Remembering the Mets' Last Eric Young, Jr.

I was trying hard to think of a comparable for Eric Young, Jr.’s offensive contributions and I thought I finally got one when the name Roger Cedeño popped into my head in a shudder-inducing flashback.  For those of you who were not there for his two tours of duty with the Mets, he was an absolute speed demon who stole as many as  66 bases in a single season.  I got to wondering how his numbers stack up against the man who has batted leadoff in the majority of games since his arrival.

The first number that surprised me was Cedeño’s career batting average of .273.  That’s above league average performance.  I remembered him as someone lethal on the base paths but challenged when it was, of course, necessary first to reach them.  In fact, in his first season with the Mets not only did he have those 66 steals but also hit a solid .313.  His OBP was a little low considering his robust average, but .396 is All-Star material compared to what we have now. 

Cedeño also had a little bit more power, but at the top of the order it’s not one of the primary attributes you seek.  Still, over a 162 game season he would deliver 6 HRs, 40 RBIs and a .371 slugging percentage.  Compare that to Eric Young, Jr. who would provide 3 HRs, 26 RBIs and .333 slugging percentage to go with his .255 average. 

The one area that passes the eyeball test for most people is defense.  Everyone would likely agree that Eric Young, Jr., while possessing a rag arm in the outfield, is still a competent fielder and certainly far superior to the latter day Dr. Strangeglove, Roger Cedeño.  Imagine my surprise, therefore, to see that Cedeño actually had a higher career fielding percentage than did Young! 

During his first stellar season with the Mets, he arrived along with catcher Charles Johnson from the Los Angeles Dodgers for the Mitchell Report poster child, Todd Hundley.  While Hundley did smack 24 chemically induced home runs for LA, he did so while hitting just .207.  Compare that to the .313/66 SB season turned in by Cedeño and the Mets clearly were winners on that trade.

However, despite the great production, he was bundled off to the Astros after just one year along with Octavio Dotel and minor leaguer Kyle Kessel for Derek Bell and Mike Hampton.  Bell managed to hit 18 HRs and drive in 69 while hitting .266 in his one season with the Mets.  He was more famous for living on a yacht in Queens than he was for what he did on the diamond.  All Mike Hampton did, of course, was lead the Mets into the 2000 World Series.  Oh yeah…and then there was his defection to the Rockies for the superior school districts which netted us a compensatory draft pick used for one David Wright.

The second time around with the Mets he arrived via free agency.  He didn’t fare as well this time, providing just 39 SBs over two seasons combined and hitting 50 points below what he’d done the first time in Queens.  (Those two inferior years, of course, are still better than what Eric Young, Jr. has produced during his major league career).  

He was then dispatched to the St. Louis Cardinals after the 2003 season for utility man Wilson Delgado.  Cedeño was a role player for St. Louis, batting just 200 times in 2004 and then was out of baseball after a handful of games the following year at just age 30.  In 2007 he attempted a comeback with the Orioles, but the former beanpole arrived in spring training camp weighing 274 pounds.  Delgado hit .292 for the Mets in a part-time role but the following year he was out of baseball, suspended for the use of a banned substance.

By the time the Mets rid themselves of Cedeño during his second tour of duty, he’d become the offensive equivalent of Doug Sisk, someone whose mere presence in the game spiked the sale of antacids throughout the metropolitan area.   Eric Young, Jr. is still fairly popular, but his offensive trajectory already has people jumping off his bandwagon.  Let’s hope his career turns out better than that of Mr. Cedeño.