It was interesting to hear Sandy Alderson downplay the importance of defense on Tuesday which seemed to indicate the Mets are moving closer to the realization that Wilmer Flores could very well be the Mets Opening Day shortstop.
“We’re going to have to score more runs than the other team, so that’s a combination of pitching and offense,” Alderson said. “We’re mindful of the importance of defense and the importance of defense to pitching, generally. But given the fact we think we’re going to have better pitching than most, it doesn’t necessarily follow that we need to have more defense than most.
The possibility that Flores could open the season alongside second baseman Daniel Murphy may sound frightening to some, but clearly the front office isn’t discounting it.
“It’s a balance. We’re mindful of the traditional strong-up-the-middle and-play-good defense and so forth, but we need to score some runs, too. In our situation, we’re not looking for someone who is going to be ready in 2017, so it’s got to be somebody who is going to make a contribution now.”
Alderson again said the likelihood is that Flores will be the Mets shortstop next season, and when the Giants inquired about Murphy they were told he was unavailable.
One thing to note is that the Mets rotation will be stacked with a majority of high strikeout pitchers which should relieve some stress off the middle infield defense.
Also, Flores made all the routine plays last season and was not nearly as bad as so-called experts initially portrayed him.
