2011 New York Mets season

The 2011 New York Mets season was the franchise's 50th season and its third at Citi Field. Following a poor 2010 season, the Mets sought their first postseason appearance since 2006. However, they failed to make the playoffs for the fifth straight season. The Mets finished with a record of 77–85 and fourth place in the National League East.

Offseason

On October 4, 2010, one day after the conclusion of the 2010 season, the Mets fired Manager Jerry Manuel, along with general manager Omar Minaya. On October 29, the team hired former Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres and MLB executive Sandy Alderson to replace Minaya as general manager. On November 23, Terry Collins was hired as manager.
In December 2010, Mets owner Fred Wilpon was named in a lawsuit filed on behalf of the victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and on January 28, 2011, Wilpon issued a statement in which he intends to seek "one or more strategic partners" to buy a 20 to 25% interest in the Mets to offset pending losses due to litigation. As a result, the Mets were unable to sign any high priced free agents as they did during the Minaya era.
In March 2011, the Mets released Luis Castillo and Óliver Pérez from the team. The two players became the target of the fans' wrath in the previous two seasons due to their poor performance on the field.

Regular season

The team began the season with high-priced stars Johan Santana and Jason Bay on the disabled list. Santana never played for the Mets in 2011, while Bay returned on April 21.
After seeing limited action in spring training following a 2010 knee injury, Carlos Beltrán started on Opening Day and played the full game.
The initial five-man rotation consisted of, in order, Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese, R. A. Dickey, Chris Young and Chris Capuano.
The Mets started 2011 with a 3-1 record but, after losing consecutive doubleheaders on April 14 and 16, their record was 4-11, tying for third-worst in Mets history. Only the 1962 and 1964 Mets were worse after 15 games. The seven-game losing streak was the longest since 2004 and the consecutive doubleheader losses were the first since 1982. However, the Mets went 7-5 to close out the month of April, with the return of Jason Bay and offensive power.
The Mets began the month of May with a memorable 2-1, 14-inning win over the division rival Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on May 1. The Mets' Daniel Murphy was batting as a pinch-hitter against Phillies' reliever Ryan Madson when the fans started chanting "U-S-A!" in response to the news that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, had been killed by US Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. After the Mets won the game, Terry Collins said that catcher Ronny Paulino's game-winning RBI double in his Mets debut delivered "a good win for us, and obviously a huge win for America tonight." This win also conjured up parallels to their 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves on September 21, 2001 in the first major professional sporting event held in New York City since the attacks. Appropriately, the Mets also hosted a Sunday night game on ESPN on September 11 to mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
Justin Turner contributed to the Mets' success in the month of May, becoming the first Met to be named the NL Rookie of the Month since the award's creation in 2001. On May 26, the Mets agreed to sell a portion of the team to hedge fund manager David Einhorn for $200 million, making him a minority owner of the team. The deal with Einhorn ultimately fell through.
On June 28 against the Detroit Tigers, Jason Bay and Carlos Beltrán both hit grand slams in a 14-3 rout. It marked only the second time in Mets history that the team hit two grand slams in the same game. It also broke a drought in which the Mets had not hit a grand slam in 299 team games, during which the Mets were out-grand slammed 18-0.
On July 12, the Mets dealt closer Francisco Rodríguez to the Milwaukee Brewers for cash, Adrian Rosario and Danny Herrera. On July 27, the Mets agreed to trade Carlos Beltrán to the San Francisco Giants for minor league pitching prospect Zack Wheeler.
On September 1, the Mets announced that they will not sell minority ownership of the team to Einhorn.
The pregame ceremonies on September 11, fittingly, featured members of the 2001 team. Singer Marc Anthony sang the national anthem, like he did on September 21, 2001. Throwing out the ceremonial first pitch was John Franco, the closer on their 2001 team to Mike Piazza, the catcher on their 2001 team.
José Reyes became the first player in Mets history to win the National League batting title by hitting.337.

Player stats

Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home Runs; RBI = Runs batted in; SB = Stolen bases; BB = Base on balls; AVG = Batting average;

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	AVG
Mike Baxter	22	34	6	8	2	1	1	4	0	5	.235
Jason Bay	123	444	59	109	19	1	12	57	11	56	.245
Carlos Beltrán	98	353	61	102	30	2	15	66	3	60	.289
Lucas Duda	100	301	38	88	21	3	10	50	1	33	.292
Ike Davis	36	129	20	39	8	1	7	25	0	17	.302
Brad Emaus	14	37	2	6	0	0	0	1	0	4	.162
Nick Evans	59	176	26	45	10	2	4	25	0	15	.256
Scott Hairston	79	132	20	31	8	1	7	24	1	11	.235
Willie Harris	126	240	36	59	11	0	2	23	5	36	.246
Chin-lung Hu	22	20	2	1	0	0	0	1	1	1	.050
Fernando Martinez	11	22	3	5	2	0	1	2	0	1	.227
Daniel Murphy	109	391	49	125	28	2	6	49	5	24	.320
Mike Nickeas	21	53	4	10	1	0	1	6	0	4	.189
Ángel Pagán	123	478	68	125	24	4	7	56	32	44	.262
Valentino Pascucci	10	11	1	3	0	0	1	2	0	0	.273
Ronny Paulino	78	228	19	61	13	0	2	19	0	15	.268
Jason Pridie	101	208	28	48	11	3	4	20	7	24	.231
José Reyes	126	537	101	181	31	16	7	44	39	43	.337
Josh Satin	15	25	3	5	1	0	0	2	0	1	.200
Rubén Tejada	96	328	31	93	15	1	0	36	5	35	.284
Josh Thole	114	340	22	91	17	0	3	40	0	38	.268
Justin Turner	117	435	49	113	30	0	4	51	7	39	.260
David Wright	102	389	60	99	23	1	14	61	13	52	.254
Pitcher Totals	162	289	10	30	4	1	0	12	0	13	.104
Team Totals	162	5600	718	1477	309	39	108	676	130	571	.264

Pitching

Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; H = Hits allowed; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; SO = Strikeouts

Player	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Manny Acosta	4	1	3.45	44	0	4	47.0	50	21	18	15	46
Miguel Batista	2	0	2.64	9	4	0	30.2	22	9	9	14	15
Pedro Beato	2	1	4.30	60	0	0	67.0	59	41	32	27	39
Blaine Boyer	0	2	10.80	5	0	1	6.2	13	8	8	1	1
Taylor Buchholz	1	1	3.12	23	0	0	26.0	22	10	9	7	26
Tim Byrdak	2	1	3.82	72	0	1	37.2	34	20	16	19	47
Chris Capuano	11	12	4.55	33	31	0	186.0	195	99	94	53	168
D.J. Carrasco	1	3	6.02	42	1	0	49.1	67	35	33	16	27
R.A. Dickey	8	13	3.28	33	32	0	208.2	202	85	76	54	134
Dillon Gee	13	6	4.43	30	27	0	160.2	150	85	79	71	114
Danny Herrera	0	1	1.13	16	0	0	8.0	7	1	1	2	5
Ryota Igarashi	4	1	4.66	45	0	0	38.2	43	20	20	28	42
Jason Isringhausen	3	3	4.05	53	0	7	46.2	36	23	21	24	44
Patrick Misch	1	0	10.29	6	0	0	7.0	11	8	8	4	5
Jon Niese	11	11	4.40	27	26	0	157.1	178	88	77	44	138
Michael O'Connor	0	1	2.70	9	0	0	6.2	5	2	2	3	8
Bobby Parnell	4	6	3.64	60	0	6	59.1	60	29	24	27	64
Mike Pelfrey	7	13	4.74	34	33	0	193.2	220	111	102	65	105
Francisco Rodríguez	2	2	3.16	42	0	23	42.2	44	15	15	16	46
Chris Schwinden	0	2	4.71	4	4	0	21.0	23	13	11	6	17
Josh Stinson	0	2	6.92	14	0	1	13.0	14	10	10	7	8
Dale Thayer	0	3	3.48	11	0	0	10.1	12	4	4	0	5
Chris Young	1	0	1.88	4	4	0	24.0	12	5	5	11	22
Team Totals	77	85	4.19	162	162	43	1448.0	1482	742	674	514	1126