The New York Mets' 2011 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 5th straight season.
Offseason
On October 4, 2010, one day after the conclusion of the 2010 season, the Mets fired general manager Omar Minaya and Manager Jerry Manuel. 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. As of December 3, 2010, the Mets non-tendered contracts to John Maine, Sean Green, Chris Carter which made them free-agents. 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 Omar 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 New York Mets seasons 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 rivalPhiladelphia Phillies in Philadelphia 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 rival Atlanta Braves on September 21, 2001 in the first major professional sporting event held in New York City since the attacks. Appropriately, the Mets hosted a Sunday night game on ESPN on September 11 to mark the tenth 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, playing 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 and 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. Appropriately, 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. Jose Reyes became the first player in Mets history to win the National League batting title by hitting.337.
Note: G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; H = Hits; R = Runs; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts; ERA = Earned run average;
