Known primarily for his glove, Elster broke a 42-year-old Major League Baseball record by playing 88 consecutive games at shortstop without committing an error.

[10] Following the season, the Mets traded incumbent shortstop Rafael Santana to the New York Yankees in order to open the position up for Elster.

In his first game as the Mets' regular shortstop in the 1988 season opener, Elster hit his first major league home run off the Montreal Expos' Dennis Martinez.

On July 19, Elster committed a first-inning error that led to five unearned runs in the Mets' 11–2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

He did not commit another regular season error until May 9, 1989, giving him a major league record 88 consecutive regular season games at shortstop without an error, breaking a Major League record set by Eddie Brinkman of the Detroit Tigers in 1972.

[14] (Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. broke Elster's record in 1990, playing in 95 errorless games.

Elster committed two errors in game four of the 1988 National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

[20] Phillies manager Jim Fregosi also used Elster at third and first, the first time he had ever played a position other than shortstop in his major league career.

He also had career highs in games (157), runs (79) and extra base hits (58) to earn the Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year award.

[23] On May 16, an injury once again ended Elster's season when he broke his wrist in a collision with Marlins second baseman Kurt Abbott on a sacrifice bunt.

[citation needed] After sitting out the entire 1999 season, Elster was lured out of retirement by the then Dodgers manager Davey Johnson.

He won the starting job at short, and on April 11, 2000, in the first game played at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco, Elster hit three home runs.

[citation needed] Elster played the part of Pat Corning in the 1994 movie Little Big League.

[27] In 2021, indie-folk artist Cousin Wolf released a song entitled "Kevin Elster" as part of an album called "Nine Innings.