The Many Shades of Jose Reyes

Jose Reyes just isn't built for superstardom.

Jose Reyes debuted in 2003 with flashes of once-in-a-lifetime potential, a freakish speedster with gap-to-gap hitting ability. I was in attendance for his first triple, a double turned easy triple instantaneously, and I can tell you right there and then I believed this 20-year-old sensation was for real.

Reyes went onto bat an impressive .307 that season, with 47 runs in only 69 games. He again spent 2004 shuffling between the majors and the Mets Triple-A affliate before becoming a full-fledged major leaguer in 2005. The growing pains were clearly present, but no one was doubting his talents. In due time he would be a superstar. Despite batting only .273 as a lead-off hitter, he scored 99 runs and led the NL in steals with 60, becoming the first Met since Roger Cedeno (1999) to steal 60 or more bases. With monster acquisitions of Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran batting behind him, Reyes was poised for a breakout year. And that's just what happened.

2006 was a magical year for everyone on the Mets including Reyes. Batting two spots ahead of MVP-candidate Carlos Beltran (.275/41/116) Reyes earned his first All-Star appearance and once again led the NL in steals, this time with 68. He batted an even .300 for the year and compiled an absurd 122 runs. The legend of Jose Reyes was officially born. He was a catalyst for the Mets offense, a menace on the basepaths and a human highlight reel in the field. His leadoff home run in the pivotal Game 6 of the NLCS still ranks as one of his greatest moments, one that surely propelled New York to a Game 7. While, the Mets might not have won the World Series in 2006 as predicted, things were looking up, especially with a young Reyes (locked up for four more years at this point) leading off.

But the 2007 version of Reyes provided nothing but headaches for the Mets. Much of what was said in the New York media was that Reyes was a circus act with his excessive celebrations and drawn-out handshakes. Some said he focused too much energy on what happened after the play, then actually getting better during the play. A sizzling April (.356/2/18/26 runs/17 stolen bases) led to a medicore May, a rebound in June and then a complete collapse (pun intended) in August and September. If it wasn't for the putrid effort from the Mets bullpen, you could make a direct correlation between the Mets September cataclysm and Reyes' .207 average. When the catalsyt stalls, the offense fails, and that was very much on Reyes shoulders. The moniker "Which Reyes are we going to get today" was officially born in that month and still haunts him to this day.

While Reyes rebounded in 2008 with a .297 batting average and a NL-leading 204 hits, another putrid September cost him the trust of Mets fans everywhere. A .243 BAA in another collapse year, even if it was a smaller one, made people in baseball question where Reyes' head was, once again. Did this guy care? Was he just enjoying his natural talents without attempting to improve them? At times Reyes seemed more like an entertainer than a baseball player, and when things got tough in '07 and '08 he absolutely crumbled.

You can go ahead and throw his 2009 out the window because of a calf injury that simply never went away. In 2010, with the Mets no longer contenders in the NL East, Reyes returned to All-Star form, but failed to score more than 100 runs for the first time since 2005 (not counting '09) and only batted .282.

With "Walk Year" 2011 upon us, many were expecting Reyes to either pack it in and prove to us that he wasn't the complete package or for him to absolutely tear up the National League. Well, as we've seen with plenty of other athletes, Reyes put together a sensational campaign even with a Triple-A lineup behind him. He hit an amazing .337, led the league in triples and scored 101 runs on a terrible Mets team. The good Reyes was back and just in time for the Mets to sign him.

It was never clear, during the 2011-12 winter, whether or not Reyes actually wanted to come back to New York like he wanted. Obviously he wanted to get paid, after the season he had he deserved to get paid no matter what reservations people had about him. The Mets, who were hemorrhaging money thanks to the Wilpon-Madoff relationship, weren't about to spend $100 million-plus for the viciously inconsistent Reyes. So New York never made an offer to Reyes as he claimed, and the 28-year-old superstar took his talents south to the tune of $106 million over six years. 2012 didn't go as swimmingly as the new look Miami Marlins wanted to and Reyes failed to perform batting .287 (only thanks to a .310 September), scoring less than 100 runs and stealing only 40 bases. Yesterday the Marlins decided they were sick of Reyes (and others) and dumped his massive salary on the Blue Jays.

Now we're here 10 years after Jose Reyes made his major league debut and he's a few signatures away from becoming a member of the lowly Blue Jays, as if the lowly Marlins wasn't enough. But the numbers surrounding Reyes aren't important. It's pretty noticeable that Reyes can fail and pass the eye test so frequently in such a short time span that I'm not sure he's ever going to live up to the hype completely. The Dominican-sensation has always possessed the skills to be one of the league's best, but you've got to match those skills with the appropriate mentality and that's where Reyes is lacking. He just isn't built for super-stardom. Has he ever been considered the best player on a team for a whole season? Once. Only once. With Reyes' talents he should be the best player on the field at all times, but instead his two best years have come in the shadow of something else. In '06 it was Beltran's MVP-type campaign and in '11 it was the Madoff scandal.

Leaders have a little something extra, he has little else other than a pair of super fast feet and quick wrists. Folks, Reyes gets paid to be a leader, but a leader he will never be.