20th birthday in 2003, and he was tabbed as one of the most exciting players in baseball on one of the best teams in baseball. His speed gave opposing pitchers a distraction when it came to facing power hitters in Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, and David Wright, all of them perennial 30 home run and 100 RBI sluggers in what was one of the best lineups in baseball over a three-year period.

Reyes not only led the league in stolen bases three times, he also had enough gap-to-gap power to lead the league in triples four times as a Met and he was a good contact hitter. He became the first player in team in team history to win the league batting title, as he hit .337 in 2011.

So how exactly would Statcast have been useful in Reyes’ first stint as a Met? It would have been fascinating to see where Reyes ranked when compared to other shortstops like Jimmy Rollins in sprint speed and efficient baserunning, given the war of words between the division rivals in 2007 and 2008.

Statcast was around for Reyes' second tour of duty with the Mets from 2016 to 2018, but he was past his prime and didn't steal many bases, but the prime Reyes was the one that we wanted Statcast there to see.