Jay Bruce began a rehab assignment last night for the St. Lucie Mets, which was his first game played in almost two months at any level as he dealt with injuries (hip and plantar fasciitis) that he was playing through for a decent portion of the season.
However, he was not particularly productive before going down as he was slashing only .212/.292/.321 with three home runs and 17 RBI in 212 at-bats.
Bruce, 31, spoke with Mike Puma of the New York Post last night and blamed himself largely for how the season has played out so far for the Mets.
“It sucks. I feel like I let the team down, let people down. But we have under-performed as a team and we have gotten injured. But I think there are definitely greener pastures on the horizon for sure. We have a good team, man. We really do.”
Before last night’s game as well, Mickey Callaway said that Bruce’s time in the outfield will be severely diminished once he returns, citing that he will play first base and right field in a “50-50″ split.
The left-handed slugger will be playing first base in tonight’s rehab game, as compared to last night where he played right field.
While he has shown opposition to it in the past, Bruce made it clear that he is perfectly fine with playing in the infield.
“[Callaway] informed me I would be utilized at both positions. Obviously it has been talked about a lot, and however they want to use me is fine. I have taken ground balls down here and I have taken fly balls down here, so I will be as ready as I can to do both.”
“Mickey will figure out — it’s not my decision to make. I think they will figure out what works best and I will probably play first base and right field.”
In all likelihood, the near 50-50 split will likely be as a result of a platoon between Bruce and Wilmer Flores at the position the remainder of the year once he returns from the disabled list.
Flores, 27, is having the best year of his career as he is slashing .269/.327/.444 with 10 home runs and 39 RBI while striking out only 31 times in 297 at-bats.
If this is how the rest of the season plays out, that would effectively eliminate any shot for Peter Alonso to receive a September call-up.
The 23-year-old is slashing .285/.405/.563 with 29 home runs and 105 RBI this season between two levels (Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Las Vegas).
It was recently reported that a call-up was unlikely, though, as the team was rather unimpressed with his defense still and he doesn’t need to be added to the 40-man roster until the 2019 offseason.
However, Alonso was named Defensive Player of the Month for the Las Vegas 51s a few days ago, as he has been slowly, but surely improving around the bag at first.
Therefore, there reasoning for keeping him down in the minors likely stems from the upcoming platoon of Bruce/Flores and there desire to get an extra year of club control by keeping him off the 40-man roster until the end of April next season.
