Both Wilmer Flores and Jose Reyes were late scratches to the New York Mets lineup on Wednesday against the New York Yankees which forced Travis d’Arnaud into making his major league debut at third base.
Before the game, d’Arnaud was given David Wright‘s glove to help him prepare for third base duty. Not only did he play his first professional game at third, but he also swapped with Asdrubal Cabrera to play second base as well to protect him from the pull side of hitters.
Cabrera and d’Arnaud ended up switching between third and second base a total of 22 times. FanGraphs list Travis as playing 3.1 innings at second base and 5.2 innings at third.
D’Arnaud only had one chance in the game, an easy popup that he caught off the bat of Todd Frazier in the ninth inning.
“I wanted to make a diving play,” d’Arnaud said after the 5-3 loss. “I wanted to make a diving play down the line or rob someone of a base hit, like people do to me.”
The final line on d’Arnaud’s major league debut on the infield: 3B-2B-3B-2B-3B-2B-3B-2B-3B-2B-3B-2B-3B-2B-3B-2B-3B-2B-3B-2B-3B-2B-3B.
