floresFrom the beginning of the offseason, the rumor mill has been buzzing over the need for shortstop in the Mets infield. One by one, the names went flying around. The Mets seemed close at times to making a move just to see it fall apart when the asking price was too high.

No one can really blame them for that. Why give up a Noah Syndergaard, who is the second top pitching prospect in baseball, for a veteran that may be a free agent this time next year anyway? There’s a difference between mortgaging your future and selling the farm.

If the rumors had panned out and the Mets had traded for Troy Tulowitzki or Ian Desmond, that’s exactly what they would’ve done: sell the farm.

The free agent options have been a little costly as well. For example, Stephen Drew, who recently went to the Yankees, was signed at one of the cheaper deals for one year, $5 million. That’s a little steep for a one year contract on an often injured player unless that player is going to be a major piece. Had the Mets signed Drew, he wouldn’t have been. They would not have been building their lineup around him.

That leaves only internal options. While the team has Ruben Tejada signed for a bit longer, they will be turning to Wilmer Flores, most likely, to begin the season. While this sounds like a complete surrendering by Mets management, it’s not as bad as media and fans would like to think.

Mike Petriello of FanGraphs points out that the Mets rank #18 among the position, assuming that Flores gets the nod most of the way. While that’s not the best number, it’s certainly not the worst. Teams like Miami,Pittsburgh and the previously mentioned Yankees (with Stephen Drew) all rank lower. The Mets are just below league average there.

While Flores does lack in defense, he can work at it come Spring Training. However, while his glove is up for debate, his bat is not. With six home runs and 29 RBI in limited action, he got better at the plate as the season went along.

That is an improvement that will most likely be evident this season as well due to the added experience. If he doesn’t exactly catch fire like the team is hoping, there will always be cheaper options at the trade deadline than there are right now.

For the time being, as fans, we should be eager to see what our young players are capable of doing when given the reigns. Flores can’t succeed if he’s not given the chance, but not being given a chance could hurt his confidence even more and speed along potential failure. If the time for the Mets youth to shine is now, then Flores has to be a part of that.

He will have his growing pains in the opportunity, but hopefully, most of them are already done and he can move on to maximizing his potential.

27 comments on “Mets settle on Wilmer Flores and that may not be a bad thing

  • Rob

    Oh come on really, what team that is actually going into a season where they say they are poised to compete for a wild card spot goes in like this? Fine if you want to go with Wilmer and roll the dice on another season , just say so. But most any ML team that is poised to compete for real (not just with talking points in the press) would at the very least bring in a Drew or a Yunel Escobar both costing around 5 mil as insurance and that is even if they had a highly touted but unproven rookie SS. We have an unproven prospect (please don’t tell me about last year he had less than 2 good months that proves nothing) and a failed prospect backing him up. If Flores bombs our last best hope for 2015 will lie in the hands of another unproven minor leaguer in Matt Reynolds. We all know what Tejada will give us as a starter and it isn’t enough.

    Is 5 million for one year to have an experienced SS as insurance in case an unproven commodity bombs and threatens to torpedo your entire season really to much to spend in this day and age?

    This just magnifies how really thin we are and how badly the economics of the Wilpon’s is weighing on this franchise. This is a disgrace when you really think about it.

    • Chris F

      +1

    • Metsense

      I hope Flores has a good year and he is successful but I agree with Rob that it would have been a good idea to bring in a more experienced shortstop that was better than Tejada as an insurance option. If Flores is the real deal then it would be obvious when he beat the experienced shortstop out for the starting spot. If it was a $5M expenditure and Flores beat him out, so what. Good points Rob.
      I agree with Scott Ferguson that if Gee is on the market and they intend to salary dump him, they should revisit Eduardo Escobar and the Twins.
      Gerald Pesce made it quite clear that the difference between the Nats and Mets is not just on the playing field but also in the front office.

  • pete

    I thought the Yanks signed Drew to play second base? I would give an edge to the Bronx bombers as Gregorius can play better defense than Flores.

  • Scott

    270/12-15/70 is nothing to sneeze at! If Flores can reach those numbers he ‘ll be a candidate for an All Star position. Murph and Flores just might be keys to that WC spot.

  • Name

    This is sadistic, but at this point I’m really rooting for Flores to fail just so ill have the opportunity to say “I told you so”

    • Chris F

      You wont have to root Name, its coming without that kind of help.

    • Ian

      You’re kind of like the “Yankees Fan” version of those people who root for the Mets: you want some brand name at every position on the diamond and in the outfield, you whine when it doesn’t happen, and then coiled up in your infinite misery, actually root for someone to fail just for bragging rights to your invisible clairvoyance of some kind.

      Please find another team to root for. You’ll be doing the rest of us a favor by your absence.

      • Name

        Clearly your first time here. Do me a favor and keep your mouth shut until you actually know the people here.

        If you call Ruben Tejada or someone like Nori Aoki “brand name”, yea, ill take brand name over the crap like Flores or the overpriced Cuddyer every time.

        • Ian

          Myopic and obtuse. A waste of 262 characters. Noise.

          • Fast Freddy

            Do you do anything besides bitch and moan? At least Name has brought something to the table. I don’t have to agree with what he says – at least he talks about the subject. You accuse him of being a Yankees fan and then talk about his contribution being a waste.

            You’re the one dragging things down.

            • Ian

              Fair point, though I am unsure what he has brought to the table.

              I’ll say the same thing that’s been said about Flores up until this point.

              He’s been the Mets best hitting prospect for what seems to be going on 7+ years now. His AAA line (over 162 games for the past 2 years) was a .321 BA, 28 HR’s, 47 doubles, and 143 RBI’s. Counting stats, yes, but let’s say he does even half that production in the majors (.275 BA, 14 HR’s, 24 doubles, and 70+ RBI’s), you’re looking at one of the better hitting SS in the league, especially since Ruben and Omar “Black Hole” Tejada and Quintenilla have given us zero value from the position for 2 straight years, now.

              Flores is most likely not a long-term option at the position, but he’ll be fine for 2015, and arguably will not even be the biggest question mark hitting from the #8 hole (that distinction belongs to what bounce back seasons will belong to Wright, Granderson, and Cuddyer, plus Harvey post surgery).

              The WAR that Flores produces will not be the make or break factor that gets us to the post-season this year.

  • Rich

    Can we (reporters, internet trolls, whining fans, etc) please stop talking about shortstop!!!!! We already know our current shortstops are weak, the free agent SS market is weak, and the best trade options are high risk or short term that will deplete a farm we’ve worked so hard to develop. Every day there is a regurgitated article about our shortstop – the same content every day! Remember the daily articles and everyone crying about not signing Drew last year?? He finally signed with yanks and sucked.

    Editor’s Note – Please do not capitalize words in your post, as that is a violation of our Comment Policy.

  • Chris F

    You are right, its not a bad thing. Its a terrible thing.

  • Scott Ferguson

    Drew didn’t want to come here, that’s clear as he’s said he went to the Yankees to get an opportunity to start. Escobar cost the Nats Clippard, which is the equivalent of trading Familia or Mejia for Escobar. To me Escobar is not a significant enough upgrade.

    The only issue I have with this situation is that the Mets should have pulled the trigger on the deal of Dillon Gee to the Twins for Eduardo Escobar. He’s a switch hitter who is, at worst, a slightly better version of Tejada who can play all of the IF positions outside of 1B. At best he could have been the teams SS and under control through 2018. Now the Mets are going to trade Gee for minor leaguers.

    In the end, I’d prefer Ian Desmond, but outside of that, I don’t see the FA that was so much better than Flores and I’m not dealing Syndergaard for a rental.

  • Gerald Pesce

    Desmond is going into his walk year. So Rizzo trades for Trea Turner, who immediately becomes their #2 rated prospect. Now he has options. That is being creative, and that is how you run a successful franchise. As long as the Wilpons hold our team hostage, we need a creative GM who can make these kinds of deals.

  • NYM6986

    Kudos to the comments of “enough about the short stop position.” If we had enough offense then we could have signed a glove at this position. Our entire history shows good glove and don’t worry about the bat at this position. We need the bat. This is the first time this decade that we can really see a team that will finish over .500 with a legit chance to snag a wild card slot. 2016 will be the real season to bring in a player to throw us over the top like Clendenon, Hernandez or Kid Carter. Can’t we simply enjoy being competitive again and keep moving foreword??

  • Eraff

    “Fan Base”: The front office views this position and the present players very differently than you do. They believe they have an “adequate fall back” guy in Tejada… and they’re “suspisciously hopeful” that Flores can do better than Tejada. Maybe flores will be a 6-8 inning Bat, with Tejada as a caddie/ mid infield backup.

    Either way, this team sinks and swims on Pitching Health and a “return to baseball card” for Wright, Grandy and Cuddy.

    My big concern—lot’s of “defensive targets” who combine to “not get to alot of balls and a lot of outs”.

  • James Preller

    The SS situation is indefensible and Alderson is completely to blame.

    He’s been in charge for more than 4 years — over 50 months — and he’s failed to address the position. These guys have depth charts and are paid to look long range. Yet at SS, he’s not brought in any quality player to fill the holes. It’s the same old thing. Bring up the next guy we’ve got, even if he sucks. Then the guy after that, then the guy after that.

    He started with Reyes and has subsequently done nothing to make this a competitive position within the organization. The plan seems to be: Let’s wait for Rosario and hope he turns out okay.

    • TexasGusCC

      Or Cecchini.

      • James Preller

        It’s possible that Cecchini becomes a serviceable, full-time, mediocre SS. But he’s going to have to improve dramatically in order to get there.

        • Brian Joura

          I love this description and I’m going to steal it for future use with other players.

          As for Cecchini – I’ve never been in his camp. But what he did at the end of 2014 was really good. In his final 33 games with St. Lucie, he had an .838 OPS with a .293 BABIP and more walks (21) than strikeouts (14). It’s not a very big sample – but I prefer sustainable success in a small sample to no success at all. He does this over a full season and I’ll jump on the bandwagon.

    • Michael Geus

      Done nothing?

      1/3/2012, Signed free agent Omar Quintanilla
      1/5/2013, Signed free agent Omar Quintanilla
      1/18/2014, Signed free agent Omar Quintanilla

      • Chris F

        A Q sighting!!!!!!! Huzzah!!!

        It soooo could have been Q’s to have permanently!!

  • Upset met

    Let some other team roll the dice on him. We are supposed to compete this year. It’s completely unacceptable to have Flores at short. He’s never had success there and he’s not going to just magically put it all together. The bat is average and it will only get worse when (not if) he stumbles defensively. The Mets had chances to grab pretty decent shortstops through the draft but they passed. They let Reyes go without having an adequate replacement. Reyes was not only an irreplaceable game changing talent, but he was a 5 tool superstar that a team should never just let go. And now here we are, the front office has done nothing to fix the mistakes they’ve made. Now we have an out of position player pair with a fringe average at most defensive second baseman, whose really there for his bat. That should make for one of the worst up the middles in baseball. All we needed was one proven player, we definitely had the pieces but Flores has something no proven star shortstop has. A League Minimum Salary!!!!! This is going to be another failed experiment and it’s unfair to put this pressure on a young player who knows he does not have what it takes to play there. It’s just unacceptable to me. That’s bad enough but to tell us fans to expect a winning season? Don’t insult our intelligence, they should be well able to take on more money to their payroll but they’d rather stay small market in the country’s biggest market!

  • Chris F

    Isnt it time we accept the obvious? We bring in A Rod…and juice him to the gills. Yankees pay all the freight except for the milestone achievements. Lance Armstrong will show him how to defeat a continually invasive testing program (its easy by the way, so placing belief in the testing program is the equivalent of believing the Titanic is unsinkable). We move him to short. In a small amount of time, he passes Mays on the HR list — and we pack citifield. then 3000 hits shortly after…and citi is packed again!! He becomes a natural fit to have ol Lucky #13 retired and goes into the Hall a Met!!!!!!!! Its a NY redemption and success story!

    • Brian Joura

      I know this is tongue-in-cheek but still…

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