Left field is next in the off day wins above replacement (WAR) series. Here are the top 10 seasons by Mets left fielders, per Sean Smith's WAR database:
| Rank | Year | Player | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1996 | Bernard Gilkey | 8.0 |
| 2 | 1969 | Cleon Jones | 7.5 |
| 3 | 2005 | Cliff Floyd | 4.9 |
| 4 | 1988 | Kevin McReynolds | 4.6 |
| 5 | 1971 | Cleon Jones | 3.9 |
| 6 | 1990 | Kevin McReynolds | 3.8 |
| 7 | 1989 | Kevin McReynolds | 3.5 |
| 8 | 2003 | Cliff Floyd | 3.5 |
| 9 | 1976 | John Milner | 3.4 |
| 10 | 1968 | Cleon Jones | 3.2 |
And the bottom 10:
| Rank | Year | Player | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|
| 38 | 1986 | George Foster | 0.0 |
| 39 | 1993 | Vince Coleman | 0.0 |
| 40 | 1973 | Cleon Jones | -0.1 |
| 41 | 1998 | Bernard Gilkey | -0.1 |
| 42 | 1995 | Joe Orsulak | -0.4 |
| 43 | 2002 | Roger Cedeno | -0.4 |
| 44 | 1982 | George Foster | -0.7 |
| 45 | 1964 | George Altman | -0.9 |
| 46 | 1981 | Lee Mazzilli | -0.9 |
| 47 | 2001 | Benny Agbayani | -1.1 |
Some quick thoughts:
- Bernard Gilkey's 1996 season was ridiculous, and it matches David Wright's 2007 for the most valuable season in team history. Gilkey also has the biggest gap between most and least valuable seasons, at 8.1 WAR.
- Cliff Floyd is the man.
- The Kevin McReynolds era was slightly before my time, but almost everything I've read implies that he was regarded as lazy and didn't care about winning, despite his solid performance. Sounds like Carlos Beltran!
- Before I learned that there's more to evaluating baseball players than batting average and stolen bases, I thought Roger Cedeno was pretty awesome. Apparently Steve Phillips did too, as he gave Cedeno a 4 year, $18 million contract following a replacement level season. Then again, Cedeno was part of the trade for Mike Hampton, who the Mets indirectly swapped for Wright, so maybe Cedeno had some value after all.