Since the return of Daniel Murphy on June 30, the Mets have employed a new infield alignment which has placed Murphy at third base, Ruben Tejada at shortstop and Wilmer Flores at second base.
The infield alignment has proven to be a better defensive solution for the Mets, as the infield has committed four errors in 14 games since the new formation, three of which have come from Murphy at third base.
The other one was an error by Tejada at shortstop last weekend against the Diamondbacks – Flores has not committed an error since shifting to second base.
“I just feel better at second base,” Flores told Tim Rohan of the New York Times on Saturday. “I don’t know the reason. I just feel more relaxed.”
He does look a lot more comfortable, as if he sees the ball better off the bat and can therefore have better anticipation, compensating for his lack of range and foot speed.
It’s not as if he’s played Gold Glove defense at second, but by no means has he been a problem there since shifting positions.
Flores realized he was out of position, and trying really hard to be successful and prove the doubters wrong.
“I did the best I could,” Flores said. “Just made a couple errors. I did everything else.”
But on Saturday, Terry Collins said it was possible Flores could shift back to shortstop to give Tejada an occasional rest.
The Mets would probably be best suited to have a backup shortstop on the roster. Or, perhaps they could actually acquire a shortstop and use Tejada as the backup, which would be the better solution.
It’s not a knock on Flores. He did the best he could at the position. But if the Mets are for real and aren’t kidding themselves, they cannot afford to willingly handicap their defense in the middle of a pennant race.
With respects to Flores, inserting him at shortstop – a position they’ve acknowledged he is inadequate at simply by moving him to second base – is an unwarranted gamble as the schedule gets shorter.
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4 responses to “Wilmer Flores could still play shortstop, occasionally”
Very rare that you hear a pro athlete say something like this. Clearly he isn’t a SS and is very serviceable at 2B which is fine as Murph is better at 3B than 2B and Wright may be done anyway. No doubt that this points to the number 1 priority of the Mets being the acquisition of a SS (not getting Peralta and spending more on granderson may be Alderson’s worst move as Mets GM – although there are many to choose from!)
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Flores has not hit a HR since June 12 – 5 weeks. He had one good game in that 8-0 win and otherwise is doing nothing at the plate. And his lack of errors at 2B does not show his poor range in the field. Friday night he did not properly back up that bad throw by Plawecki. He is good at chewing a lot of gum.
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Agree! Over the last 28 days, Flores is batting 250/.288/.303/.590. He may feel more “relaxed,” but that has not helped him at the plate.
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Wilfredo Tovar replacing Campbell would really make sense, until they upgrade at SS.
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