Just Mets

–Originally posted Sunday, May 24, 2015 at 8:05 am–

Yesterday, assistant GM John Ricco told reporters in Pittsburgh David Wright has been shutdown from performing baseball activities at the team’s minor league complex in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Ricco said Wright has been diagnosed with spinal stenosis, which is a narrowing of the spinal cavity. The hope is Wright can resume baseball activities in a week, but for now he will revert to therapeutic exercises and rest his back.

“It’s at the point where we’re going to stop the on-field stuff for a week, continue with a program of core strengthening and basically back-stabilization exercises. They hope that will alleviate what he’s feeling,” Ricco explained.

There is no timetable for Wright to return, although he remains on the 15-day disabled list.

Here are the options available to the Mets:

Use what’s here.

On Sunday, Terry Collins will start Ruben Tejada at third base with Daniel Murphy at second base and Wilmer Flores at shortstop.

That’s not the strongest defensive alignment for the Mets, but it does show their continued commitment to Flores at shortstop for the time being. Flores has shown improvement at the position over the last ten days or so as he’s been able to convert the routine plays, and he has been one of the more productive players on the team this month despite having a .234/.269/.422 line, so perhaps the team believes it’s best to leave him in a place that’s become routine for him.

There are two other configurations the Mets could eventually go with: Tejada at shortstop, Flores at second base and Murphy at third, or Tejada at shortstop, Murphy at second and Flores at third. The former is probably the best defensive configuration they could use, although it’s not clear the Mets will use either.

The thing is, they know what they have in the players that are on the roster. So, while they may be able to produce a better defensive alignment, there’s nothing among any of these scenarios which improves their offense.

Call up Matt Reynolds.

The Mets could certainly call up Reynolds, which would at least bring new blood into the mix. It would also afford the Mets a good look at Reynolds to see what he’s got at this level. They could play him at shortstop, move Flores to second and shift Murphy to third. That might give them as strong an alignment as they could create.

Alternatively, given their commitment to Flores at short, they could bring Reynolds up to play second base, leave Flores at shortstop and shift Murphy to third. That wouldn’t be the worst option in the world, either.

Reynolds isn’t a great defensive player, but like they expected with Flores, he’ll make the routine plays, has an accurate enough arm and has more range than Flores at either middle infield position. He would probably serve as a defensive upgrade to Murphy at second base if the Mets decided on that option as well.

The question is, what is Reynolds at the plate? He had a fantastic year in 2014 between Double-A and Triple-A, got off to a pretty good start early this year but has tailed off recently. He’s just 7-for-his-last-40 with one extra-base hit, spanning ten games, and hitting just .238 with a .609 OPS in 21 games in May.

The Mets have to give Reynolds a 40-man roster spot should they choose to bring him up here, meaning the Mets have to either cut someone or move someone to the 60-day disabled list. So, their hesitation stands to reason.

Still, it might be their best internal alternative to what’s currently here, which simply is not working.

Explore the external markets.

Its Memorial Day, and that’s the day teams often look themselves in the mirror to see who they are.

If the Mets were to look themselves in the mirror, they’d see a club loaded with front-line, power armed pitching, with an excellent albeit makeshift bullpen, perhaps missing a quality power arm for the eighth inning. That combination can be extremely dangerous in a short series in October.

However, their offense is more or less non-competitive, so they probably won’t get there in their current state.

Travis d’Arnaud might be returning in the near-term, and Reynolds could give them a boost if he hits. But the Mets need more, and without Wright for an indefinite period of time, they’re going to continue to depend on lights out pitching and big days from Lucas Duda every single day in order to win baseball games. That is not a realistic goal.

It’s likely that answer might have to come from outside the organization.

It’s probably unrealistic to expect the Mets to acquire a transformation bat, such as Troy Tulowitzki, at the present time. The cost has always been sky high and well beyond the Mets comfort level. They were reportedly interested in Addison Russell this past winter, but the club has maintained their position they are not interested in dealing either Noah Syndergaard and/or Steven Matz to get a deal done.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t other pieces for the Mets to consider.

For instance, with the A’s badly struggling, perhaps they would explore a deal for Ben Zobrist. He had minor knee surgery last month and is expected to return this week. He isn’t young anymore and is in his walk year, but he’s a switch hitter who has a little bit of pop and speed, can play everyday at any number of positions – including shortstop and second base – and gives the Mets a solid and predictable bat and glove to plug in there and lengthen this lineup. At the very least, he probably wouldn’t cost them one of their top shelf prospects right now, would give Oakland salary relief for the rest of the year, and could make the Mets better right now assuming he’s healthy and stays healthy.

The Mets did attempt to acquire Zobrist this past winter before Tampa Bay traded him to the A’s, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The Rays demanded two top prospects for Zobrist which the Mets balked at and rightly so. But the point is, there’s been interest there previously, and something they could potentially explore again.