There were high hopes for this offseason from the New York Mets and Sandy Alderson. We fans were promised that with several onerous contracts off the books – if you’re reading this, you already know who they are – the ramp-up to 2014 was going to be an exciting shower of gold. To Alderson’s credit, he made good on that vow this winter. Hello, Curtis Granderson, Chris Young and Bartolo Colon! Somehow, though, for all the good-vibe signings, the winter/spring still feels incomplete. Your intrepid columnist has a theory as to why: Ruben Tejada is still the starting shortstop.
The front office in Queens has made it clear that they are unsatisfied with Tejada’s performance and work ethic. Late last season, they basically labeled him as a goldbricking malcontent. From arriving “late” to spring training, to showing up overweight when he did show up, to his slow progress back from injury, to his dismal 2013 stats, Tejada has been told in no uncertain terms that he’s walking a fine edge if he wants to keep a Major League job. Trouble is, there’s really no one internally pushing him and no one outside the organization overwhelmingly desirable. Yes, there’s been talk about Wilmer Flores as an option, but his range would appear worse than the incumbent’s. Yes, Stephen Drew would be an absolute upgrade at the position, but his asking price, in terms of both years and dollar amount is prohibitive. Yes, Nick Franklin would be a nice acquisition – a young, team-controlled infielder being squeezed out by Seattle’s signing of Robinson Cano – but it looks like the Mariners are asking more than Alderson is willing to give; if they weren’t, it’s a fairly safe bet that Franklin would have been a Met by now. There are rumors of other irons in the fire trade-wise, but again, if anything were going to happen, it would have before the team arrived in sunny Port St. Lucie.
So here’s your starter, Tejada. A batch of Grapefruit League errors. An overcooked-linguini bat. Questions about his conditioning, even on the heels of a January conditioning program which seemed to have worked for Lucas Duda. Musings as high up as the TV booth as to his mental state. Assumptions in the blogosphere that he will not, in fact, be the starting SS or even travel north with the team come March 31.
It’s becoming more and more clear that Ruben Tejada is not the answer. Over here, speculation remains that the shortstop will ultimately be Drew – at a most reduced asking price, of course. But the situation with Ruben Tejada is becoming more and more untenable with each passing day.
And more positional turmoil is the last thing this team needs.
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Flores was slated to be the starting shortstop in the game starting now. Lets see what he can show us.
One of the other Mets blogs had an interesting discussion about messages from the front office, Tejada’s confidence and how it translates on the field. While I am far from happy with Tejada as our incumbent starter, it does seem kind of lousy to carp on him after he attended the off-season conditioning program like they asked.
Entering the off season the Mets needed to obtain some depth at shortstop. The most games Tejada had ever played in a season was 114 games and his best seasons were still slightly below average. He was coming off a sub par season. One would think getting another major league shortstop would have been a priority in order to offer some competition for the starting position. One would think that it would be a priority to actually upgrade at the position because in 2013 the Mets started three below average offensive players in Quintinilla, Lagares and EY. A competitive team would only have one of those three as starters.
Something should have given dating way back to November. Disappointing. Hopefully it is not too late.
Problem with Tejada playing poorly is that it gives SA no leverage over Drew to bring down his asking price. If Boras is going to give a discount, he can always go north and make a deal with Yankees.
I’m liking Franklin the more I read about him. The Mariners are scouting our team, so let’s hope a deal gets done.
Tejada looks lost out there and Flores didn’t impress in the field yesterday. Something needs to get done.
With the mess at 1st base, at least there’s a chance to succeed with a platoon. Maybe get some half decent numbers. But the SS situation is a giant, hopeless void. I can’t see how the FO plays this hand going into the season. I think it was 2 Guys Talking Baseball who aptly said, “disappointing the fans seems to be policy” or something to that effect.
Crossing my fingers and praying they toss policy to the wind.