With Daniel Murphy seemingly destined to start the season on the disabled list after suffering a hamstring injury, the Opening Day second base job most likely belongs to Ruben Tejada. With Wilmer Flores sporting a walking boot after fouling a ball off his foot on Sunday’s game against the Yankees, Matt Reynolds appears to be the leader in the clubhouse for Opening Day shortstop if Flores can’t go.
That still leaves a need to carry a backup middle infielder at least until someone is ready to come back, and with Dilson Herrera already reassigned to minor league camp, it looks like that infielder is going to be Daniel Muno.
Muno, the eighth-round pick of the Mets in 2011 out of California State University Fresno, is a switch-hitting middle infielder whose career minor league line is .279/.395/.419 in 1615 plate appearances.
One might wonder how a middle infielder with a seemingly polished bat hasn’t yet cracked the major league squad yet, and the answer to that is three-fold.
Over the last few years, the Mets have carried a stable of utility infielders on their roster ranging from Omar Quintanilla, Justin Turner, Tejada, and Flores, to Josh Satin and Herrera. For one reason or another, when the time has called for it, these players have gotten the call instead of Muno.
Another reason is that Muno really doesn’t profile well enough defensively to justify an everyday spot on the team. He was never really a particularly fast player, but as he’s aged the speed has only gotten worse. In 2012 he swiped 19 bases in 81 games with the St. Lucie Mets, and by last year, that number was down to nine in 117 games with the Las Vegas 51s.
The lack of speed also limits him on defense, and his range is questionable at second base and Derek Jeter-at-the-end-of-his-career-like at shortstop. He has committed 55 errors in his minor league career, and sports an abysmal .962 fielding percentage. Granted those are not the best way to judge defensive ability, but paired with less-than-glowing scouting reports, things don’t look great from that side for Muno.
The third factor is that during the 2012 season, you may remember, Muno was suspended 50 games for performance-enhancing drug use. This is not to suggest that the organization is holding a grudge of some kind against Muno for a failed test, but it does contribute to questions that already existed about how his bat would play at the major league level.
In 2014, he put up a .259/.372/.418 line in Las Vegas, which is great from a getting on base standpoint, but underwhelming from a playing in a hitter’s paradise standpoint. This performance, coupled with a .249/.384/.379 clip at Double-A in 2013, has led to Muno’s stock falling.
This spring has been a good one for Muno, who is hitting .400/.438/.433 in 32 PA. He has done so with an opponent’s quality of roughly Triple-A level talent, according to Baseball-Reference’s tracking system.
Now with a spot all but ensured on the Opening Day roster, Muno should begin to face tougher competition to prepare. If it turns out he can hit, he might stick around for a little while, too.
Joe Vasile is the voice of the Fayetteville SwampDogs of the Coastal Plain League.
Muno is short and he walks a lot. That’s about it. The poor glove makes him worthless, IMO. An “internal solution” that is not a solution at all.
Besides that, Wilmer seems fine — no breaks — Murphy won’t be gone long — Reynolds is farther ahead of Muno — and Tejada is already signed.
I don’t see how Muno is “all but ensured” a spot. What am I missing?
Flores and Murphy both going down with injury and Herrera not being in the picture for the time being is what ensures him the backup role on Opening Day, because Reynolds is probably going to be starting (all assuming the bruise for Flores is bad enough to force him to the DL).
This was also written at a time before we knew the results of Flores’ x-ray and it was still believed he had a fracture.
Joe, respectfully, you assumed a lot of things in this post that weren’t true, leading you to a false conclusion. Murphy on DL: We don’t know yet. Flores on DL: Highly unlikely. Muno “ensured” spot: No, he’s not ensured anything. Not even a major league career.
Well, another chance is today. He’s in the lineup batting fifth! Now, that’s a tryout.
2-for-4 with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored looks like a pretty good response for today!
Reynolds has minor league career fielding% of .959, so his glove needs work along with a little more XBH to his bat. He had a great season last year, but I think he still needs some polish.
I like Muno and he has an outside shot to make the team regardless of injuries as the team is obviously low on Tejada. Muno might be the future utility infielder on this team. Reynolds only shot of making the team is if Flores can’t go. They will want Reynolds to play everyday somewhere to see what they have. That will be Vegas.
Hmm, didn’t realize he’s a cheater. Guess i’m forced to root against him. Hope he and Mr. Puello never reaches the big leagues.