Jay Payton was an integral part of Bobby Valentine‘s ball club back in 2000 when the New York Mets appeared in the postseason in back-to-back years for the first time in franchise history. The outfielder ended up placing third in NL Rookie of the Year voting. Payton put together a .291/.331/.447 line with 17 home runs, 62 RBIs, and 63 runs scored in 488 at-bats. A native of Zanesville, Ohio, Payton was taken in the first round (29th overall) of the 1994 first-year player draft by the Mets. He was selected out of the Georgia Institute of Technology. It was a long road for Payton to get to the big leagues, and we’ll revisit his journey on this week’s prospect time machine.

The beginning of his professional baseball career was littered with injuries, time on the disabled list, and time spent rehabbing to get back on the field. He went under the knife three times to fix his elbow (twice for Tommy John), and also had surgery on his shoulder. His injuries actually cost him the entire 1997 season. Upon signing with New York in 1994, he immediately reported to the NYPL with Pittsfield, and proceeded to rake at the plate. Payton hit .365/.439/.498 in 219 at-bats, with three homers and 37 RBIs. He skipped a level and headed for Double-A Binghamton for a late-season promotion. In eight games played (25 at-bats), the outfielder hit .280/.357/.320.

That strong showing led Baseball America to name him the 96th best prospect in all of baseball prior to play getting underway in 1995. He started the year in Double-A, and by the time the season was over, it looked as if Payton was on the fast track to the majors. He spent 85 games (357 at-bats) with the B-Mets, and hit .345/.395/.535 with 14 home runs and 54 RBIs. Those gaudy numbers led the Mets to promote him to Triple-A Norfolk for the remainder of the season. In 50 games played (196 at-bats), Payton cooled off with the bat, hitting .240/.284/.398 with four homers and 30 RBIs.

Before the 1996 season started, he saw a jump in his ratings on Baseball America, going from the 96th best prospect to the 21st best prospect. However, injuries would start to plague Payton, as he would appear in only 71 games during the ’96. By the time his rehab was complete and he was once again in Norfolk, he showed he could make adjustments from the year prior, posting a triple slash of .307/.363/.503 in 153 at-bats.

The injuries dropped Payton’s stock, as he was considered the 34th best prospect in baseball heading into the 1997 season. He would never appear in the top-100 prospect list again, as he lost the entire ’97 season due to injury. He performed well in ’98 and ’99 in the minors, getting cups of coffee with the big league squad in each of those seasons. However, Payton didn’t start making a significant impact in Flushing until the 2000 season as a 27-year-old, which I noted above.

The center fielder hit on the interstate in both the NLDS and NLCS, but put together a .333/.333/.476 line in their World Series loss to the Yankees, collecting one home run and three RBIs in the process. He only appeared in 104 games the following season due to a torn hamstring early in 2001, and by the middle of the 2002 season, the Mets decided to part ways with their former first round pick, shipping him off to the Colorado Rockies.

Payton enjoyed his best overall season with the Rockies in 2003, setting career highs in nine different categories, which include:

• home runs (28)
• RBIs (89)
• hits (181)
• runs (93)
• doubles (32)
• on-base% (.354)
• slug% (.512)
• at-bats (600)
• games played (157)

Unfortunately, that was the apex of his 12-year big league career, spending time with the Padres, Red Sox, A’s, and Orioles after the 2003 season. In January of 2010, he signed a minor league deal to return to the Rockies, and was assigned to their Triple-A affiliate in Colorado Springs. He hit .323/.365/.469 with six home runs and 74 RBIs in 439 at-bats, earning him a September call-up at the end of the season. He amassed 35 more at-bats in the bigs, hitting .343/.361/.514. That was the final time he would be on a big league roster, and decided to retire in February 2011 after no teams came calling.

While his time with the Mets in the major leagues was brief, it was enjoyable to watch him man center field in Flushing. It’s a shame injuries came into play as he developed in the minor leagues; his entire career could have been different if he didn’t miss significant time in ’96 and ’97. Despite that, it’s nice to see him recover to have a decent career.