Jose Reyes may have had his issues away from baseball and another brutal year on the field, but his fellow players seem willing to look past all that.
The MLB Players Association announced each team’s finalist for the Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award on Friday, and Jose Reyes was selected by his peers as the Mets’ representative.
The award honors a player “whose on-field performance and contributions to his community inspire others to higher levels of achievement” and is part of the annual Players Choice Awards, voted on by members of the MLBPA.
Reyes’ history with domestic violence – including a 51-game suspension in 2016 – and subpar play – he hit .189 this season with a .580 OPS – would seem to make him an odd choice to represent the Mets.
But the 35-year-old infielder has always been popular in the clubhouse and among his peers, and for an award voted on by players, his popularity perhaps was enough to put him in the running.
CC Sabathia was selected as the Yankees’ nominee. Only two New York players have ever won the award, which has been given out each year since 1997 – Curtis Granderson with the Mets in 2016 and Mariano Rivera with the Yankees in 2013.
Granderson is one of two players to win the award twice, along with John Smoltz, and is nominated again this year.