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UltiMET of the Millennium Madness: 2015-2019

This region features players from the 2015 NL Champions, and some rising stars from the team’s most recent season

By Vasilis Drimalitis
2020 BBWAA Awards Dinner Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images

We just spent the better part of three weeks reliving some horrific memories from our New York Mets fandom as we voted on the biggest villain in franchise history (congratulations again to Fred and Jeff Wilpon. It was a truly well-deserved win.) We got tired of dwelling on the bad, so we thought it was time to turn our attention to better memories. As a result, we brainstormed some ideas over at Amazin’ Avenue HQ on how to participate in something far more pleasant. The idea of doing a bracket for all-time Mets seemed pretty obvious but also a little bit played out, so we instead turned our sights to focusing on recent players.

Introducing the UltiMET of the Millennium Madness tournament! Over the next three weeks, we will see who really was the best player to don the orange and blue since the year 2000 began. We came up with 68 players who have left a mark (big and small) on the team, and we’ll have the Amazin’ Avenue community vote to see who moves on each time.

For simplicity and for neatness, we broke down the brackets into four five-year spans: 2000-2004, 2005-2009, 2010-2014, and 2015-2019. Conveniently, this translated roughly to the Mike Piazza era, the early David Wright era, the later David Wright/early Citi Field era, and the Jacob deGrom/2015 NL Champions era. As a general rule, we tried to focus on players whose impact was felt within those years, so if a player made their mark mostly in 1997-1999, you may not see them in the 2000 bracket. We tried to stick players within the time frame where they made the most impact, but took some liberties in places in order to ensure we didn’t leave off players we wanted to see in the tournament.

After six tough years to kick off the Citi Field era, the Mets finally brought postseason baseball to their brand new ballpark in 2015 with a magical run. After storming out of the gate with an 11-1 record and meandering through much of the next three months, the Wilmer Flores trade that wasn’t, combined with Michael Conforto’s major league debut and Sandy Alderson trading for Yoenis Cespedes led to a fun World Series run.

One Wild Card game loss and two disappointing seasons later, Mets fans gave their team more to smile about in 2019. After struggling for much of the first half, the 2019 team rattled off 15 wins in 16 games to storm back to within striking distance of a playoff spot, and hung around for August and September despite some ups and downs. The club boasted a number of fun young stars, including the aforementioned Conforto along with Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso, J.D. Davis, and Dominic Smith (who have since become known as the Cookie Club).

Jacob deGrom was the easy choice to headline this region. After winning the Rookie of the Year award in 2015, deGrom has defined this era of Mets baseball even while getting less attention early on compared to Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard. deGrom separated himself from the “five aces” with consecutive Cy Young Awards, the first of which came in one of the most historic pitching seasons of the last decade. To date, the ace has posted a 2.62 ERA, a 2.78 FIP, a 1.05 WHIP, 1,255 strikeouts, and a 35.5 bWAR in 171 starts. He will draw Jerry Blevins in the first round, after the reliever topped Ty Kelly in the vote-in game.

Alonso, even with just one year under his belt, earned the number two spot after putting up numbers that no Met—not Piazza, not Wright, not anyone else—have put up. Alonso blasted 53 home runs to set not only the franchise single-season mark, but the all-time rookie mark after topping Yankees’ slugger Aaron Judge and his 52-homer season in 2017. Alonso concluded his rookie campaign with a .250/.358/.583 slash line with a 143 wRC+ and a 4.8 fWAR while playing in 161 games. The 53 home runs were more than enough to get Alonso National League Rookie of the Year honors. He will square off against friend and fellow first baseman Smith in the first round.

First round voting will remain open until Thursday, April 16! Voting is also open for 2000-2004, 2005-2009, and 2010-2014 until Thursday!

Poll

1 vs. 16: Jacob deGrom vs. Jerry Blevins

This poll is closed

  • 97%
    Jacob deGrom
    (271 votes)
  • 2%
    Jerry Blevins
    (7 votes)
278 votes total Vote Now

Poll

8 vs. 9: Jeurys Familia vs. Wilmer Flores

This poll is closed

  • 21%
    Jeurys Familia
    (60 votes)
  • 78%
    Wilmer Flores
    (217 votes)
277 votes total Vote Now

Poll

5 vs. 12: Michael Conforto vs. J.D. Davis

This poll is closed

  • 94%
    Michael Conforto
    (263 votes)
  • 5%
    J.D. Davis
    (15 votes)
278 votes total Vote Now

Poll

4 vs. 13: Yoenis Cespedes vs. Asdrubal Cabrera

This poll is closed

  • 88%
    Yoenis Cespedes
    (249 votes)
  • 11%
    Asdrubal Cabrera
    (31 votes)
280 votes total Vote Now

Poll

6 vs. 11: Jeff McNeil vs. Seth Lugo

This poll is closed

  • 85%
    Jeff McNeil
    (238 votes)
  • 15%
    Seth Lugo
    (42 votes)
280 votes total Vote Now

Poll

3 vs. 14: Noah Syndergaard vs. Steven Matz

This poll is closed

  • 96%
    Noah Syndergaard
    (270 votes)
  • 3%
    Steven Matz
    (11 votes)
281 votes total Vote Now

Poll

7 vs. 10: Curtis Granderson vs. Brandon Nimmo

This poll is closed

  • 69%
    Curtis Granderson
    (194 votes)
  • 30%
    Brandon Nimmo
    (86 votes)
280 votes total Vote Now

Poll

2 vs. 15: Pete Alonso vs. Dominic Smith

This poll is closed

  • 95%
    Pete Alonso
    (265 votes)
  • 4%
    Dominic Smith
    (12 votes)
277 votes total Vote Now

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