5 recent MLB All-Stars with forgettable stints with the Mets since 2018

The stereotype about sports fans and their ability to sit around naming random players with friends couldn’t be truer. You can even play it like Solitaire. Start with A and go through the alphabet naming a player from your team whose name begins with the letter. Then find a B and so on. You can even jump to whatever letter the name ends with. This game has gotten me through many train rides without cell phone service. Challenge yourself by sticking to just New York Mets players.

There are an abundance of random Mets players throughout the team’s history as there are with any club. How many of them were actually former All-Stars?

Going back to 2018, these five players suited up for the Mets at one point with an All-Star selection on their resume. If you don’t remember them, you’re not alone.

1) Brian Dozier

Brian Dozier actually finished his career with the Mets. This seems to be the case often with players who were at one time an All-Star. They come to Queens to wait out their eventual retirement before moving to Florida or Arizona. He’s forgettable for a couple of reasons.

Dozier appeared in only 7 games for the Mets. Going 2 for 15 made him immediately forgettable. The fact that he suited up for the blue and orange in 2020, a season where much of what happened has been lost, doesn’t help matters much either. He was released by the Mets in August of the shortened season and his MLB career was over.

Dozier had a couple of big years long before joining the Mets. His 2016 season was noteworthy for a barrage of second-half home runs which would eventually land him at 42 for the year. However, it was the year prior in 2015 when he represented the Minnesota Twins in the All-Star Game.

2) Ender Inciarte

It was only the 2022 season when Ender Inciarte ended up with the Mets. Upon seeing this, a click of “oh yeah, I remember this!” entered my brain. But do I really?

Like Dozier, Inciarte’s appearance for the Mets in 2022 was the last he has had in the big leagues. Brett Favre taught us to never use the word “retirement” even when a player is out of the game. That’s not to say we should expect Inciarte to make a comeback. His last few years with the rival Atlanta Braves were downtrodden. He went from an excellent offensive and defensive player into a fifth outfielder to carry for pinch running and tracking down fly balls in the ninth inning.

Inciarte would go 1 for 8 in his 11 games for the Mets in 2022. So forgettable on the Mets, Baseball-Reference mistakenly has him listed as signing with the New York Yankees in their transaction section at the bottom of his page.

His one All-Star appearance came in 2017 during a year where he batted .304/.350/.409 for the Braves. He won his second of three Gold Gloves that year as well while also leading the league in at-bats.

Something else in common with Dozier is that he came to the Mets only a year after winning a World Series ring. Dozier was a member of the 2019 Washington Nationals. Inciarte played 52 games for the 2021 Braves. He wouldn’t be so lucky with the 2022 Mets.

3) Eduardo Nunez

Back to 2022 where we associate the season with Dominic Smith receiving MVP consideration, Rick Porcello pitching a dud, and Eduardo Nunez suiting up for the Mets. Well, maybe we don’t think of Nunez.

If you remember Dozier and Inciarte on the Mets, your memory is sharp. Recalling anything Nunez did with the Mets will put you in elite company. The infield utility man ended up in only 2 games due to injury. A single in one of those two at-bats plus a stolen base gives him an unbeatable standard albeit in a sample size so small you’d need a telescope to see it from feet away.

Oddly enough, Nunez added a World Series ring to his collection shortly before joining the Mets as well. He, like Dozier and Inciarte, would also not play a major league game again after appearing for the Amazins. His championship would happen in 2018 as a member of the Boston Red Sox. As for his All-Star selection, we need to go back to 2016 when he was an American League All-Star representative for the Minnesota Twins shortly before getting traded to the San Francisco Giants. Prior to the trade, Nunez was hitting .296 with 27 stolen bases. He’d swipe a career-best 40 that year.

Nunez may have ended up as a useful member of the Mets roster if health didn’t let him down and we got more than 60 games in 2020. Alas, he’s a forgotten All-Star instead.

4) AJ Ramos

Only slightly more memorable than a few of the names on this list, AJ Ramos has the benefit of being forgotten because of time. He’d actually play a little bit more after leaving the Mets. He even managed to appear in two different seasons with them.

There isn’t a World Series ring in his collection, though. Ramos came over to the Mets via trade with the Miami Marlins in the summer of 2017. While the Mets were busy selling off pieces, they decided to add one along the way. The Marlins closer was having a less effective season and the two division rivals made a swap.

Upon joining the Mets, Ramos was even worse than he had been. His 3.63 ERA with the Marlins jumped up to 4.74. He’d stick around for the following season, pitching to a 6.41 ERA in 19.2 innings of work. The attempt to steal away a high-leverage reliever didn’t work as planned. Ramos was hurt and in the minds of most fans, easy to forget.

His All-Star appearance happened only one year before joining the Mets. A 2016 representative for Miami, this was a year where he saved 40 games for the Fish.

5) Hector Santiago

Admittedly, the other names on this list were ones I didn’t forget about. This last one completely slipped my mind. Yes, Hector Santiago pitched for the Mets. How could we forget him?

It’s easy to see why. A member of the 2019 Mets for only 8 games and as many innings, he would go 1-0 with a 6.75 ERA in his minimal time with the ball club. He was released midseason and ended up re-signing with the Chicago White Sox for a third stint in his career.

Santiago’s All-Star selection came in 2015 as a member of the Los Angeles Angels. In a year where he led the league with 29 home runs allowed, he was good enough to receive his one and only All-Star nod.

Santiago doesn’t have much else in common with others on this list except for managing to land on the 2016 Minnesota Twins roster. This is a team Dozier and Nunez played for. Sadly, he never got beyond the Division Series in his career. None of the teams he played for were particularly good during his time nor did they go on deep playoff runs without him.

He wouldn’t end up with any more luck pitching for the 2019 Mets where the memory of those handful of relief appearances have been forgotten.

This article was originally published on risingapple.com as 5 recent MLB All-Stars with forgettable stints with the Mets since 2018.