Talking to reporters at the Winter Meetings in San Diego on Monday, manager Terry Collins said that Ruben Tejada will be a candidate for the starting shortstop job if the team doesn’t get a new one and it’s just a choice between him and Wilmer Flores.
“As I sit here today, I’m not going to name Wilmer Flores just yet,” Collins said. “Ruben promised me he’d be at the fitness facility in January to get ready for spring training which I think would be a huge benefit for him.”
Since I live there I’ll be the first guy out there that morning waiting for Ruben to walk through the doors and if he walks through them his name is going to be right there with Wilmer’s and that job is up for grabs.”
Collins believes that Tejada is going to have a big rebound next season and that he’s now entering his prime.
“He’s 25,” Collins said. “It would be one thing if he was 31 or 32 and maybe on the downside of his career, but he’s right in prime time. What we saw at the end of last season is the Ruben Tejada we know he can be, tremendous defender, great arm. He hit for more power than we expected, but he’s doing that by design.”
“As I told him at the end of the year, ‘how mad do you have to be at yourself before you go prove to everybody else that hey look, you’re still the guy?’” Collins said.
“I said ‘by no means, until I get to spring training, unless you decide you’re not going to put the work in, to be as good as you can be, you’re going to be in the mix.’”
All Collins would say about Flores is that in no way has he earned the job yet. One beat reporter added that Collins later referred to Flores as a bench player and serving in a utility role.
One should note that Tejada was very close to being non-tendered last week according to team sources.
Also, I’m pretty sure that Sandy Alderson will have a big say as to who plays if it comes down to Flores and Tejada. Only two days ago, Sandy affirmed that Flores has proven to be quite capable defensively and that it’s more likely than not that he’ll be the Mets Opening Day shortstop.
“He did a nice job for us last year. Can he do that on a whole season basis? Offensively he got much better as time went on. I hope it works. I like Wilmer.”
There’s also the real possibility that Alderson does pull off a trade for a shortstop. “Things can happen quickly here just because of the proximity of everyone in the same hotel and the availability of everybody’s staff. So things can happen quickly.”
Asked specifically if something might occur at this week’s winter meetings as far as a free-agent shortstop, Alderson said: “I’d say further down the line, probably.”
(Updated 12/9)
