As Met fans, who have been conditioned to focus on the future, we all waited anxiously for the debuts of Wilmer Flores and Travis d’Arnaud this season.
Flores appeared first and hit the ground running, driving in nine runs in his first seven games. The 22-year old was batting .286 with a .762 OPS until he suffered a serious ankle injury which has seen his numbers and his playing time go into a steep decline.
The plan was for Terry Collins to give Flores some playing time at second base where he has played the majority of this season at Triple-A Las Vegas, but the injury has kept that from happening.
“It would have been nice to see him at second base,” Collins told Jorge Castillo of the Star-Ledger. “Certainly, we’ve got to be careful because that’s a position where agility is really necessary and if he’s not really moving that good because of the ankle it’s not the right place for him.”
As for Travis d’Arnaud, he feels great, but just hasn’t looked comfortable at the plate at all.
D’Arnaud’s struggles has led to him being dropped down to eighth in the batting order by Terry Collins. He took the collar again last night against the Nationals and he has just one hit in his last 23 at-bats. On the season, the 24 year old catcher is batting .136/.224/.220 in 67 plate appearances.
“He’s a real sharp guy, he’s going to get it, and he’s going to know what he has to do when he comes in next year to play at the quality we need him to play,” Terry Collins said on Monday.
The Mets top catching prospect has also struggled throwing out base runners as well, and 10 of the last 12 stolen base attempts against him have been successful for a dismal 17% Caught Stealing Percentage. During one game against the Cleveland Indians, they stole four bases against him as they seemingly ran at will.
“He’s had a couple of balls get by him,” catching coach Bob Geren explained. “Some are not necessarily his fault but some I think maybe he can block and catch after he gets a feel for the pitching staff.”
Collins says it’s too early to start worrying about d’Arnaud’s slow start to his career.
“I just think that we’ve got to reserve our judgment on where Travis is offensively and make sure that he continues to play, understand what it takes to be successful here.”
The Mets have no choice but to continue to run both Flores and d’Arnaud out there, but I think Flores should be shutdown altogether to allow for his ankle to heal properly. I don’t want to see another Ike Davis situation with this ankle injury.
