Before the Los Angeles Dodgers finished off their four-game sweep of the New York Mets on Thursday night with a 6-3 victory, Mets manager Terry Collins said he will ask veteran Asdrubal Cabrera to play second base when he returns.

The reason Collins said — keeping Jose Reyes, one of the worst players in the majors, at shortstop.

There are a multitude of issues with that thinking. One being that Reyes shouldn’t even be on a major league roster and instead the Mets are moving a better player to accommodate him. Cabrera has a .713 OPS compared to a .586 OPS for Reyes this year, even with Asdrubal playing banged up. Two is that Cabrera’s range is non-existent at the point in his career and has no business playing a middle infield position.

The move the Mets should make with Cabrera is to third base when he comes off the DL, likely today.

Granted, Cabrera has little experience at the third base position with only 13 games played there in his professional career. However, this offseason he said he would play third base if needed for Team Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. He would also be a better fit for third base than second given his lack of range and his struggles somewhat recently at second. Cabrera played second base for the Nationals in 2014 and was awful with -10 DRS in only 48 games.

The Mets have a a $8.5 million club option for Cabrera which seemed like a no-brainer following his first season with the team, but he has trouble staying healthy in 2017. One of the best ways for Cabrera to ensure that option gets picked up (besides the obvious of staying on the field) is showing that he can play another position other than shortstop, the likely home of top prospect Amed Rosario any day now.

Moving Cabrera to third instead of second also gives the Mets the option of playing Wilmer Flores or T.J. Rivera at second base, where they both look more comfortable defensively than at the hot corner. Or the Mets could get an extended look at Gavin Cecchini at second base, he has played well in a very small sample in the big leagues.

Ultimately, moving Cabrera off shortstop is the right move if the Mets make the correct decision in bringing Rosario up soon to start getting exposure to the majors.

The mistake the Mets would be making is sticking Cabrera back in the middle infield.