Right now, the Mets are featuring their best possible defensive alignment on the infield among those on the active roster: Daniel Murphy at third base, Ruben Tejada at shortstop, and Wilmer Flores at second base.
Before Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to the Cubs, Terry Collins raved about Flores’ skills at second base, and viewed the shift as an upgrade for the entire infield defense.
“We saw it last September, he played brilliantly,” Collins said before Tuesday’s game. “He’s terrific around the bag. And we think Ruben is going to go play a position he’s comfortable playing. I think we got every guy in a spot where they’re comfortable and I think you’ll see a difference defensively.”
‘Brilliant’ is probably not the most accurate term to describe Flores’ skills at second base. The statistics suggest he was average at best in a small sample size at the position in 2014. But that’s better than his defense at shortstop, which ranked near the bottom of most standard and advanced metrics.
Still, Flores weaknesses defensively are better protected at second base, simply by the fact that fewer balls are hit to second than they are to short, which reduces the risk of mistakes by default. But with Tejada playing his natural position at shortstop, he can cover more ground up the middle which will protect Flores’ range issues to his right.
And, since Murphy is a far superior third baseman than he is second baseman, and far superior at the position than either Tejada or Flores, they’ve potentially found their interim solution at the hot corner while they wait and hope for David Wright to gain some traction in his rehab.
It’s because the shift is better for the club is why he has no problems shifting to second base.
“I feel good there,” Flores told Alex Schiffer of the Star Ledger early Tuesday.
It would be unfair to characterize the Mets infield defense as air tight in this configuration. It is certainly solidified, however, and something the team probably should have considered six weeks ago when it was clear the experiment with Flores wasn’t going to work.
Certainly, it would be foolish to ignore possible upgrades on the middle infield this summer. If history serves as any indication, Tejada will eventually be overexposed offensively, defensively or both when playing everyday, if it hasn’t happened already (he’s just 9-for-his-last-63 at the plate, by the way).
But, if this infield configuration does eventually prove to be both serviceable and stable, the Mets may be better off considering some kind of overhaul in the outfield if a meaningful upgrade can’t be made reasonably for an infielder, especially now that there’s some uncertainty and concern with Michael Cuddyer and his left knee.
After all, the Mets outfield has produced a .666 OPS and an 89 wRC+, the third and sixth worst in the sport, respectively. So any kind of upgrade – even on an interim basis – would help out there.
Just Mets 