2002 New York Mets season

The 2002 New York Mets season was the 41st regular season for the Mets. Hoping to improve on their third place finish in the National League East the previous year, a 6–21 August sunk the team into below.500 for good and ultimately they finished 75–86 and finished fifth in the National League East. They were managed by Bobby Valentine in his seventh and ultimately final season. They played home games at Shea Stadium.

Offseason

October 22, 2001: Jorge Velandia was signed as a free agent with the New York Mets.
December 7, 2001: David Justice was traded by the New York Yankees to the New York Mets for Robin Ventura.
December 11, 2001: Roberto Alomar was traded by the Cleveland Indians with Danny Peoples and Mike Bacsik to the New York Mets for players to be named later, Matt Lawton, Alex Escobar, and Jerrod Riggan. The New York Mets sent Earl Snyder and Billy Traber to the Cleveland Indians to complete the trade.
December 13, 2001: Dave Weathers was signed as a free agent with the New York Mets.
December 14, 2001: David Justice was traded by the New York Mets to the Oakland Athletics for Mark Guthrie and Tyler Yates.
December 16, 2001: Tsuyoshi Shinjo was traded by the New York Mets with Desi Relaford to the San Francisco Giants for Shawn Estes.
January 21, 2002: Alex Ochoa was traded as part of a 3-team trade by the Colorado Rockies to the Milwaukee Brewers. The New York Mets sent Lenny Harris and Glendon Rusch to the Milwaukee Brewers. The New York Mets sent Benny Agbayani, Todd Zeile, and cash to the Colorado Rockies. The Colorado Rockies sent Craig House and Ross Gload to the New York Mets. The Milwaukee Brewers sent Jeff D'Amico, Jeromy Burnitz, Lou Collier, Mark Sweeney, and cash to the New York Mets.
March 13, 2002: Mark Sweeney was released by the New York Mets.
March 24, 2002: Jason Bay was traded by the Montreal Expos with Jimmy Serrano to the New York Mets for Lou Collier.

Regular season

Opening Day starters

Notable transactions

April 5, 2002: Marco Scutaro was selected off waivers by the New York Mets from the Milwaukee Brewers.
June 4, 2002: Scott Kazmir was drafted by the New York Mets in the 1st round of the 2002 amateur draft. Player signed August 2, 2002.
July 31, 2002: Jason Bay was traded by the New York Mets with Josh Reynolds and Bobby Jones to the San Diego Padres for Steve Reed and Jason Middlebrook.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Mike Piazza	135	478	134	.280	33	98
1B	Mo Vaughn	139	487	126	.259	26	72
2B	Roberto Alomar	149	590	157	.266	11	53
SS	Rey Ordóñez	144	460	117	.254	1	42
3B	Edgardo Alfonzo	135	490	151	.308	16	56
LF	Roger Cedeño	149	511	133	.260	7	41
CF	Timo Pérez	136	444	131	.295	8	47
RF	Jeromy Burnitz	154	479	103	.215	19	54

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Jay Payton	87	275	78	.284	8	31
John Valentin	114	208	50	.240	3	30
Joe McEwing	105	196	39	.199	3	26
Vance Wilson	74	163	40	.245	5	26
Ty Wigginton	46	116	35	.302	6	18
Tony Tarasco	60	96	24	.250	6	15
Raúl González	30	81	21	.259	3	11
Mark Johnson	42	51	7	.137	1	4
Marco Scutaro	27	36	8	.222	1	6
Jason Phillips	11	19	7	.368	1	3
Esix Snead	17	13	4	.308	1	3
Brady Clark	10	12	5	.417	0	1
McKay Christensen	4	3	1	.333	0	0
Mark Little	3	3	0	.000	0	0
Gary Matthews Jr.	2	1	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Al Leiter	33	204.1	13	13	3.48	172
Pedro Astacio	31	191.2	12	11	4.79	152
Steve Trachsel	30	173.2	11	11	3.37	105
Jeff D'Amico	29	145.2	6	10	4.94	101
Shawn Estes	23	132.2	4	9	4.55	92
Mike Bacsik	11	55.2	3	2	4.37	30
John Thomson	9	54.1	2	6	4.31	31
Jason Middlebrook	3	16.0	1	0	3.94	14

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Tyler Walker	5	10.2	1	0	5.91	7

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Armando Benítez	62	1	0	33	2.27	79
David Weathers	71	6	3	0	2.91	61
Scott Strickland	68	6	9	2	3.59	67
Mark Guthrie	68	5	3	1	2.44	44
Grant Roberts	34	3	1	0	2.20	31
Jaime Cerda	32	0	0	0	2.45	21
Satoru Komiyama	25	0	3	0	5.61	33
Steve Reed	24	0	1	0	2.08	14
Kane Davis	16	1	1	0	7.07	24
Bobby Jones	12	0	0	0	5.29	11
Mark Corey	12	0	3	0	4.50	9
Pedro Feliciano	6	0	0	0	7.50	4
Pat Strange	5	0	0	0	1.13	4
Jae Weong Seo	1	0	0	0	0.00	1
Pete Walker	1	0	0	0	9.00	0
Bruce Chen	1	0	0	0	0.00	0

Awards and honors

2002 MLB All Star Game

Mike Piazza, catcher