Jose Reyes and the Curious Case of the Contract Year

A couple of days back into Creature Land and not one baseball post? Blasphemy! I can’t blame the guys or even myself for that though. This is notably the dullest time on the sports calendar with the MLB All-Star game around the corner and the other three pro leagues out of the picture (two indefinitely). No fear though, C-LO’s here to provide a sneak peak into the psyche of one of the game’s biggest question marks.

Jose Reyes should really consider adding to his tattoo collection: “I enjoy being a headache for my team and its fans”. Maybe get it done in Chinese symbols instead of English so passersby might mistake it to mean “strength”, “heart”, “determination” or any of the other ubiquitous words that kids are putting on their bodies these days. Point is,  Reyes has been known to cause riots in the streets of New York for his often dismal and unenthusiastic play. Of late though, things seem to have turned around for the mercurial star.

On August 3, 2006, Reyes signed a four-year, $23.25 million contract extension with the Mets, thereby avoiding salary arbitration with the anticipation that he would be their franchise shortstop for the next decade. Since signing his deal though, Reyes as made one more All-Star appearance than I have (one in 2010) and netted the same number of Gold Gloves (0). Not once has he hit .300 and his OBP and OPS are both civilian to say the least for a guy that was touted as the savior of a franchise. His play in the last month of  ’07 (.205 BA and 2.79 OBP) garnered much criticism as the Mets suffered a historic collapse by losing 12 of their last 17 games and missing the postseason. Losing almost all of 2009 to a calf injury, Reyes didn’t exactly make up for lost time. Until now.

In case you haven’t been following (and I can’t blame you if you haven’t) Reyes is murdering NL pitching. He leads the league in batting average, hitting a whopping .349 with just a few days left before the All-Star break. His OBP, OPS, and slugging percentages are the highest they’ve ever been in his career and he’s already stolen the same amount of bases in 77 games that he did all of last season. Coincidence? I think not. It’s not to say that Reyes doesn’t give a shit when he’s not in line for a new deal. It’s to say that he probably doesn’t give a shit when he isn’t in line for a new deal. Despite their best efforts, the Mets haven’t been relevant since game 7 of the 2006 NLCS when Carlos Beltran went down on an 0-2 curveball from Adam Wainwright. Dude has had nothing to play for until now. And now that he wants to get paid. This puts the Mets in a bigger mess than Casey Anthony.

With Reyes’ current performance being the Wilpon family’s first piece of good news since December, 2008, the franchise has to decide if they want to pony up the cash to keep a guy that could be one of the best at his position and maybe in the entire league. Problem is, who knows what version of #7 is going to show up to Citi Field as soon as his signature goes onto that proverbial dotted line? No one can pretend to know what’s going on in Reyes’ head, but history in all sports would indicate that guys playing for big bucks and many years suddenly start showing up to the park  or arena with a bit more hop in their step. (See Ortiz, David this season for further proof of this phenomenon.) These are the pros and cons that the Mets will have to weigh as they determine whether or not Reyes is worth diming off mid-season  for a host of minor leaguers to start rebuilding around.

So those are the options of the grief stricken Metropolitans. Dump the guy you once trusted to take your team back to the promise land or take a chance on him and hope he’s locked in for another 8 years. Then once he’s a 36 -year old SS, sign him for another 5 seasons. That’s worked before, right? Anyone?