What wasn’t memorable about that night, though, was the team around Santana. The 2012 Mets were, well, not very good. There were a lot of bad players on that team. Now, a lot has happened in the five years since that day for both the Mets as a team, and all of these players who were on the team that night. And while we know what’s happened to the Mets since then, we might not know what has happened to all of the players who were on that team. So let’s check in with all the players who were on the Mets’ 25-man roster on June 1, 2012, and see how things have gone for them over the last 1,825 days.

Lucas Duda, Daniel Murphy, R.A. Dickey, and David Wright: These are the only four players left from that game who are still on MLB rosters right now. We don’t really need to catch up with these guys, because we know all about how they’re doing. Duda is now a Good first baseman, Murphy is a star on the Nationals, and Dickey’s having a rough time of it on the Braves. Let’s not talk about Wright.

Mike Baxter: Baxter famously destroyed his body to preserve the no-hitter, but that was pretty much his peak. After the 2013 season, he was claimed off waivers by the Dodgers, whom he played literally one MLB game for in 2014. In 2015, he signed on with the Cubs, and had a cup of coffee in the big leagues with them, but didn’t fare well. He spent last year in the Mariners’ minor league system, but did not sign back with them for 2017. He remains a free agent, and his baseball career may be all but over.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis: And here I thought I never had to spell that name again. The former high school football player has spent the last two seasons with the Brewers, and has done exactly how you think he has. Last year, he walked 14% of the time, played solid defense, posted a .176 ISO, and struck out 33.9% of the time. This year, he was designated for assignment and later sent to Triple-A after a 2-for-25 start with 15 strikeouts. He’s still Kirk Nieuwenhuis.

Ike Davis: The no-hitter occurred before the Ike Davis ship had completely sunk, but the iceberg had been struck and the lower levels were beginning to flood. The Mets correctly chose Lucas Duda over Davis in 2014, and since then Davis has been released by the Pirates, Athletics, Rangers, and Yankees. His last MLB stint came last year on the Yankees for eight games. He then signed with the Dodgers this offseason, where he is now buried on the first base depth chart behind Adrian Gonzalez, Cody Bellinger, and apparently Chase Utley.

Josh Thole: He put up a 29 wRC+ in 50 games last year with the Blue Jays, and is now in the Diamondbacks’ minor league system. He underwent surgery over the offseason to repair a torn hamstring and is estimated to be out until around August.

Omar Quintanilla: After his Mets career ended, Quintanilla had a two-game stint in the Rockies minor league system before heading off to the Mexican League. He’s spent the last two years getting very infrequent playing time for Toros de Tijuana, totaling only 27 PAs over these past two seasons.

Jon Niese: Niese is still in the Yankees system and has been working in extended spring training.

Dillon Gee: Gee is pitching for the Rangers Triple-A affiliate. He has a 3.88 ERA in nine starts in the PCL so far, and has made one appearance for the Rangers’ MLB team.

Bobby Parnell: Parnell was exiled from the Mets after his disastrous 2015, and hasn’t had much success since then. He went to the Tigers last season and pitched only 5.1 innings in the majors, and this season is pitching in Triple-A for the Royals. He owns a 4.71 ERA in 21 innings so far.

Vinny Rottino: Did you know Rottino played on the 2012 Mets? Well he did, and he was on the 25-man roster for the no-no. He’d floated around the minor leagues since 2012, and finally retired from baseball last September. Hopefully he can now start up a pizza roll business and call it Rottino’s Pizza Rolls.

…That was a funny joke and you should laugh at it.

Andres Torres: Torres retired from baseball after 2014 after playing his final season in 2013 for the Giants. Sadly, Torres lost his wife, Soannie, to cancer this past December at the age of 37. Torres is still heavily involved in the Bay Area community, and is doing what he can to inspire inner city kids.

Scott Hairston: Jerry’s younger brother spent time with the Cubs and the Nationals in the two years after his Mets tenure ended. He was signed by the White Sox before the 2016 season, but was released after spring training. He technically remains a free agent, though it certainly looks as if his playing days are over.

Mike Nickeas: The non-elite prospect played one MLB game for the Blue Jays in 2013 after the Mets traded him, and retired from baseball in 2015. He went back to Georgia Tech to complete his degree in business administration last year, and now serves as the volunteer bench coach on the Georgia Tech baseball team. He was also the bench coach for the Great Britain National Team in the WBC qualifiers last fall.

Jordany Valdespin: Released by the Mets because of numerous attitude issues, Vladespin spent time with the Marlins and Tigers before heading to the Mexican League this year. He was promptly released in April by Leones de Yucatan after just 14 games with them because they couldn’t stand him either. However, he signed on to play for Olmecas de Tabasco just two days later, and he’s hitting .371/.470/.556 in 34 games with them. So that’s good. Valdespin is also now immortalized on Mets pre-and-post-game shows with Nelson Figueroa’s daily “I’m the Man Right Now” segments.

What’s more, the awful music video for the terrible rap song about him was removed from YouTube for some reason, though the atrocity still exists in audio form. As of this writing, that video has 11 views, and at least three of them are from me.

Jeremy Hefner: After two Tommy John surgeries, Hefner decided to retire from professional baseball this past January at the age of 31. It’s a sad end for Hefner, who looked like he had some potential as a useful fifth starter/swingman, which the Mets could really use right about now. But Hefner is now serving as an advance scout for the Twins, and continues to keep a strong social media presence along with his wife, Sarah.

Jon Rauch: Arguably the Mets’ best reliever in 2012, Rauch and his neck tattoos last pitched for the Marlins in 2013. He’s retired now, and owns a car shop called Bullpen Garage in Tucson, Arizona. According to the shop’s site, it is dedicated to off-road and 4×4 vehicles.

Ramon Ramirez: You may remember Ramirez as the guy who pulled his hamstring running in from the bullpen in the celebration after the no-hitter. After an unsuccessful season with the Mets in 2012, he had minor league stints with the Giants, Mariners, Orioles, Angels, and the Mexican League from 2013-2016, though he’s not signed anywhere for this season. He also has the most detailed Wikipedia page I’ve ever seen for a journeyman reliever.

Elvin Ramirez, Frank Francisco, Jack Egbert: These were relievers on the 2012 Mets. They were on the 25-man roster on June 1, 2012. They are no longer in baseball. This is the most information I could find about any of them.

Tim Byrdak: Byrdak was also a victim of anterior capsule surgery. He went under the knife in 2012, and it basically ended his career. He was able to return to the Mets in 2013, but only for a handful of innings, and has not played baseball anywhere since then. He has dabbled in announcing, even calling a few Mets spring training games with Josh Lewin in 2014, but he’s since gone back to college and is currently attending Robert Morris University working towards a degree.

Johan Santana: Santana made only 10 more starts in his MLB career after his no-hitter. He had a second anterior capsule surgery in 2013, which many thought would end his career, but to his credit, has tried his best to make a comeback.

Santana signed with the Orioles in 2014 on a minor-league deal. On June 6 of that season, he tore his Achilles tendon and missed the rest of the season. In 2015, he attempted another comeback, but halted his comeback attempt once again due to a toe infection. He went unsigned in 2016, though his agent said he was still trying to comeback. Reports were that Santana was going to pitch in the Venezuelan Winter League over the offseason, though I was unable to confirm if he actually did.

Santana, now 38, has likely seen his playing career come to an end. Nobody can deny the valor he showed towards the end, gutting out a 134-pitch effort while not fully recovered from major surgery and continuously trying to fight his way back into baseball, but it never worked out for him. Santana was legitimately one of the best pitchers in baseball for a decade, and his Mets career outside of the no-hitter may forever go underappreciated as well, due to the way it ended and the amount of money he was owed.

***

This was a bad team. There were other players not mentioned here, because they were not on the 25-man roster on June 1, 2012, due to injury. Jason Bay, Ruben Tejada, Ronny Cedeno, and Miguel Batista are a few of the names left off this list, and it’s probably a good thing they were. The fact that Santana was able to throw his no-hitter with this cast of characters around him makes it all the more impressive.

Photo credit: Kate Feldman

Thinking of Fernando Martinez, I started to wonder not only what happened to him but other players who I once followed. While some have stuck with the Mets, ultimately a lot of them–like Martinez–are long gone. I decided to follow up on some of them to see how their careers have progressed. Some are still trying to make it in the majors, some even became stars overseas.

Fernando Martinez

Fernando Martinez is the most depressing name on the list to me, as I had high hopes for him as a teenager. In 2008, he was only 19 years old and near the top of the major prospect rankings. Unfortunately, his career was derailed by frequent injuries. As Toby Hyde detailed back in 2012 at MetsBlog.com, every season Fernando Martinez just couldn’t stay healthy and had frequent long stints on the disabled list. The following is the number of games that Martinez played each season during his Mets career, including games in both the minors and major leagues.

In the 47 games that Martinez actually did play with the Met, he was mediocre. This led to his release from the organization at only 23 years of age. The Astros gave him a chance–he played 52 games with them–before trading him to the New York Yankees. During the 2013 season he was suspended 50 games for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal. The suspension marked the end of his professional baseball career at the age of 25. He has spent time in the Dominican Winter League and the Mexican League but no MLB franchise has given him another chance.

Nick Evans

Nick Evans is my favorite player on his list because I was able to buy both his and Daniel Murphy’s shirseys in 2009 and I always felt a connection with the two of them as I followed their trajectory to the majors. Unlike Murphy, Evans had a limited tenure with the Mets that lasted from 2008 to 2011 and never played more than 60 games in a year. After the Mets, he had a short time with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but never was able to stick in the majors long-term.

What makes Nick Evans interesting is his success in 2016 playing for Doosan Bears. Eric Thames’ success in the KBO got him signed to a three-year contract with the Milwaukee Brewers … but what about Nick Evans’ success?

Evans–after years of mediocrity domestically–was able to be one the best hitters in the KBO last year. I hope that if Evans can repeat this performance in 2017, that some team is willing to give him a chance to play in the majors again.

Josh Satin

The replacement for Nick Evans on the Mets was Josh Satin, a 2008 sixth-round pick out of UC Berkley. Satin was able to appeal to the Jewish fan base but never really stuck in the majors. He was replaced full-time by Lucas Duda and never got a major role with the team again. After an unsuccessful season playing for the Cincinnati Reds’ Triple-A affiliate in 2015 and 18 games with the San Diego Padres Triple-A team in 2016, he retired from professional baseball due to injury complications. However, for those who miss Josh Satin (hey, Jeff Paternostro!), he can be seen this March, playing for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic.

Mike Baxter

Mike Baxter was a hometown favorite from Whitestone who lasted three seasons with the Mets. He is most remembered for making a spectacular catch while crashing into the outfield wall that preserved Johan Santana’s no-hitter, the first and only one in the team’s history. He was waived after the 2013 season and moved onto brief stints with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs. He spent the 2016 season in the minors with the Seattle Mariners and is currently a minor league free agent looking for a job.

Omir Santos

Despite only playing in only 96 games for the New York Mets, Omir Santos made his presence felt on the team. For his first home run as a Met, he hit a grand slam. However, his big moment was against the Boston Red Sox, on May 23, 2009. With the Mets down to their final out, Santos hit the ball high off the top of the Green Monster off of Jonathan Papelbon. Originally ruled a double, Santos was awarded a home run upon video review giving the Mets the lead and propelling them to a 3-2 victory over the Sox. Despite Santos’ decent season he was replaced the next season by a combination of Rod Barajas and the forgettable Henry Blanco (I didn’t even remember played for the Mets). He became a minor league free agent after the 2010 season and subsequently signed with the Detroit Tigers. As a member of the Tigers he only played in 14 more games before spending his final season in the minors of the Cleveland Indians, where he got to make one plate appearance in the majors. He is technically a minor league free agent currently despite not having played professional since 2014. His career is most likely over but at least he gave Mets fans a couple of great memories.

Jeff Duncan

The other time I got to see the Binghamton Mets was in 2004. It was particularly memorable as I got to meet Jeff Duncan who played 56 games in 2003 and 13 games in 2004 for the New York Mets. (Sidenote: I was hoping to meet Scott Kazmir but he was traded a week before in the horrendous, legendary deal for Victor Zambrano.) Duncan couldn’t autograph a baseball for me before the doubleheader but was nice enough to fulfill his promise to do so in between games of the doubleheader. Unfortunately, he never made the majors again despite playing in the minors for the San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. Since his retirement in 2008, he has gone on to become a coach at the collegiate level, coaching at both Auburn and Purdue before getting an opportunity to be the head coach of the Kent State Golden Flashes since 2014.

While these players may never play at the MLB level again, I am thankful for the memories that they have helped shape in my New York Mets fandom.

Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

April 1, 1996 — Rey Ordoñez’s Relay

The throw wasn’t mythic, but the events that followed were. At least, they were in my young mind. The best part of the highlight, obviously, is the throw. As a shortstop out in left field taking a limp relay throw, the play would have been a highlight if he were on two feet, if only for the display of accuracy and strength to the plate. Except he threw from his knees, and the throw was still accurate and strong. The other great part of the highlight is Royce Clayton’s reaction to getting thrown out. He looks like he got shot.

That play lodged the notion that Ordoñez was a great, great baseball player in my head. He wasn’t. But what more can one want in a timeless highlight than the mere mention of a person to evoke an idea in time?

— Eric Garcia-McKinley (@garcia_mckinley)

October 9, 1999 — Todd Pratt Sends the Mets to the NLCS

Many of the best highlights in baseball history come out of completely nowhere. No one predicted Bill Mazeroski would be the first hitter to win a World Series with a homer or Daniel Murphy suddenly becoming Babe Ruth in last year’s playoffs.

Sixteen years before Murphy, an even more anonymous player stole the show. Todd Pratt was not even supposed to be in the lineup in Game 4 of the 1999 NLDS against the Diamondbacks. Hell, he was fortunate to even be in a uniform; three years prior, the backup catcher was out of baseball entirely. The Mariners cut him in spring training and he spent most of the next year coaching at Bucky Dent’s baseball school in Florida while also managing a Domino’s franchise.

By necessity, the Mets reached out to him for catching depth, and he worked his way up from Triple-A Norfolk to become new star Mike Piazza’s regular backup. In 1999, the Mets were back in the playoffs for the first time in 11 years but suddenly without their franchise catcher, as an allergic reaction to a cortisone shot forced Piazza to the bench in the middle of the NLDS. They overcame the big loss to win Game 3 and had Arizona on the brink of defeat in extra innings of Game 4. Up stepped Pratt, who had just 16 homers during his seven-year career.

Pratt crushed the pitch from Matt Mantei deep into center field. Steve Finley ran back to the warning track and jumped for the ball. It seemed like he might have a play:

Finley juuuuuuust missed it, as the ball went narrowly by his glove and over the wall for a walk-off home run. Pratt was the first National Leaguer in 39 years (since Mazeroski himself) to win a playoff series with a homer, and the victory came from just as unlikely a source. Baseball is beautiful.

— Andrew Mearns (@MearnsPSA)

October 17, 1999 — Robin Ventura’s Grand Slam Single

This was the last truly enjoyable moment of a surprising and satisfying 1999 playoff run. Of course, it all ended with a gut-punch conclusion to an NLCS Game 6 that still gives some fans night terrors. But before the darkness, there was light: Ventura’s chill-inducing, game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the 15th inning of Game 5 at Shea Stadium. Todd Pratt had won the NLDS with his dramatic dinger, but Ventura’s late-night tater was so stirring that he didn’t even get to round the bases and earn credit for all four runs. Good thing the Mets only needed a single run to record the win, so I’m sure Ventura was A-OK with logging a mere RBI single — the longest and most dramatic RBI single in New York Mets history.

— Erik Malinowski (@erikmal)

September 21, 2011 — Mike Piazza’s Post-9/11 Home Run

The greatest hitter in Mets History. Ten days after the worst day in New York history.

There were two ways to go with greatest highlight: one, pick the best baseball moment — like a World Series title, or the Endy catch, or the Rey Ordonez throw; or two, pick something bigger than the game. Obviously, the Piazza homer falls into the latter category.

Baseball cannot solve terrorism, or provide a road map to balance security and civil liberties, or bring back 9/11’s victims or rebuild the countless lives damaged in the attack and the subsequent, endless war. But it does provide home runs, and special moments.

— Toby Hyde (@tobyhyde)

May 21, 2005 — Dae-Seung Koo Doubles and Scores off Randy Johnson 

There have been over 1,000 New York Mets players in history, but my favorite Mets moment comes courtesy of a Korean pitcher named Dae-Seung Koo. Some will remember him as a left-handed reliever who lasted one season in the majors. I will remember him for one of my favorite Met moments. In his first major league at-bat, Koo stationed himself far away from the plate and took every pitch, striking out. But Willie Randolph decided to give Koo a second at-bat with the Mets leading against Randy Johnson and the Yankees on May 21st.

With Koo once again stationed far away from the plate, he took the first two pitches. But on the third pitch, Koo swung hard — crushing the ball over Bernie Williams’s head in center field for a double. The crowd and the announcers went crazy. Never has a double to lead off the bottom of the 7th brought Mets fans so much energy and excitement.  Koo was not done. Jose Reyes bunted in an attempt to sacrifice Koo to third. Jorge Posada fielded the bunt in front of home plate and threw to first to retire Reyes. But Koo — seeing Posada several feet away from his position — dashed home and dove head-first to beat the first baseman’s return throw. But while this may forever last in my memory, this play most likely stunted the Major League career of Dae-Seung Koo: the dive home injured his shoulder, he pitched poorly the rest of the year, and was subsequently sold back to Korea.

— Seth Rubin (@sethrubin)

June 1, 2012 — Mike Baxter’s Catch to Preserve Johan Santana’s No-Hitter

That Friday night, my wife and I had an 8:30 dinner reservation at a restaurant 15 minutes from my house: We’d been married on a June 1st nine years prior. Why not watch the start of the Mets game until it was time to leave? We sat side-by-side on the sofa, as we always have. The Mets plated two in the bottom of the fourth (Nieuwenhuis single, Wright double, Duda sac fly, Murphy triple) but the big news was on the other side of the line score.

There was no controversy in our decision to not leave for dinner until the Cardinals got their inevitable first hit of the game off Johan Santana. I called the restaurant to cancel after the top of the fifth. When a three-run Duda dinger put the Mets up 5-0 after six, the Mets had a 98% win probability but the game’s outcome remained in considerable doubt.

The seventh inning first brought up the prior year’s World Series hero, David Freese. Santana got him to pop out to first. Next came noted Mets Villain Yadier Molina. Johan fell behind, 3-1. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Molina uncorked one to the deepest part of left field. Mike Baxter took a great circle route backward that Statcast would find less than efficient. But as Baxter reached the warning track, he stretched out, caught the ball, and proceeded to ram his unprotected shoulder into the hard outfield wall.

As Baxter walked off the field with the trainer holding his damaged shoulder, the Citi Field crowd gave him a standing ovation. Baxter had been hitting .323/.392/.523 in 2012 before the injury. When he returned from the DL on July 30, he hit just .228 the rest of the way, and then just .198 in parts of the next three seasons.

Baxter is currently hitting .249/.341/.423 for Seattle’s Triple-A team. He sacrificed himself for Johan’s greater glory. Pretty good anniversary, too.

— Scott D. Simon (@scottdsimon)

July 14, 2015 — Jacob deGrom’s Dominant All-Star Game Performance

The word “highlight” often connotes one event, a flash-in-the-pan occurrence that exists as a singular exemplar of excellence. But pitching has the ability to stretch highlights so that they encompass a series of events, to show that repetition can be brilliant in its own right. When Jacob deGrom began the sixth inning of the 2015 All-Star Game, 74 pitchers had compiled an immaculate inning. None had ever done so in an All-Star Game, against a three-man stretch of some of the best hitters the game has to offer. In deGrom’s 2015 All-Star performance, he fired eight straight fastballs — the velocity of which increased from 96 to 98 mph between the first and eighth pitch — seven for strikes, and finished with two nasty cutters low for swinging strikes. Though he missed immaculate status by one errant fastball, and though this highlight came in a Mets jersey but not in a Mets game, it’s imperfect; but dominance like that is its own form of perfection.

— Brian Duricy (@briansusername_)

July 31, 2015 — Wilmer Flores’s Post-Non-Trade Walk-Off Home Run

This is the one Mets highlight that I can think of, at least that I have seen, in which the joy I get from watching it comes from feeling so great for the player. When Flores hit that walk off homer, a night after crying because he believed he’d been traded, it was just too perfect an ending to imagine. The non-trade has really paid dividends for the Mets — Carlos Gomez  has struggled and Yoenis Cespedes has raked — but the original mishandling of its reporting led to the emotion we saw from Flores, a type of emotion we usually don’t see on a baseball field.

No this homer didn’t propel the Mets into the playoffs, or win a pivotal game, but it was the perfect storybook ending for a guy who wanted nothing more than to be a Met.

— Tyler Plofker (@TylerPlofker)

October 10, 2015 — Yoenis Cespedes’s NLDS Bat-Flip

This seems appropriate, because it is a highlight I have only seen as…well, a highlight. I  was working the NLDS for Baseball Prospectus, which in addition to being a weirdly surreal experience, meant I had to act like a member of the working press. So like a good member of the working press, I was charging my cell phone in the media lounge during the game’s middle innings. The lounge had plenty of TVs, of course (as well as Keith Hernandez watching, keeping score, and complaining about first base defense, despite not being on air) and piped in the radio feed as well. The radio feed was live, and thus a bit ahead of the TV broadcast. So I heard Wayne Randazzo’s call before I even saw the Alex Wood pitch. I also felt the stadium shake. That will clue you in. The home run was majestic, an exclamation point on the first Mets home playoff game since the unpleasant denouement of 2006. But I haven’t watched that clip roughly 350 times because of the home run. Cespedes hits crazy bombs all the time. It’s part of his charm. No,  this is my favorite Mets highlight because of the bat flip. It’s mesmerizing. The Mets still had to beat one of Kershaw or Greinke again, and as that bat lands, you are convinced it is going to  happen. Yo knows.

— Jeffrey Paternostro (@jeffpaternostro)

October 30, 2015 — David Wright’s World Series Home Run

David Wright’s home run in Game 3 of the 2015 World Series will always have special meaning for me. Strictly on a personal level, it was the first World Series game I ever attended in person. It was the only game the Mets actually won during the World Series. And Wright gave the Mets an early lead in dramatic fashion by going deep in his first home at-bat in his first World Series appearance. It felt appropriate but also long overdue. Years of frustration and disappointment released in one swing. It was palpable. Knowing all that he had to go through to make that moment possible made it even more special. The rest of that weekend didn’t go according to plan, but I can always look back at this video for some warm-fuzzies.

— D.J. Short (@djshort)

May 7, 2016 — Bartolo Colon’s First Career Home Run

At a certain point in life, you realize your biggest athletic feats are probably in the rear-view mirror. You’ll never be able to dunk a basketball. You’ll never be able to hit a home run. You’ll look more like Bartolo Colon than Matt Harvey when he posed nude for ESPN the Magazine. The great thing about Bartolo is he doesn’t seem to care. He’s enjoying every minute he gets to stay in baseball, and we get to enjoy every at-bat. A couple months ago, he hit his first career home run at age 42 — the oldest any player hit his first homer. It seemed as probable as you or I hitting a big league homer! (Well, you may have more power.) Fun, wacky, and completely unexpected? That’s why I watch baseball.

— Noah Grand (@noahgrand)

Featured Photo Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Below you’ll find our staff’s picks for some of their favorite former (and current!) Mets non-stars, and why.

Ed Kranepool – 4.8 career WARP

Kranepool is perhaps the Metsiest Met in team history, and one of my personal favorites. One of only three Mets who spent his entire career with the team (alongside Ron Hodges and David Wright) Kranepool made his major league debut in 1962 as a 17-year-old from the Bronx fresh out of James Monroe High School. Kranepool played 18 seasons with the Mets as a first baseman, then pinch hitter, before retiring in 1979. With an unspectacular career WARP of 4.8 and batting average of .261, Kranepool nevertheless managed to lead the organization in hits, total bases, sacrifice flies, and total plate appearances for several decades before being overtaken by Wright; he still holds the record for most games played. Kranepool earned himself a spot in the Mets Hall of Fame just by sticking around, the posterchild for the loyalty and heart any true fan needs to weather those inevitable Mets-related heartbreaks. Plus, he’s a leftie, and we southpaws have to stick together. — Sara Novic

Turk Wendell – 4.5 career WARP

Would Steven John Wendell–the only major leaguer in Quinnipiac College Bobcat history, the one-time Mets single-season record holder for pitcher appearances, and the setup man who posted a solid 3.34 ERA over five seasons in Flushing–have imprinted on the hearts and minds of turn-of-the-century Mets fans if he wasn’t the Turk?

Turk’s quirks are legend. His name immediately brings to mind three widely-televised superstitions. Wendell chewed black licorice on the field, brushed his teeth in the dugout, and wore a necklace made from the bones and teeth of animals he’d hunted and killed. But few fans realize that Turk chewed licorice because he never chewed tobacco. As a devout Christian (he drew three crosses on the mound before every inning – then licked the dirt off his finger), Wendell didn’t drink, either. With another colorfully-nicknamed New York reliever making recent news for misguided anti-bat-flip sentiment, it’s notable that for all Turk’s eccentricities, he was unafraid to speak his mind while he played. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Wendell was willing to comment on the record when Barry Bonds’s trainer was indicted.

As today’s relievers throw harder than ever, they’re seemingly also more fungible–in both repertoire and personality. Let’s all remove our “useless” socks in tribute to one of the originals. — Scott D. Simon

Ty Wigginton – 7.0 career WARP

The post-Subway Series malaise was not an enjoyable stretch, but there were some scattered bright spots in the Art Howe Memorial Tire Fire: Jose Reyes, David Wright … and Wigginton? While he didn’t have nearly the talent of the former two, there was something entertaining about him. Maybe it was the sight of a stocky dude trying his very best to man the hot corner. Maybe it was the surprise of his occasional pop—he took Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, and Josh Beckett deep in the same year. Maybe it was his odd resemblance to the boss from Doki Doki Panic / Super Mario Bros. 2.

The 2002 Baseball Prospectus Annual released before his debut said “The expiration date on his prospect status is approaching.” It never really looked like he belonged, but he still forged an 11-year career. One particularly impressive Wigginton fact: he hit more homers than fine hitters like Kevin Youkilis, Mike Lieberthal, and the late Tony Phillips. Not too shabby. — Andrew Mearns

Wilmer Flores – 2.8 career WARP

Writing against nationalism, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche foretold of a “super-national and nomadic species of man” who wasn’t bound to ally himself with a place of birth. In baseball, it’s a fun exercise to explore players who have embodied that nomadic spirit, but those men don’t exhibit the power of a hearty, positive example of this nationalism of sorts: team pride. When Flores cried on the field in late July last year amid rumors of his being traded from the Mets, he signaled that the power of sports and the familial nature of teams need not exist only between fans. Now, he’s playing quite well amongst a crowded infield during Spring Training, learning first base from Keith Hernandez and posting a .431 on-base percentage. But statistics don’t tell the full story: nobody wants to play in Flushing more than Flores. Who could ask for anything more? — Brian Duricy

Daryl Boston – 7.5 career WARP

Boston, who as the #7 overall pick of the Chicago White Sox never lived up to expectations for the Sox, Mets, Rockies or Yankees, was an easy pick as my favorite Mets non-star. One Friday night, in late August 1992 my Mom and I, age 10, headed to a Mets game, without my dad and sister for some reason. Anyway, because it was just the two of us, and the Mets were “The Worst Team that Money Could Buy,” we scalped a great pair of seats first base side, field level.

With one out in the bottom of the eighth inning on August 28, and the Mets down a run, Boston came off the bench as a pinch-hitter to to blast a game-tying home run off Scott Bankhead of the Cincinnati Reds. (I would have told you, before looking it up, that Boston hit a walkoff in game one of the doubleheader against a team wearing red. He didn’t. It turns out that Kevin Bass’ sacrifice fly brought home Chico Walker with the winning run later in the eighth.)

Between games of the doubleheader, Boston, in a good mood, came out of the dugout. With his game one homer fresh, he earned star-level treatment by all the kids in the section. My Daryl Boston signed Mets hat became my most prized possession. It was a snapback with green fabric on the underside of the brim. I wore that De-Bo hat for years, until it was discolored and nearly falling apart, a reminder of one of my favorite nights at the ballpark of my life. — Toby Hyde

Eric Young Jr. – 2.8 career WARP

On June 18, 2013, the Mets acquired the fastest man in baseball. (Possibly.) That’s damning with faint praise, as the Rockies designated Young for assignment two weeks prior. He was speedy … but also not very good. Before coming to the Mets, Young Jr. hit .242/.290/.352, with a True Average of .225 in 57 games for the Rockies. To boot, he had only stolen eight bags. Despite joining the club in June, Young Jr. logged the third most innings in the outfield for the 2013 Mets. That’s just damning.

Young Jr. witnessed a marginal reversal of fortune with more playing time in New York—he improved to .251/.318/.329 as a member of the Mets in 2013. That improved his TAv to .239, and he stole 38 bases, giving him 46 for the season. Young Jr. stayed on for 2014, and despite being around for the full year, he logged less playing time. Now a 31-year-old sojourner, he made a forgettable late season cameo with the Mets in 2015. And did I mention he was once the fastest man in baseball? — Eric Garcia-McKinley

Gregg Jefferies – 17.7 career WARP

I was only five when the Mets won the World Series in 1986, so I don’t remember much about the great teams of the mid- to late-80s. One of my earliest memories is of Gary Carter, who became my favorite player when my father brought me an autographed photo after meeting him one day. The Kid was a star but Gregg Jefferies stands out as the other significant player in my burgeoning Mets fandom for an entirely different reason. Jefferies was named Baseball America Minor League Player of the year for both the 1986 and 1987 seasons–I did not know or care about that at the time–but my fascination with him was based solely in the similarity of our names. Young Craig Jeffrey Glaser didn’t care about Gregg Jefferies leading the league with 40 doubles in 1990, but he did feel a kinship with the young infielder in whom he heard a little bit of himself. Jefferies eventually moved on but his time with the Mets was formative to my love of the sport and the team. — Craig Glaser

Endy Chavez – 6.7 career WARP

Chavez did cool things on the baseball field. “Endy Things” were largely the aesthetically pleasing events an old sportswriter might fawn over: taking an extra base by hustling here, a perfect bunt there, a big catch flying in from outside the picture, or a clutch hit you’d remember for awhile. Endy would create excitement, and he’d do it with a big smile.

The most famous Endy Thing is “The Catch,” his way-over-the-wall snowcone robbery of a would-be Scott Rolen home run in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, in front of a billboard poetically touting “The Strength To Be There.” Another Endy Thing happened seconds later; Chavez rebounded off the wall in perfect position to hit the cutoff man, then doubled off Jim Edmonds to end the inning. There was an extra out to be had, so Endy was there.

Chavez gained a reputation as a clutch player–a reputation that does not bear out in his situational hitting splits. If you look at his player card, it looks like he was just a glove-and-speed fourth outfielder. Then you remember that he once pulled off a two-out walk-off bunt and smile at the memory. — Jarrett Seidler

Cliff Floyd – 27.0 career WARP

Oft-injured (like so many Mets left fielders), Floyd still managed to leave an impression as he helped bridge the gap between the Piazza Mets and the Wright Mets. His performance with them waxed and waned, but he was in vintage form in 2005 when his career-high 34 home runs were a bright spot (along with the aforementioned Wright’s breakout year and Pedro being Pedro) in an otherwise sleepy season. His years and shoddy Achilles tendon caught up with him in 2006, and while he missed a lot of the wild run up to the playoffs, he killed it in the division series. Though the on-field effect of clubhouse leadership can be exaggerated, his impact on that front was undeniable, playing a huge role in Wright’s and Reyes’s transition to the majors. Just another quiet contribution from Uncle Cliffy. — Maggie Wiggin

Lucas Duda – 8.1 career WARP

I’ve spent a lot of time pontificating on this topic this past offseason so I might as well make these my first words on this website: Duda is good. I am an unabashed Lucas Duda fan and not just because of the home runs, the walks, and the generally average defense at first base. It’s a lot more than that. Lucas Duda is a quiet, humble guy who often comes across as awkward and I find that to be incredibly endearing. In a way, he reminds me of myself and how I assume I would come across if I had a camera, microphones, and dozens of reporters standing in front of me asking mundane questions about my day. Not only is he good but he seems like a regular guy and that resonates with me.

It also doesn’t hurt that he mashes long dingers, 57 of them combined over the past two seasons! I like dingers, dingers are great. But I do not like Dinger the Rockies mascot, he’s the worst. Strange how that works out. — Steve Schreiber

Bobby Jones – 15.5 career WARP

I’ve always gravitated towards the players who touch incredible, but toil as workaday regulars. I don’t know if that’s because I see a bit of myself in the mediocre, but it’s led me to some very strange choices as far as favorite ballplayers go. On the advent of becoming a teenager, I was Jones’s biggest booster. He didn’t do one thing particularly well: he wasn’t a guy who got a lot of whiffs (5.3 career strikeouts per nine) or ground balls (47 percent career grounder rate), nor was he a masterful control artist. He just kind of showed up, got outs, and went on his merry way. I loved that. He made an All-Star team in 1997 on the strength of a 10-2 start, and I loved that too.

But it was never going to last. Despite being a foundation of the team’s rotation for half a decade, by 2000 Jones was an afterthought–the fifth starter on a good team but fading quickly into inadequacy. During one game in the 2000 NLDS? He was golden. He quieted the San Francisco Giants, twirling a complete game one-hitter, shutting down the greatest hitter in baseball history(?), defying all odds. He’d leave as a free agent after the Subway Series, as perhaps as the team had grown too big and good to carry a starter of his diminishing profile. But for a tall kid who couldn’t do anything perfectly on the ballfield and dreamed of just one great moment on the diamond, he was the perfect hero. — Bryan Grosnick

Jose Valverde – 11.2 career WARP

I don’t have any favorite Mets or rooting interest but I always did enjoy covering the coterie of lottery tickets the club brought in. They were either former All-Stars washed up on shore past their expiration date or the platoon players that couldn’t even fill that half-cocked role. For every Marlon Byrd, there was a Daisuke Matsuzaka or Chris Young. But none was more fun to cover than Jose Valverde. He was clearly in who gives a bleep mode by the time he got to Queens. Blown save? He just explained it away like no big deal. Diminished velocity? Man, I’m trying to actually pitch that way, he’d says. There’s a reason the Mets needed to trade for actual major leaguers before they started winning last year. But the Papa Grande era sure was interesting, at least. — Mike Vorkunov

Brian Bannister – 5.8 career WARP

Most of the love for Bannister comes from the SABR set. He was one of the first to study advanced metrics and integrate them into his game on the field. He was an articulate analyst from the moment he arrived in the majors–SNY dropped him in pre-and-post while he was recuperating from a hamstring strain after just five starts in the majors. He once said in an interview that zone-contact percentage was the most important stat for a pitcher. Heck, you’d probably be surprised to learn that he didn’t have a cameo as himself in “MoneyBart.”

My appreciation for Banny comes from the scouting side, though. One of the first games I watched with a real eye towards evaluation was a start in New Britain in 2005. Like his rotation-mate for Binghamton, Yusmeiro Petit, he was putting up eye-catching Eastern League numbers without any 6s on the scouting report. There’s one or two of these guys in most Double-A rotations: 88-92, four-pitch mix, solid command. Projecting them for any big league success is a risky game. But something about Bannister stood out that night. Maybe I am projecting backwards off a decade of watching games now (I had equally strong feelings that night about Anderson Hernandez, so…), but there was an alchemy in the performance–Double-A lead that looked like major league gold. He didn’t consistently reach the mid-rotation heights I thought possible at the time–whether it was the injuries, or just the fine margins he would always play with–but it was my first instructive lesson in not scouting the stat line. Even if the stat line is pointing you in the right direction. — Jeffrey Paternostro

Mike Baxter – 0.8 career WARP

A Queens native and lifelong Mets fan, Baxter was a success story the moment he debuted for the Mets in 2011. Years removed from contending and years away from returning to October, Met fans were desperate for any positive story around the team, and Baxter gave them one. His first two seasons with the club were surprisingly productive; Baxter posted a 117 wRC+ in a platoon role and even tied the major league record for walks in a nine-inning game (five). However, his routine contributions will forever be overshadowed by this:

Baxter’s catch prevented Yadier Molina from breaking fans’ hearts yet again and kept Johan Santana’s no-hitter intact. He was never the same after that injury though, struggling in 2013 and eventually getting released. Nevertheless, he permanently enshrined himself in his hometown team’s history. — Lukas Vlahos

Erik Goeddel – 1.0 career WARP

There’s a good chance Goeddel won’t make the big league roster to start 2016, but I will always breathe a sigh of relief when he comes jogging out of the bullpen. It goes back to 2010: Goeddel was the reliever most likely to come in with runners on base for his college team. The Mets 2015 season reminds me a lot of UCLA’s 2010 season, and that was the first time I watched college baseball in person. UCLA had such a breakout year that they had to buy more seats … but they ultimately lost the College World Series to a team that kept having lucky late-inning hits and web gems. Kind of sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

The Mets drafted Erik Goeddel, UCLA’s good luck charm of a middle reliever, in the 24th round. He was never a sure thing to make it to the bigs–how many 24th round picks do?  But during the Mets’ breakout season last year, there was Goeddel succeeding in middle relief. And UCLA has maintained its upper echelon status since 2010! When I look at Goeddel, I think about the Mets’ potential to stay World Series contenders. — Noah Grand

Rick Reed – 19.1 career WARP

For a moment, I allowed my brain to run wild with the possibility: Not only would Reed throw the first no-hitter in Mets history, but it would be a perfect game. I hate to spoil this for you guys, but it didn’t happen. With seven outs separating Reed from franchise immortality, Wade Boggs doubled and brought me back to reality. But the significance of this event wasn’t lost on me, even as a teenager. The thing is, Reed wasn’t supposed to be there. A former replacement player, Reed had a journeyman’s career before joining the Mets’ rotation as a 32-year-old in 1997. Some players (like Boggs) may have held a grudge for his decision to cross the picket line, but Reed quickly became a favorite of mine for his efficiency on the mound. The arch-rival Braves had the brand-name pitchers during their dominant run in the NL East, but that made Reed all the more fun to root for by contrast. — D.J. Short

Daisuke Matsuzaka – 6.9 career WARP

Growing up a Boston Red Sox fan, I never got to appreciate the Mets at as deep of a level as some of my colleagues. That being said, I did want to add my own little flavor to this punch bowl, and that desire takes form in Matsuzaka. Of course no one would really summarize Matsuzaka as a star during his time on the Mets–across 122 innings from 2013-14, his 0.9 WARP would be spread out amongst 16 starts and 25 relief appearances. Although those innings weren’t incredibly notable, in 2014 he did compete for a starting spot in the rotation and notched one save early in the season. Injuries played a role in the latter half of that season, which would be followed by Dice-K returning to Japan, where he was every bit a star. His time with the Mets wasn’t the best, but it did represent the latter parts of a career that came with so much promise–never forget about that gyroball. — Shawn Brody

Rey Ordoñez – -0.1 career WARP

What I remember most is that he seemed to levitate off the Shea Stadium outfield grass and spin around on his knees in one fluid motion to get the runner at home. I didn’t remember Bernard Gilkey’s limp relay throw in from left. I didn’t remember that it was Jerry Dipoto who gave up the double to Ray Lankford that set this series of life-altering events in motion. I didn’t remember that it was Royce Clayton who, in his doomed pursuit of scoring from first, was victimized at home plate by instinctual defensive wizardry. But what I realized then (and remembered every day since) was that Rey Ordoñez was something to cherish when grasping a fielder’s glove at shortstop. With a bat in the box? Not so much. But, baby, that glove could keep you warm, even way out in the right field loge–at least it did on Opening Day 1996, when me and my father and 42,058 fans saw what Ordoñez could do for the first time.

His time in Queens was over before we knew it, but that glove on that day (and quite a few more days to come) taught me at a young age that should life come down to the fact that maybe you can only be good at one thing, be really damn good at that thing. — Erik Malinowski

Dae-Sung Koo – 0.2 career WARP

Mr. Koo played the perfect long con. Koo dug in against the most dominant left-handed pitcher of all time just days after his first major league plate appearance … and he stood no less than four feet from home plate with the bat never leaving his shoulder. In that moment, Koo looked disinterested, but the smile on his face as he entered the dugout suggested otherwise. Days later, during the Subway Series, he would have Randy Johnson right where he wanted him. Koo took the first two pitches from the Big Unit in the same manner as before: stiff, bored, motionless. Then, when Johnson grooved a 1-1 fastball, Koo unleashed the first and only swing of his professional career. Johnson, who only allowed eight extra base hits to left-handed hitters in 2005, turned to see the ball one-hop the wall. While Koo stunned the fan base, he wasn’t done. Jose Reyes, crouched, showed bunt with Koo standing on second. The sacrifice was mediocre, but as Jorge Posada delivered the ball to Tino Martinez, Koo caught the Yankee first baseman napping and darted home, sliding head first to beat the tag. Glorious. — J.D. Sussman

Todd Hundley – 12.7 career WARP

In a pre-Mitchell Report world, through the eyes of a wide-eyed teenager, surprising feats of power could be reveled in with an honesty that doesn’t exist anymore. So when he stepped to the plate against Greg McMichael of the not-quite-yet-hated Braves on September 14, 1996, he tied the game up with a record-setting homer—the 41st of his season. The power surge was incredible, especially for a player who hadn’t made it out of the teens in his career. Yet despite breaking the all-time record for home runs by a catcher, he required Tommy John surgery after the 1997 season, which led to the Mets acquiring franchise pillar Mike Piazza. And despite his .906 OPS in this record-breaking season, he was barely an above-average player due to what we now know was almost historically terrible framing (-27.7 framing runs that year alone). Even his record has since been broken by the opposing catcher on that record-breaking day, Javy Lopez.

And after giving New Yorkers a thrill for the better part of two seasons with his power prowess, like we hope of all recycled goods, he kept providing value after his initial purpose was completed. After all, he netted Charles Johnson from the Dodgers, who was simultaneously turned into Armando Benitez from the Orioles, and Roger Cedeno, who was a really fun and useful player for the ’99 team before being spun (with Octavio Dotel) for Mike Hampton the following off-season. — Bret Sayre

Photo Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports