In an interview that will televise at 10 PM tonight on SNY, Wilmer Flores admitted to Mets Hot Stove that while his range may not be as good as he would like, he’s confident that he can make the routine plays and play a good shortstop. “It’s no secret that I’m not Omar Vizquel,” Flores told SNY.
Watching the video you almost feel bad for the kid who’s been busting his ass since the season ended to get the routine plays down pat, while working on his footwork and positioning to compensate for his lack of range.
He’s been answering the same freaking question for months now, and I’m sure he’ll have to answer it a dozen more times once spring training starts in three weeks. I’ll tell you, I can’t wait for the season to start, and I’ll continue to say that Flores is going to have a lot of people eating crow this year.
— Joe D.
January 26
Marc Carig (Newsday) put together a nice article with some input from both Wilmer Flores and David Wright on the state of the Mets shortstop situation. The topic obviously centered around what Flores has done to improve and whether the offseason banter has affected his outlook and determination.
“You hear people talking all the time. Is this guy going to be a shortstop? Can he play shortstop? Can he not?” Flores said.
“I’m not going to say I don’t hear things. But I try not to because I know what I can do, man. Honestly, I know what I can do.”
“Not everyone can play shortstop in the big leagues. I think I did a pretty good job at short. I was impressed with what I did. I just want to do it again.”
It’s the first time Flores has contributed his thoughts on the matter after spending almost every day this offseason either playing winter league baseball in his native Venezuela or training in Port St. Lucie with little downtime at all.
Wright offered a realistic, yet genuine endorsement of his teammate.
“He hasn’t played there,” Wright said. “He was playing third, he was playing some second, then all of a sudden they wanted to throw him at shortstop at the big-league level. Obviously, there’s an adjustment period.”
“I would wager that he’s going to have a better year offensively than I would say the majority of shortstops in baseball. I’m not saying he’s going to be Omar Vizquel at shortstop.”
Here’s my thoughts. If Wilmer were to be graded on effort, focus and desire just from this offseason alone, he’d get straight A’s.
He’ll execute the routine putouts, turn the everyday double play and probably have a few web gems to go with the occasional blunder. Some days will be bad, some will be good, but most of the time he’ll get the job done with the glove.
What’s odd is that unlike many, I see good reason to believe he’d be passable with his glove, at least as a short term solution. Ironically, for all the talk of his offense, there seems to be little discussion around his splits.
Over his final 24 games last season, Flores finished strong, producing a .287/.320/.500 slashline. However, of those games, 13 were played at SS (.255 hitter), 10 were played at second base (.368 hitter) and 1 was split between SS/2B (.200).
The story remains consistent across the entire season too. His .251/.286/.378 stat line disguises how dismal he was offensively at SS (.239/.273/.324)versus 2B (.297/.328/.563). Obviously, it’s a small sample size, but curious all the same.
In the end, it depends on the plan the Mets have for Flores both now and in the future. If the goal is to milk this experiment for dollar value at the expense of his development and the integrity of the infield defense, it could foreshadow more of the same ‘upgrade’ chatter next offseason.
If the goal is to get above average production from him until the trade deadline on the heels of a Daniel Murphy deal, Flores will likely move to 2B, where he has thrived and this will likely be a savvy display of patience on the part of the Mets.
The point is, Wilmer Flores flashed some serious promise last year playing at second, which is where his career was headed since as early as 2011. He’s put a lot of work into this offseason and deserves to see it pay off.
