Mets JP

Plenty of Patches of Mets Players

Long story short, these are all Mets patch cards. What exactly qualifies here is a bit complicated. Patches from a Mets jersey worn by a Mets player in an official game-type capacity? Sure, that counts. Patches from a Mets jersey worn by a Mets player as a prospect in spring training or the Arizona Fall League? By the rules of what counts as MLB game-used, that’s indistinguishable from the previous case, so it counts. By the same logic, a Mets logo patch from a Futures Game jersey worn by a Mets player as a prospect also counts. If it isn’t clearly a Mets patch, it doesn’t count. If the player never appeared in the majors as a Met, it also doesn’t count (though I’ll eventually toss Tim Tebow down at the bottom in his own little section just because). Simple enough, right?

As for what counts as a patch here, that’s also a bit tricky. Mets sleeve logo patch? Definitely (and preferred). Letters and numbers from the team name, player name, or jersey number? Absolutely, even with camo or spring training patterns, but maybe not Memorial Day, Independence Day, Mother’s Day, or Father’s Day versions (not clearly a Mets patch). Or those all-white Players’ Weekend patches (ugh). Mets-related event sleeve logo patches (Shea 40th anniversary, Shea final season, Citi Field inaugural season, 2013 All-Star Game, etc.)? I guess, if there’s nothing else. Other event patches? Probably not. Black memorial sleeve patches? Preferably not. MLB logo? Maybe? Laundry tag? No. Piping? Absolutely not. Bare jersey? Not a patch.

A few years back, the emergence of player-used memorabilia threw a wrench in the works. “Player-used” has no standard, it’s just material that came into contact with the player at some point. Maybe it was worn at a signing event, maybe it was used to clean up a spill, maybe it was wadded up and thrown across the room at a spider. Could have been anything. In any case, it wasn’t worn in any kind of official capacity, may not have been an official jersey or the player’s jersey (based on the letters in Panini cards, bullpen catcher jerseys are commonly used). It’s basically just a manufactured relic. None of these count for this page.

Leaf almost exclusively uses player-used material for prospect patches, including a lot of replica jerseys and jerseys from a decade or more ago. Panini uses player-used material for most prospects and rookies until game-used is available, though it can take several years for them to make the switch. And Topps was player-used-free until a few years ago when products like Topps Inception and Topps Fire used them exclusively instead of game-used from the start. Since then, player-used has been prominent in flagship Topps and Topps Triple Threads. Bottom line, read the fine print.

But the fine print isn’t always right. Many Panini products released in 2014 had cards marked “game-worn” and “player-worn” from the same players in the same product. Panini later confirmed that all of these should have been marked “game-worn.” But how much can we trust any of their markings after that? I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt in that case, but you may notice that Dilson Herrera isn’t on here. Technically, he has some “game-used” material in 2015 Panini Diamond Kings. The problem is that all of his jersey material before and after that was marked player-used. How can that be? It just doesn’t make sense that they would switch back and forth like that. Can they even keep it straight which is which? Diamond Kings also mixes in bat swatches, so were the bats game-used and the jerseys player-used? I can’t make sense of it, so his jersey material in 2015 Diamond Kings will be considered player-used until evidence to the contrary is shown.


Richie Ashburn	Gil Hodges	Duke Snider	Tug McGraw

Yogi Berra	Nolan Ryan	Tom Seaver	Jerry Koosman

Jon Matlack	Willie Mays	Joe Torre	George Foster

Darryl Strawberry	Keith Hernandez	Dwight Gooden	Gary Carter

Howard Johnson	Lenny Dykstra	David Cone	Eddie Murray

Jeromy Burnitz	Edgardo Alfonzo	Rey Ordonez	Al Leiter

Mike Piazza	Hideo Nomo	Jay Payton	Rickey Henderson

Robin Ventura	Derek Bell	Tsuyoshi Shinjo	Alex Escobar

Roberto Alomar	Jae Weong Seo	Cliff Floyd	Tom Glavine

Jose Reyes	Mike Cameron	Kazuo Matsui	David Wright

Heath Bell	Carlos Beltran	Pedro J. Martinez	Carlos Delgado

Paul Lo Duca	Billy Wagner	Brian Bannister	John Maine

Lastings Milledge	Mike Pelfrey	Shawn Green	Carlos Gomez

Johan Santana	Daniel Murphy	Jonathon Niese	Josh Thole

Jenrry Mejia	Ruben Tejada	Ike Davis	R.A. Dickey

Lucas Duda	Dillon Gee	Kirk Nieuwenhuis	Jordany Valdespin

Matt Harvey	Jeurys Familia	Scott Rice	Juan Lagares

Zack Wheeler	Wilmer Flores	Travis d’Arnaud	Daisuke Matsuzaka

Matt den Dekker	Curtis Granderson	Rafael Montero	Jacob deGrom

Sean Gilmartin	Kevin Plawecki	Noah Syndergaard	Steven Matz

Michael Conforto	Yoenis Cespedes	Matt Reynolds	Brandon Nimmo

Robert Gsellman	Amed Rosario	Dominic Smith	Tomas Nido

Jeff McNeil	Pete Alonso	Edwin Diaz	J.D. Davis

Marcus Stroman	Andrés Giménez	Francisco Lindor	Javier Báez