When Curtis Granderson was a Tiger, he was a triples machine. His 23 three-baggers in 2007 were the most by any player after 1950.

Then he became a Yankee and turned into a miniature Babe Ruth. He whacked 41 homers and knocked in 119 runs in 2011, good for a 4th place finish in the AL MVP vote.

Now he is a New York Met. And he is currently the worst player in Major League Baseball.

That’s not an exaggeration. There are currently 192 hitters that qualify for the batting average leader board. You can find Granderson in the very last slot.

Let’s digest the numbers for a moment.

Granderson is hitting .125. 84 times to the plate, 72 official at-bats, nine measly hits.

Of those 72 AB’s, 25 have resulted in strikeouts. One has resulted in a home run. None have been triples.

Granderson collected a clean single in the 1st inning last night. It busted him out of a career-worst 0-for-22 slump.

He’s accounted for 20 at-bats against lefties, exactly half of which culminated with a K.

The Mets don’t know what to do. They have showed Curtis extensive video of his time with the Yanks, hoping to trigger some type of pinstripe flashback. Today, they decided to rest him, seeing if that might do the trick.

But could it be that Granderson is simply washed up? That he’s just one of those ballplayers that got very old very fast?

He’s just 33, but with more stringent drug testing in baseball nowadays, fewer players are continuing their career-long production into their mid-30s and beyond.

Consider this e-mail I received recently from Deadline Detroit reader and devoted Mets follower L-Tate.

“The Grandy Man’s play in the field and at bat has been atrocious. He can’t catch up to any 94+ mph fastball. Even the warning track seems to be beyond his reach (unless he’s misplaying balls there in the field). He swings at heaters after the ball is in the catcher’s glove and flails at breaking pitches a mile from the plate. The reason I am writing is because I suddenly thought of a news story from March of last year. There was a reporter that claimed Robinson Cano was going to be suspended for PED use. Some questioned whether the claims had any validity, but it’s worth noting that the four other names mentioned in the report were Melky Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun...and Curtis Granderson. The story can be found here.”

We must note that Granderson has never tested positive or been suspended for any violation by MLB. It is very possible that his name popped up on a list without a whole lot behind it. But as a now “former” slugger desperately trying to find a vanishing power stroke, being linked with tarnished pill-poppers like Braun and A-Rod is not the greatest thing in the world.

The season is still very young. Granderson could very well sock two homers in a game over the weekend and get back on track. But it doesn’t look promising.

The Mets handed the centerfielder-turned-leftfielder-turned-rightfielder a hefty four-year deal this past offseason.

It’s only been three weeks and they might have already seen enough.

So next time you find yourself readying for a complaint about Torii Hunter’s creaky legs or Rajai Davis’ multiple first-name pronunciations, take a breath.

And remember that it could be a whole lot worse.