The Mets revolving door continues to spin at third base.
Ruben Tejada was activated from the paternity list this morning, and Terry Collins said Tejada will once again be the club’s third baseman, this time until Daniel Murphy returns from the disabled list.
Murphy is expected to return from the disabled list next Saturday when the club is in Atlanta – he strained his quadriceps muscle on June 4 in Arizona.
It’s a new position for him and he’s going to take his lumps there at times as he continues to learn the speed of the game and the angles off the bat from that part of the field.
But, the club continues to show reluctance to move Wilmer Flores from shortstop, and Dilson Herrera is a second baseman, so this seems to be the only fit at third base for the Mets as Daniel Muno is back in Las Vegas and Eric Campbell has struggled more often than not at the position.
Needless to say, the Mets need to find a permanent and steady major league solution at third base soon. They can’t have so much instability there if they expect to be relevant down the stretch of the season. Perhaps they could find an infield utility player and shift Murphy to third permanently, which would afford more time for Herrera to develop (which was the plan heading into the season, anyway).
Tejada is hitless in his last 12 at-bats. He’s hitting .269/.349/.376 in 106 plate appearances over 31 games this season.
Just Mets 