By virtue of his tearful response to the rumored report of his services being dispatched to Milwaukee as part of the return in the scuttled Carlos Gomez deal, Wilmer Flores has become a fan and media darling. Every at-bat since that fateful night has been greeted with an ovation and his subsequent heroic performance in sealing a win against the Nationals in walk-off fashion have seemingly sealed his legend for good.
But what of the bigger picture? Failing a revival of the shortstop “experiment,’ something that seems increasingly unlikely the longer the improved level of infield play with Ruben Tejada manning the position remains apparent, Flores now appears relegated to the role of part-timer.
With Terry Collins now granted an unprecedented level of flexibility by virtue of the acquisition of Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe, the daily second base assignment has become a “mix-and-match” proposition rotating between Flores, Johnson, and Daniel Murphy depending on the matchups deemed optimal versus the opposing starter on any given day. Other than occasionally returning to short to spell Tejada, Wilmer’s role on the team appears largely reduced as a side effect of the newly supplemented roster.
While it is likely that certain elements of the current arrangement will change at the end of this season when Johnson and Uribe become free agents, the fact remains that management clearly regards Dilson Herrera as the heir apparent at second. This was made evident as details of the collapsed Gomez deal surfaced in the days following the trade deadline.
According to certain reports in the twittersphere, the Mets had originally sought to package Juan Lagares along with Zack Wheeler in the deal, a proposal rejected by the Brewers due to concerns with Lagares’ elbow. Milwaukee then asked for Herrera instead, a demand that was quickly dismissed by Alderson & Co., who offered Flores instead. This became the agreed-upon return for Gomez until medical concerns were allowed to rule the day.
Now, with Flores seemingly anointed the symbol of the rising tide of Met fever, and with no shortage of second base candidates as noted before, there is no pressing reason to bring Herrera up to the varsity before rosters expand in September. In fact, were Flores to be supplanted at this point, the front office would be risking the wrath of fans, the press, and romantics everywhere. BUT…
When the season is over and whatever happens the rest of this year begins to fade into memory, a decision will need to be made.
In an earlier piece I wrote anticipating an eventual logjam for the Mets at second base even before the Johnson/Uribe trade was made, I suggested that team management would likely look to Flores as third base insurance against the now nebulous state of David Wright‘s back. This likely remains the case, but with Wright now targeted for rehab games in the near future, it is probable that a clearer picture will emerge before too long.
If the team heads into the off-season reasonably confident that Wright can manage his condition well enough to stay on the field a majority of the time, they may opt to either stick with Eric Campbell or Zach Lutz as a backup plan for 2016 or look to re-sign Uribe now that he’s in the fold. Either way, it should be expected that Herrera will have the second base job to lose going into next season as he clearly has nothing left to prove at Triple-A.
Consequently, Flores either becomes the shortstop again or the odd man out. Yes, there are any number of variables that could influence this situation (e.g. Wright’s back fails to hold up), but it pays to consider what is most likely.
In this case, with Collins affirming that Tejada is the everyday shortstop, Flores appears to have become excess baggage. A shame, in my opinion, as his enthusiasm, good humor, and current role as poster child for the new breed of Amazin’s makes me want to root for him that much harder.
Still, young, controllable players who can play multiple positions and demonstrate a degree of power potential should be regarded as valuable commodities. Now that the Met farm system has been somewhat tapped of its higher rated pitching talent with the trades of Casey Meisner, Michael Fulmer, etc., perhaps Sandy will look to restock a bit in the offseason with Wilmer as bait. I only hope that if this is the case that it will be handled in a kinder, gentler manner.
