Wilmer Flores would probably like to hit the reset button the start of his season right now.
On Friday, Flores committed two throwing errors, all of which came on poor throws to first base. He made a couple of other poor throws which could have also resulted in errors if not for Michael Cuddyer picking him up at first base.
In addition to the errors, Flores was unable to turn two fairly routine double plays in Atlanta this weekend.
In his first six games at shortstop this season, a span of 51 innings, Flores has posted -1 defensive runs saved, according to FanGraphs, committing three errors, only one of which was due to poor fielding.
“It hasn’t been super. He’s made some good plays. He’s made some mistakes,” Sandy Alderson said, according to Mike Vorkunov of the Star Ledger.
To make matters worse for Flores, Flores is went just 3-for-21 with one walk and six strikeouts during their six-game road trip.
Terry Collins said before Sunday’s game he didn’t believe Flores problems were mental, just yet anyway. However, Flores body language is appearing worse and worse after each mis-play, which suggests this is at least bothering him.
As for Flores’ offense, he has just looked overanxious at the plate, as if he’s trying to do too much. He’s only making contact at 78 percent of the pitches he sees inside the strike zone, whiffing regularly at pitches he should at least be fouling off, if not hitting with authority. He seemed a little more relaxed at the plate yesterday and drove a key double to the left field in the fourth inning, so perhaps he’s starting to get it together, offensively anyway.
He isn’t going to be this bad in the field for the rest of the year, but it was certainly an ugly week for the kid, and he cost his team runs for sure. But, the experiment definitely needs more time – it was hard to watch at times, the kid needs more than six games to show whether he can do this here or not. He hit last September, and only committed four errors in 443 innings at shortstop, whereas he’s committed three in only 51 innings in 2015. So, there is reason to believe he can and will be better than what he showed last week.
However, he needs to hit. Plain and simple. Otherwise, the experiment with him at shortstop cannot last.
Just Mets 