Throughout the Mets experiment with Wilmer Flores at shortstop, the one thing people around the team always believed was no matter how much he struggled defensively, he would outhit his deficiencies in the field.
But now, that isn’t even happening.
Flores is just 3-for-his-last-28 with eight strikeouts and only two walks over his last nine games. He did not start on Saturday against the Phillies.
“He has got a lot on his plate, he’s got a lot of things he’s got to do,” Collins said before Saturday’s game about Flores. “First and foremost, he’s concerned about making sure that he’s playing shortstop as adequately as he can.”
That doesn’t sound particularly good for Flores. But, Collins still has confidence in Flores’ bat, despite his recent struggles.
“I still think the bat’s going to play,” he said. “And play big,” Collins said.
Flores has a .654 OPS, tenth in the National League among shortstops with 90 plate appearances or more this season. His .229 average ranks 11th, his .281 on-base percentage ranks 12th, and .373 slugging percentage tenth.
From a physical perspective, Flores is swinging at way too many pitches, specifically outside the strike zone, and he isn’t making very much contact with those. He isn’t making enough contact on pitches inside the strike zone either, and the result is a high strikeout rate, a low walk rate, and a low on-base percentage.
The question is whether or not his problems are more mental than they are physical at the plate. His defensive problems are no secret, and even Flores himself has talked about how important it is to know his manager and teammates have been behind him through his problems. He’s also a human being, and I’m sure he feels terrible about what has happened over the first five weeks of the season.
But, if those emotions are affecting the side they are banking on from him, that’s not a good place for him to be in, and not a good position for the team to be in either.
If that’s the case, the Mets will have to soon determine what’s next if they decide to put this experiment to bed. Sandy Alderson has said publicly there are no changes forthcoming, but things change very quickly in this game, and while Ruben Tejada had a nice game on Saturday, they probably need to look elsewhere for a starting solution.
The obvious candidate who is next in line is Matt Reynolds, who has hit at Triple-A and has been fair at shortstop down there as well. The question is whether or not they believe that will translate at this level. He turned heads in camp, but the sense I got was the club wanted to see more from him, considering 2014 was the first time he had really enjoyed success as a pro.
That’s fair, but the clock is ticking here too…
Just Mets 