2009 New York Mets season

The 2009 New York Mets season was the franchise's 48th season and the team's first year at Citi Field, which opened on April 13 against the San Diego Padres. The Mets finished with a 70–92 record, as the season was plagued by many injuries. This was the Mets' first losing season since 2004.

Offseason

Looking to improve the bullpen after the struggles of the 2008 season, the Mets signed closer Francisco Rodríguez to a three-year, $37 million contract on December 10, 2008. Immediately after, the team acquired reliever J. J. Putz from the Seattle Mariners in a three team trade involving the Mariners and the Cleveland Indians, giving the Mets a setup man for Rodriguez. New York shipped reliever Aaron Heilman, outfielder Endy Chávez, pitcher Jason Vargas and three minor leaguers to Seattle for Putz, center fielder Jeremy Reed and reliever Sean Green, while Mets reliever Joe Smith was acquired by Cleveland.
On December 12, the Mets traded Scott Schoeneweis to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Connor Robertson. On January 12, 2009, the Mets signed RHP Tim Redding to a one-year contract. The Mets signed Alex Cora to a one-year, $2 million contract. Garcia's contract, which was full of incentives, could have reached $8 million if he reached the major league roster. On April 3, the Mets signed outfielder Gary Sheffield after being released by the Detroit Tigers.

Regular season

The Mets opened up the season in Cincinnati against the Cincinnati Reds on April 6. The Mets collected the victory, improving their win–loss record on Opening Day. The first ever home game at Citi Field was on April 13 against the San Diego Padres, who spoiled the opener with a 6–5 win against the Mets. In that game, Jody Gerut of the Padres became the first player to open a new ballpark with a leadoff home run.
On April 17, Gary Sheffield hit his 500th home run against the Milwaukee Brewers. On May 10, José Reyes stole his 300th base against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite an injury depleted roster, the Mets finished May with a 19–9 record and trailed the Philadelphia Phillies by a half game for the NL East lead.
After finishing April and May with a combined record of 28–21, injuries hurt the Mets in June and they went 9–18, their worst month since September 2003, but lost only games in the standings, as the Phillies were having their own struggles. Injuries continued to hurt them Mets in July, as they went 12–14, quickly falling to 4th place in the National League East.
On July 10, the Mets sent outfielder Ryan Church to the Atlanta Braves for outfielder Jeff Francoeur.
However, the Mets did set a team record during the 2009 season. They had a team-record 10 hits in the fourth inning on August 18 against the Atlanta Braves. They scored eight runs in that inning, on their way to a 9–4 victory.
On August 23, the Mets became the first team in National League history to fall victim to a game-ending unassisted triple play, turned by Eric Bruntlett of the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field in the bottom of the 9th inning.
The 2009 Mets season will be remembered as a season marred by injuries. On August 25, it was announced that ace Johan Santana would undergo season-ending elbow surgery on his pitching elbow, and was added to the long list of injured players. Including Santana, the Mets' had 20 players see time on the disabled list at some point during the 2009 season, including David Wright, John Maine, Jon Niese, Fernando Nieve, J. J. Putz, Billy Wagner, Brian Schneider, Carlos Delgado, Ángel Pagán, Gary Sheffield, Óliver Pérez, Ryan Church, Ramón Martínez, José Reyes, Alex Cora, Carlos Beltrán, and Fernando Martinez. Mets players spent more than 1,480 days in the DL in 2009, more than any other team in the majors. However, second-half turnarounds of Francoeur and Daniel Murphy helped the Mets finish the season with the best batting average in the National League, tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
On August 25, the Mets traded former all-star closer Billy Wagner to the Boston Red Sox for minor league outfielder Chris Carter and minor league first baseman Eddie Loria. The Mets finished with a 70–92 record and 4th place in the NL East, missing the playoffs for the third straight year.

Game log

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Player stats

Batting

Legend: G = Games played; AB = At-bats; H = Hits; BA = Batting average; OBP = On-base percentage; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; R = Runs scored; SB = Stolen bases

Player	G	AB	H	BA	OBP	HR	RBI	R	SB
	4	4	0	.000	.000	0	0	0	0
	81	308	100	.325	.415	10	48	50	11
	14	27	4	.148	.233	0	2	4	0
	3	5	1	.200	.333	0	0	0	0
	1	1	0	.000	.000	0	0	0	0
	142	486	147	.302	.387	1	40	77	20
*	26	79	20	.253	.322	3	13	5	0
*	67	232	65	.280	.332	2	22	26	6
	82	271	68	.251	.320	1	18	31	8
	26	94	28	.298	.393	4	23	15	0
	30	65	15	.231	.275	1	7	5	0
	88	0	0	.000	1.000	0	0	0	0
	16	22	3	.136	.174	0	3	1	0
*	75	289	90	.311	.338	10	41	40	1
Sean Green	1	1	0	.000	.000	0	0	0	0
*	46	135	34	.252	.315	2	14	14	2
*	24	40	5	.125	.146	0	0	0	0
	16	27	4	.148	.148	0	2	0	0
	29	91	16	.176	.242	1	8	11	2
	12	42	7	.167	.182	0	4	1	1
	22	13	0	.000	.133	0	0	0	0
	155	508	135	.266	.313	12	63	60	4
	5	8	1	.125	.125	0	0	0	0
	8	9	3	.333	.333	0	1	0	0
	88	343	105	.306	.350	6	32	54	14
	31	52	5	.096	.143	0	4	4	0
	14	22	6	.273	.304	0	0	1	0
	30	29	2	.069	.069	0	0	0	0
	126	161	39	.242	.301	0	9	9	0
	9	17	2	.118	.167	0	0	0	1
	36	147	41	.279	.355	2	15	18	11
	25	42	7	.167	.255	0	4	1	0
	96	281	73	.260	.296	7	40	28	0
	59	170	37	.218	.292	3	24	11	0
	100	268	74	.276	.372	10	43	44	2
	64	136	34	.250	.338	2	15	17	7
	28	2	0	.000	.000	0	0	0	0
	125	340	96	.282	.339	8	48	42	4
	17	53	17	.321	.356	0	9	2	1
	41	86	22	.256	.326	0	7	11	0
	144	535	164	.307	.390	10	72	88	27
Team Totals	162	5453	1472	.270	.335	95	631	671	122

Pitching

Legend: G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; H = Hits allowed; SO = Strikeouts; BB = Walks; bold = league leader

Player	G	GS	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	H	SO	BB
Lance Broadway	8	0	14	0	0	0	6.75	19	9	6
	28	0	32	0	0	0	3.31	24	14	10
	88	0	59	6	4	0	3.03	51	59	18
	16	10	70	3	8	0	4.09	80	59	24
	3	0	4	0	0	0	2.25	4	3	4
	79	0	69	1	4	1	4.52	64	54	36
	23	23	135	7	8	0	5.47	164	75	51
	15	15	81	7	6	0	4.43	67	55	38
	22	7	59	3	4	0	4.12	62	23	19
	5	5	25	1	1	0	4.21	27	23	14
	8	7	36	3	3	0	2.95	36	23	19
	4	0	3	0	0	0	0.00	5	2	1
	68	8	88	4	8	1	5.30	101	74	46
	31	31	184	10	12	0	5.03	213	107	66
	14	14	66	3	4	0	6.82	69	62	58
	29	0	29	1	4	2	5.22	29	19	19
	30	17	120	3	6	0	5.10	122	76	50
	70	0	68	3	6	35	3.71	51	73	38
	25	25	166	13	9	0	3.13	156	146	46
	69	0	70	2	4	0	3.97	72	45	38
Tobi Stoner	4	0	9	0	0	0	4.00	9	5	3
	4	0	3	0	0	0	8.10	4	3	2
	28	0	27	0	1	0	2.96	23	23	14
Billy Wagner	2	0	2	0	0	0	0.00	0	4	1
Team Totals	162	162	1426	70	92	39	4.45	1452	1031	616

All stats as of October 4, 2009