Three errors in two games.
Four of five throws well of the mark on Friday night.
That’s the story for Wilmer Flores as the Mets continue to see if he can be their everyday shortstop for the long haul in 2015.
It’s not exactly what the Mets had envisioned in the early stages of this experiment with Flores.
It’s been a rough start to the 2015 season for Flores offensively as well – he has reached base only twice in the first four games of the season.
“We’re finding out,” Terry Collins said after the Mets lost 5-3 to the Braves on Friday night. “We’re running him out there.”
Collins cited Flores’ lack of a lot of playing time at shortstop in recent seasons, as he’s mostly played second base between Double-A Binghamton, Triple-A Las Vegas, and the Mets until the end of last season.
“As I’ve said before, we’ve got to understand, [Flores] has not played a lot of shortstop in the last few years. We’ve got to keep running him out there and see how he’s going to do,” Collins explained.
In 36 innings in 2015, Flores has committed three errors. He committed four errors in 443 1/3 innings at shortstop in 2014.
The main criticism with Flores’ defense has been his slow feet and his lack of range, but that hasn’t been what’s hurt him so far this season. For it’s been his throwing which has raised concerns over the last two days, something he hasn’t typically struggled with in his professional career.
“I’m not going to make excuses. I’m not going to start making [better throws] now,” Flores told reporters on Friday night. “I just made a bad throw. That’s it. It’s not a good feeling when your pitcher is making the right pitches and getting the groundballs and you’re not making the plays.”
The poor throwing seemed to compound on Friday night. One bad throw led to another, the accuracy got worse and worse, and if not for some outstanding defense from Michael Cuddyer at first base, Flores could’ve easily been tagged with three or maybe four errors in the game.
“I don’t think it’s in his head just yet,” Collins explained.
Collins said Friday night he intends to start Ruben Tejada in one of these games this weekend, although he claims it has nothing to do with Flores’ struggles at shortstop.
Ultimately, Flores is an offensive-oriented shortstop – he’s going to have to outhit his deficiencies in the field. There’s no debating that. But for now, If the Mets intend to keep Flores’ confident and improving, the worst thing they can do is bench him for poor play. Whether the problem is mental, physical or both, he can’t mature and get better sitting and watching Tejada play shortstop instead.
They’re best suited to hit the reset button on this experiment and start from the beginning.
However, the Mets won’t last long if Flores continues to struggle, both offensively and defensively. But this is why when there was a chance Daniel Murphy might start the year on the disabled list, the plan was to send Matt Reynolds back to Las Vegas to play shortstop on a full-time basis. Remember, he has work to do defensively too and as good as he looked in camp, there are no guarantees with him, either.
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