Chris YoungOver this past weekend, Chris Young was booed by his hometown fans. That needs to stop.

Let’s get something out of the way. Young has been terrible this year, but what did we all expect? Young has been in decline the last four seasons, so was there any real reason to expect that this year would be a bounce back for him? Marlon Byrd bounced back last year, but Byrd’s 2012 season was a weird anomaly in his career and not a long term, slow decline. Some baseball players have shorter primes and fade earlier than others. Young appears to be one of those players, so it might be that the Mets got him when he finally ran out of gas, but is that Young’s fault?

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Young is being booed because he represents the failure of the system, not the individual. Young is working hard out there, everyone can see that. He’s trying, but he just doesn’t have anything left in him. That’s not his fault. He’s not overweight or not working hard on the field. He’s just an athlete with fading skills, someone that Mother Nature is no longer providing with the elite talent that made him one of the few to not only make it to the major leagues, but make an impact at the major leagues.

But let’s get real here. Young didn’t offer himself a 7.25 million dollar contract. He didn’t jump the gun on the offseason and present himself with a lot of money. Young wasn’t the one who prioritized trying to trade a first baseman and attempt to acquire a shortstop while getting his free agent signings done early. All of that was done by Sandy Alderson, with the agreement of Fred and Jeff Wilpon.

We’re booing because we’d love to see Nelson Cruz manning left field and leading the national league in home run’s and RBI instead of the American League. We would rather have Michael Morse for 1.25 million dollars less, platooning with Lucas Duda and lumbering around left field as he has a return to form offensive season. But that’s not Young’s fault. Young didn’t cause Morse to have the worst offensive season of his career last year, nor did Young make Morse a terrible outfielder. Young didn’t give Cruz PED’s. He also didn’t offer Cruz a qualifying offer or act as Cruz’s agent and request a four year deal for most of the winter. It’s not Young’s fault that those two players are more successful than he is this year and all on similar one year deal contracts.

The Mets front office made a poor decision last year when the signed Young early in the offseason and didn’t at least try and wait out Cruz. But that’s not Young’s fault and we have to stop making him the scapegoat.

14 comments on “Quick Hitter: Defending Chris Young

  • pete

    Telling fans to stop booing is like you’re asking for the kiss of death. So in your estimation the fans should applaud his results? I understand what you’re saying is the FO is to blame here. But CY is the player on the field. Besides he gets the last laugh with the money SA will be paying him not to play.

  • Jerry Grote

    Let’s get a couple things straight here …

    first of all, he wasn’t in full fledged decline.
    Before last year, he had an OPS between 793 and 745. His OPS+ was relatively consistent.

    second, I’ll boo players that are striking out three or four times a game. This isn’t T-Ball, Scott, its the major leagues and nobody gets extra credit for running hard. There’s no gold stars for “doing your best”.

  • Dan'r

    Mets fans were not booing Chris Young but the entire organization from Fred on down. This is by far the worse team the Mets have had in a long long time.

    Sandy should be ashamed of being the architect of this depressing team. Its time for this under qualified GM to go home and sit on his rocking chair because he is as clueless as a GM as Collins is as a manager.

    And with a background as a lawyer, you know he is lying as soon as he opens his mouth.

  • Metsense

    Last November, Sandy signed CY because he didn’t think Lagares could pull his offensive weight in centerfield. At the time, Matt Joyce was being offered for Ike Davis. The Mets also had EY, Kirk and MdD as other centerfielders on the roster. Byrd signed with Phillie and was off the market which put pressure on Sandy because the Mets had discussions with Byrd. Sandy should have made the Davis trade, coupled with the Granderson signing and still had 7.25M for other players.
    If Sandy had a limited budget, he should not have spent it on a reclamation project. Compounding the problem is that TC was batting him fifth and not playing hot players from AAA who were called up because of the OF injuries. Further injuries allowed CY to continue to play but at this point he should find a seat on the bench. I don’t think Met players should be booed but when I am not having a beer I do critique them on this blog. Unfortunately CY is the FO scapegoat for the Citifield boobirds.

  • Eraff

    I don’t “Boo” players, typically. If I ever do “boo”, it is for effort.

    Chris Young Cares…and he tries…That’s My take. He complained about “boos”…ok…so he’s giving hionest feedback…whatever.

    It’s not an issue of effort…and it’s not a problem of complaining about Fans! Whether it’s the Hitting Coach, or Ike or Chris Young— the only problem is “The Ballplayers are Not good enough”!!!…everything else is just commentary on both Fan and player reactions to that reality.

    If Fans stop booing, he’s still a sinking ballplayer—diminished defense and speed, and a bad, bad hitter. It’s not his effort…or the booing— he hasn’t the skills.

  • since68

    Your right about the booing. All those people who booed should not have gone to citi field in the first place. We all know the message should be sent to the FO and not the players. That happens by not showing up or spending.

    Those people shoud be booing themselves for spending on a ticket. Maybe now they’ll know better.

  • Chris F

    Ok, well, he deserves to be booed. He is terrible. This isnt a T ball league where everyone gets a medal.

    But the boos are compounded as you say. They are boos directed at not just hte player, but at Collins, Alderson, and the Wilpons. Fans have no access to boo the FO or ownership. All the negativity you hear is the remainder of the fan base separating from the team. Maybe it is louder because all the casual fans have stopped showing up at all. The park is totally empty — as is “the plan.”

    The rebuild/reload/whatever-its-called is a failure. A quick comparison between the Astros and Marlins would show what can happen…they have genuine draftees killing it in the MLB. Sandy has not had a single person make the show. So boo away Mets fans, nearly every aspect of this team needs to be told that this entertainment product is completely unacceptable.

  • Name

    The major purpose of boos is more of an an expression of disapproval that he’s in the lineup/roster and the fans way to send a message to the manager/GM. While you can argue he sucked before he came here and that it isn’t “his fault”, it doesn’t mean he deserves a roster spot any longer. Met fans don’t want to see him in a Met uniform any longer.

    Only in certain cases do fans actually boo the player. Braun and A-rod are 2 that come off the top of my head.

  • Scott Ferguson

    I haven’t gone to Citifield for over two years due to lack of satisfaction with the product put there. To me, that’s the way to let the front office know we’re disappointed as fans.
    I didn’t say fans shouldn’t boo. Certain players who don’t run out plays or don’t play hard deserve what they get.
    My issue is that Young is what he is. The fan frustration isn’t about Young as basically all of you said in your comments, but about Alderson and the Wilpons.
    Mets fans are knowledgeable and are the best around. I just wanted to point out something I’d noticed that seemed out of character with how we as a fanbase normally handle these kinds of situations
    Great feedback by the way!

  • Patrick Albanesius

    To be quite honest, we Mets fans have been brutal for the past couple of years. We expect great things, because we are a New York team. But we have not been operating like a New York team for quite some time, and fans have had enough. I know fans are passionate all around the league, but I doubt there is a team out there that has more calls from irate fans to fire both the manager and general manager on such a regular order. You’re right that the boos are for them, and not Young, but it’s a combined effort from everyone involved. If they don’t want to get booed, they all need to play better, coach better, and manage better.

  • Eraff

    PLayers and Coaches are introduced before the game—–there should be some sort of rule with identification of ownership or the GM beinbg intro’d before the game…..”sitting in the owner’s box….representing Fred Wilspon and Sterling Mets is ___________________________” BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

  • pete

    Or an empty chair? After all that’s what this ownership is all about.

  • Pinballidiot

    CY deserves to be booed. He continues to not perform and he won’t adjust his approach at the plate. He continues to try and pull everything in a futile attempt to hit home runs. The league knows this and pitches him outside. Instead of going to right field he either strikes out, rolls a weak grounder to the shortstop or pops up to the infield. He should be shortening his swing with 2 strikes and just poke the ball to right field. Instead he stubbornly continues the same approach a la Jason Bay. The Mets need to bench him and try to move him at the trade deadline. I would rather see Kirk or Campbell play instead of CY. At least the kids hustle and have a better outlook.

  • pete

    And more potential than CY. Then again right now almost every young outfielder in the met system has more potential than him.

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