Carlos Delgado

Delgado gave the 2006 Mets the cleanup hitter they needed: patient, powerful, and dangerous enough to change a game with one swing. His four seasons in Queens included a pennant race, a franchise-record nine-RBI game, and a difficult ending caused by a hip injury.

Delgado arrived in 2006 as the cleanup hitter the Mets believed could complete a contender. He brought a patient left-handed swing, serious power, and the calm of a veteran who had already carried lineups in Toronto. The fit was immediate. He hit 38 home runs, drove in 114 runs, and gave pitchers no comfortable place to work around Beltrán and Wright.

His defining single-game performance came in 2008, when he drove in nine runs against the Yankees. The record still belongs to him, and the night felt like a complete Delgado game: patient when he needed to be, aggressive when the pitch arrived, and capable of changing the scoreboard with one swing. His Mets years also included the difficult 2007 collapse and the frustration of a roster that never fully recovered.

A hip injury ended his 2009 season and eventually ended his Mets chapter. Delgado was not the lifelong icon some expected when he signed, but he gave the club four strong seasons and one of its most ridiculous offensive records. The cleanest memory is a left-handed cleanup hitter standing in the box while a full ballpark waited to see how much damage he could do.