Over the weekend when the news broke that Mike Baxter would get the call up before Wilmer Flores, the Mets fan base took to social media and other outlets to express their frustration.
When it happened, I had a twitter discussion with MMO’s own Robert Patterson which I explained I thought calling up Flores for the weekend was not necessary but that they would call him up after the weekend when they knew the extent of the injury to Wright.
Bravo to me right? Nay.
The reason I thought this would happen is, I thought the Mets would move Daniel Murphy to 3B and Flores to 2B and they didn’t want to just spring that on Murphy. Apparently I had too much faith in this front office in thinking they’d handle the situation correctly.
Instead, it appears they are going to put Flores at 3B in David Wright’s absence and keep things as they are with 2B and 1B?
That seems utterly pointless to me. The only reason to do it this way in my view is if you’re auditioning Flores for other teams for a possible winter trade – which I hope is not the case.
You have a kid who has the bat, nobody disputes that right? So if you’re telling this kid that his future with the organization is 2B or maybe 1B, why on earth wouldn’t you put him there when he debuts?
By playing him at 3B, you’re sending a message (intentionally or not) that he may NOT be the future at 2B/1B. That is the wrong message to send to both Flores and the fan base.
Murphy credits Justin Turner (which is why he won’t be ousted), and Tim Teufel with helping him improve defensively at 2B. So why not give Flores that same opportunity? Sure, he can work on 2B while he is up here – but if he’s not playing in the game at 2B, what is the point?
Daniel Murphy describes himself as a “soldier” when it comes to being a teammate. He plays where he is told, and does what is needed to help the team. Well guess what Daniel? What is needed is for you to move to 3B for the next two weeks or possibly 1B so we can see a kid who we hope is the future at 2B, right now.
If Flores doesn’t get traded (again fingers crossed), then Murphy’s future with this team is either 1B or nothing. I have nothing against Murphy but if Flores was 1 roster move away from being called up, then honestly maybe Murphy should have been traded before July 31st.
Why protect him right now? You have to think two steps ahead when you’re re-tooling for the future.
And if Flores’ future is at 1B, then stop rewarding mediocrity and send Ike Davis back to Las Vegas and force a guy like Satin (78 games at 3B) to be the one who adjusts to a new role, not the kid you hope is your future starting 1B.
There were so many different options that each one would embrace Wilmer Flores as the future 1B or 2B, instead they decided to protect Murphy or embrace mediocrity at 1B rather than reward their top prospect.
You know what else irks me about this move?
Why do DePodesta and Alderson feel the need to ALWAYS use “GM speak.” There is a time and place for holding back information. Nobody expects to see your entire hand, but when asked just days ago why Flores wasn’t called up, DePodesta said:
“Wilmer played some first base largely because of the ankle injury. He had been back at second base the last couple of games now that he’s full strength. He hasn’t come up because the major league infield is full. David Wright and Daniel Murphy have been healthy until last night, and we have three other guys who could use ABs at first base.”
Clearly that is not the reason why he wasn’t called up. If it was, then why is he meeting the team tonight? Why didn’t DePodesta just respond by saying:
“We felt it might be best to have Flores join us out west on the road, so we will be making another roster move after this weekend after we do more evaluating of the current roster. We believe Flores is ready for the big leagues, and we’re excited to see what kind of impact he can have on our team.”
I mean, God forbid we actually try to turn a bad situation (Wright injury) into something positive for the fan base to look towards right? Instead we have to pretend that Mike Baxter is being called up because Flores simply isn’t ready?
They KNEW they were calling up Flores, if they say otherwise then they are just using incompetence as an excuse which is unacceptable. So why the GM speak line?
The players in the current locker room are not stupid, they know what is going on with this team.
So what are you protecting them from? They have heard names like Zack Wheeler, Wilmer Flores, Rafael Montero, Jenrry Mejia, and Noah Syndergaard before. In order for them to get spots this year or next, somebody has to go.
If the future is what we as Mets fans should be excited about, then start embracing the future and stop trying to delay the inevitable.
