The Mets will send down infielder Wilmer Flores to Triple-A Las Vegas before tomorrow’s game to make room for Juan Lagares, who is coming off the DL. Lagares has been sidelined for a few weeks with a right intercostal strain.
Flores has received only sporadic playing time at shortstop, losing time to Ruben Tejada, who has a .228/.346/.299 batting line in 61 games. However, Flores has hit even worse, batting just .228/.256/.304 on the season. Nonetheless, while Tejada may have been the best short-term option (that’s not saying much), Flores is likely the best long-term option at shortstop, as his top 100 prospect status (Baseball Prospectus) would suggest.
Lagares, 25, is hitting .295/.337/.429 on the year, but has hit the DL twice already. This move leaves the team without a backup for Ruben Tejada at shortstop (although Eric Campbell may be able to play there in a pinch). Even more interestingly, the team now has six outfielders on the roster. Lagares, Eric Young Jr., Chris Young, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, and Bobby Abreu will all vie for two starting outfield spots over the next few weeks.
Thoughts from Joe D.
Another true head-scratcher here…
It’s amazing how Ruben Tejada has gone from being an unwanted pariah who was out of shape, lazy and unmotivated, to regain the Mets everyday shortstop job.
Does this speak volumes about Tejada?
Does it speak even more volumes about the future of Wilmer Flores?
Not really.
What this shows is that in three years the Mets still have no clue as to what’s happening at shortstop. They have not inched any closer to a more permanent solution and are still victims of their own lack of decisiveness and leadership on this matter.
Shortstop hasn’t suddenly fixed itself. Tejada is not the answer and still profiles better as a utility infielder and nothing more than that.
But these are the Mets, who often shroud their incompetence with the notion that this is somehow part of the plan.
The plan… I am really getting tired of hearing those two words.
This morning, one reader read a report that the plan was to keep building up the pitching and then putting together patchwork offenses year over year, like our fellow small market brothers Tampa Bay and Oakland.
That could be true, but as I responded to him and have now been saying for three years, the plan is as follows:
- Keep payroll around $85 million and tread water as best as you can.
- Invest in a bigger public relations department and pull out all the stops.
- Hope for a Strawberry and Gooden like emergence from the minors.
- Win some games, fill the park, and generate much needed revenue.
When that happens, maybe then the Mets can get payroll back over $100 million and bring in the caliber of players they need to take it all the way.
As far as I’m concerned, that has always been the plan… The plan according to Fred and Jeff Wilpon.
