This is nothing new. The injury carousel that is the New York Mets shortstop position has been an issue for the past few seasons now, and probably the last decade when you really look at it. Aside from the 4-year span from 2005-2008 where Reyes played everyday, injuries have plagued whoever has manned this position.
While Reyes was our starting shortstop since 2003, he was hardly a model of consistency when it came to playing everyday. As I stated above, he was a regular for 4 straight seasons, but from 2003-2004 and 2009-2011 he was an injury riddled mess.
This season it looked as though we were going to have a steady guy in Tejada who was going to play everyday and develop as a player. Instead he gets injured on a freak face plant where he hurts his quad and is taking longer than Jose Reyes to heal.
So far this season we have seen Omar Quintanilla, Justin Turner, Ronny Cedeno, Jordanny Valdespin and David Wright man short in Ruben’s absence. And of right now we are running out of options as both Quintanilla is playing banged up and Valdespin has been a disaster in the field.
There aren’t many options on out there for Sandy. Shortstop is a position that has grown weak in recent years. Many guys who used to play short have moved to other positions such as Hanley and Arod. While the majority of the new shortstops that have come up have been more defensive minded rather than a force offensively.
Right now we just have to hope and pray that Quintanilla’s finger injury doesn’t land him on the DL, and he can hold down the fort until guys like Turner and Cedeno can come back. Tejada’s recent setback means we may not see him for a while.
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