Flores TejadaI like Ruben Tejada.

However, there’s a big gulf between liking a player and thinking he should be penciled in to start 150 games. And at this point, there’s no reason to think that Tejada has earned the starting shortstop job in any way. It’s my belief that if the Mets open the season with Tejada as their starting shortstop, they are setting him up to fail.

The fans consider shortstop to be the biggest problem with the team. Tejada was a big part of that problem in 2013, he’s been criticized openly by management for his effort and conditioning and he’s had a brutal start (.595 OPS in 33 PA) in Grapefruit League play. It’s one thing not to overpay to bring in a replacement – but why compound things by starting the guy who at the moment may be the least popular Met on the squad?

Many fans are confused why the Mets haven’t come to terms with Stephen Drew on a contract yet. However much sense it makes to those in the seats, it doesn’t make sense to the suits. And with the alleged asking price by teams with a shortstop to deal, there’s no reason to get robbed in the trade market.

So, if we shouldn’t open with last year’s guy, management won’t sign the obvious guy and other teams are not being reasonable with their trade demands – what should the Mets do at the start of the year?

I’m reminded of an old “Saturday Night Live” bit by Bill Murray, where during the Cold War he suggested that we should send an army of women over to invade Russia. Paraphrasing here but Murray essentially said – If they win, great!! And if they don’t, we say so what – you beat a bunch of girls.

With that thought in mind, the Mets should start Opening Day with Wilmer Flores as their shortstop.

Now, my belief that Flores is not an impact prospect remains unchanged. His ability to play a competent shortstop in the major leagues is very much in doubt. But he’s a better option at the start of the year than Tejada. While the fans are down on Tejada, they are mostly optimistic with Flores. While Tejada is struggling this Spring, Flores is hitting (.734 OPS in 47 PA) at a solid level.

Does any reasonable person expect Tejada to post a .734 OPS in the majors this year? His major league best is a .696 mark in 376 PA back in 2011. And is Tejada’s glove enough to make up 50 points of OPS? My gut says no, even with the serious doubts over Flores’ defensive ability at short.

Now, it’s far from a given that Flores could post a .734 OPS over an entire season. That seems like an optimistic, yet not impossible, goal from him. Last year 17 shortstops had enough PA to qualify for the batting title and only five of them beat a .734 OPS. There’s upside to this move, if everything breaks right. What upside is there to starting Tejada?

If Flores gets off to a hot start – that’s great!! But if he has a cold start after two weeks, there will be no huge outcry from the fan base. If he’s still not hitting after a month, then you try someone else. If you can’t bring in someone from the outside, at least the fan base will give Tejada more of a shot on May 1 than they would give him at the beginning of April. That would be putting him in a position to succeed.

The Mets spent two years playing Lucas Duda in the outfield, a position he was completely unqualified to play. It seems they should be willing to play Flores, a guy who at least has played shortstop before, a month to show if he can hack it – both offensively and defensively. If he does – that’s great!! And if he can’t, it’s not like it was much worse than Tejada would have given in the same time frame.

15 comments on “The best thing for Ruben Tejada is to start Wilmer Flores

  • Metsense

    In 2012 Sandy went into the season without an outfield. This season the Mets start without any shortstop depth. This is not a responsible way to run a major league team.
    Drew should be signed because he is better than Tejada, Quintinilla and Flores. The object is to improve the team without sacrificing the future. Drew short term does not sacrifice the future and improves the team.
    If that won’t be done, then you might as well give Flores a chance for all the reasons you gave in the article. I don’t dislike Tejada. I think he is an adequate back up but adding Tejada to the starting lineup is a mistake because Lagares or EY are offensively challenged also. There would be too many offensive holes in the lineup.
    I really hate the thought of poor defense sabotaging good pitching. Sandy has really painted the Mets into a corner.

    • Chris F

      SA has made such a slop of this situation, that I have found my own opinion shifting like beach sand.

      Im ok with trading for a future long term answer (like a Franklin or Gregorious). Who is avaialable should not cost too much, despite overtones of wanting Syndergaard for Gregorious. Just how stupid would anyone have to be to buy that?

      Im also ok with waiting for Asdrubel Cabrera next year…but thats gonna be 4/50 or more is my guess.

      That leaves me with your Drew proposal. Ive come around to it. But I cant buy in to two years. This season is already a <80 win cast off, and next year I can see 80-85 wins, but still a major long shot for the postseason. So a 2 yr deal just spends a lot of money to add a couple wins that wont matter. Why not cement him for 4 and make him the SS for the first strong run at the post season?

      Im also ok with giving Flo a full 3 month shot at it.

      • Chris F

        Im expressly not ok with leaving this to Tejada…the very thing this FO will do.

      • bigbrett

        I disagree. I think we have a really good team the second half of this year and in 2015 we are looking at over 90 wins. Do you want to build a championship caliber team or do you want to blow your load trying to scratch out an extra win in april?

  • blastingzone

    The mets should have had Flores playing SS in winter ball and from the start of spring training so they would know by now if he could play SS or not so now they really don’t know?
    I said this months ago and you didn’t have to be a fortune teller to see this coming! They
    knew they weren’t going to spend big money on Drew and with all the question marks on Tejada
    and lack of other options for SS Flores made sense but that’s something the mets lack as in
    common sense! I believe Flores can make the normal plays but I have no Idea if he can make the
    non normal plays but I will tell you this Flores will kick the shit out of Tejada in producing
    offense!!

  • blastingzone

    Why is Flores not playing today? Two games and he’s not in the line up but Q and Tejada are!
    I guess that’s what happens when you have three hits including a three run HR and four RBI’s!
    You get to sit on the bench which makes no sense when your still trying to figure out if Flores can handle SS!!

    • Jerry Grote

      totally in sync with you here. Wondering what the purpose is for subbing in Dykstra early on for Davis as well.

    • Sean Flattery

      I’m starting think TC’s love affair with Quintanilla is the resemblance of skillset, stature, and career path mirror much of his own back in the day. Undersized,utility men who peaked at Triple-A.

      • Chris F

        Thats priceless Sean!

    • bigbrett

      we are going to figure out if flores can play ss at AAA. what is your problem with that?

  • Stephen

    1.) Spring stats mean very little.
    2.) I don’t care which player fans are optimistic about. I care about winning games. Most Met fans would still start Jeff Francoeur over anyone in this outfield. This is why you don’t listen to Mets fans or care who they want playing at any given time.
    3.) I’ll give you and other fans so “optimistic” about Flores two weeks of his play in the field before you’re willing to take (*potentially*…only potentially) a worse offensive production from Tejada.

    • Stephen

      Not only do spring stats mean very little, but the sample size is laughably small. Those averages (like BA, slugging %, OPS) don’t normalize until hundreds of at bats and often more than a season’s worth of playing time. Making an argument over a handful at bats is silly…especially when they’re spring training at bats.

  • Michael Geus

    Flores played a ton of shortstop in our system. Years worth. Then these guys moved him because they were convinced he cannot play there. Or so I thought. Because now they are moving him back to do so again in Vegas. Oh, wait that’s right it’s different now, he went to Michigan and did a few sit ups. Duda went too, maybe we should play him in center, ha.

    If he can play short why was he moved? If he cannot what the hell are they doing now? Remember, it’s not a new management team.

    Now keep this in mind too. This same management team couldn’t see with their own eyes that Juan Lagares was a tremendous centerfielder. They though he was a corner. So the good news is Flores might not only be able to play short, he might be Ozzie Smith.

    • Name

      I don’t think you can fault management for not seeing Lagares’s defense. I didn’t see one minors expert tout his defense before he came to the majors. And who knows, maybe it was just a fluke and we’ll see a regression this season.

  • Jerry Grote

    I’m gonna bring this up right here, under the Flores thing.

    So the Rangers need a 2B, a C, and some pitching. Does that sound like a team we know of?

    Flores. Teagarden – or less preferably, Recker. Montero. JDG.
    = Juri Profar.

    SS position solved for the rest of this decade if not the next one too and it doesn’t really impact the 2014 team for a minute. The Rangers get all their problems resolved in one fell swoop.

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