There appears to be two very different views of Mets second base prospect Dilson Herrera. The first is the player who absolutely rakes in the minors hitting .310/.362/.504 over two seasons at Triple-A Las Vegas. This is the player the Mets see as their second baseman of the future – a future that was supposed to start in 2016, but was pushed to Opening Day of 2017.
Then there is the other Dilson Herrera. This is the Herrera who has looked overmatched at the plate in his limited time in the majors. When Daniel Murphy went down in 2014, Herrera struggled in the 18 games he did play hitting only .220/.303/.407. Last year, when David Wright went down, Herrera was first summoned as the Mets long-term plan to improve the team. But he struggled again, hitting just .195/.290/.317 in 25 games. Ultimately, this forced the Mets to start looking elsewhere to fill the void left by Wright’s injury.
In 2016, David Wright went down again. However, this time, the Mets never even considered Herrera as an option to help the offense. Instead, they went with a combination of Eric Campbell and Ty Kelly until Wilmer Flores returned from the disabled list. Even when the Mets lost Lucas Duda to his own long-term injury, the Mets still refrained from calling-up Herrera. Instead, they made a trade for James Loney.
You could make the argument that the Mets could have moved Neil Walker to third base. However, the Mets made the arguably rational decision not to ask Walker to play a position he has only played 15 times in his career and a position he hasn’t played in about 10 years. With that in mind, it didn’t make sense to call-up Herrera as he would have probably spent a lot of time on the bench and a player this young needs regular playing time to continue developing and improving. In the end, the Mets seemed content to go with Loney and Flores at the corner infield positions.
That said, the Mets have really struggled to produce runs with Flores and Loney at the corner infield positions. However, it’s hard to blame either of them for these offensive shortcomings. Loney has hit a respectable .291/.349/.405 since coming over to the Mets, and since his return from the disabled list, Flores has hit .262/.319/.415. Their production isn’t exactly awe-inspiring, but they are solid numbers not only for temporary replacements, but also for bottom of the lineup hitters. Still, the Mets are a team with World Series aspirations, and if they want to get back to the Fall Classic, they probably need to do better than Loney and Flores at the corners.
Accordingly, the Mets have begun to consider different possibilities. Next week, the Mets are going to bring in Yulieski Gourriel for a workout presumably to see if he is capable of playing second or third base. Also, it seems increasingly likely that the Mets will bring Jose Reyes back to Queens to either play second or third. If the Mets were to bring either Gourriel or Reyes aboard, it is at least possible, that move would require the Mets moving Walker to third. With that in mind, it is surprising that the Mets haven’t at least investigated the possibility of calling-up Herrera to play second. It’s simply ponderous.
If you want justification for the Mets decision, you could point to Herrera only hitting .290/.337/.496 in Las Vegas this year. However, this overlooks the fact that Herrera had an extremely slow start after dealing with some early season injuries.
Since April 24th, Herrera is hitting .301/.354/.488 with 13 doubles, two triples, and 11 homers. Over the course of the entire season, Herrera is hitting .338/.385/.606 with runners in scoring position. Herrera is hitting, and he can certainly help the Mets. It is surprising that the Mets are going to pursue other opportunities before even giving him another fair look in the majors. It’s even more surprising given the fact that they have also given non-top-prospects like Kelly and Matt Reynolds opportunities this year.
While no one is saying it publicly, it seems that the Mets are not as confident in Dilson Herrera as they once were. It’s odd that it may have come to this when Herrera is still only 22 years old.
