Tuesday night’s game against the Reds wasn’t the worst loss of the season, because by now it doesn’t particularly hurt to see the Mets hurl balls places where they don’t belong, or stare at enemy home runs, or struggle pathetically in the quicksand of their own misfortune. We’re all used to that by now; there are no superlatives left.
But if getting beat by 10 runs and ending up with Kevin Plawecki on the mound again isn’t a low point, the definition of low point needs recalibration.
Chris Flexen was wretched. Chasen Bradford couldn’t get anybody out. And Wilmer Flores had a game to forget, making two ugly errors late and then ending an admittedly farcical ninth-inning rally by hitting into a double play.
Oh, and by getting their brains beaten in the Mets lost a chance to rewrite their team record books: they were trying to beat the Reds for the 15th straight game, which would have tied the club mark set against the pre-killer-B Pirates of the mid-1980s. By the time I realized that was a possibility, the line score was telling a different story.
Oh well.
So how do the Mets solve a problem like Wilmer? He’s proved he’s more than a platoon player, though as with Michael Conforto that was more a case of outlasting Terry Collins’ prejudices than anything else. He’s only 26 and if given a full season with regular playing time and good health will probably produce 25 to 30 homers and hit .275 for you.
That’s valuable, but Flores doesn’t supply major-league-caliber defense at any position open to him. He has slow feet, a scattershot arm and zero instincts.
I suppose this is the fun of baseball, at least when played without a designated hitter, which is to say properly: the Mets have to replace a lot of offense, but also need to support their starters with better defense. Wilmer doesn’t do both right now and at this point in his career it’s fair to ask if he ever will. So do the Mets tell him he’s the 2018 third baseman, work with him there and hope he can settle down and outhit his glove? Do they try the same thing at second? Or do they surrender and trade him to an American League team, knowing he may become a monster bat and get rubbed in their faces during every national telecast for the next decade?
Beyond such puzzles, if you were looking for excitement your best bet was to watch Zack Cozart and Asdrubal Cabrera play as if pleading to be airlifted out of their misery and installed at shortstop in Arizona before the stroke of midnight on September.
Dominic Smith collected two more hits. That’s something.
And hey, Plawecki got Joey Votto to ground out.
First of all, Collins is going to overuse Plawecki out of the pen and make his arm fall off. I’m sure he leads all MLB marginal backup catchers in innings pitched, but in this era of overemphasized radar guns, watching a righty getting hitters out with junk is refreshing.
My vote is to once and for all pick a position for Wilmer and tell him that’s the only one he has to worry about playing. Except they probably should have done that when he first joined the organization, which as far as I can tell, was when he was about 8 years old. Trade him, and listen to years of everyone holding him up as an example of the Mets trading the wrong people.
as painful as it would be to see Wilmer become the big papi of his generation, it will be far more painful to watch him continue to play the field In a theoretical future in which games matter. I wish him all the best as a talented professional hitter in the AL.
Besides – in a level of theoreticality yet more remote – in the World Series he would only be able to hurt mets pitchers as an *opponent* … We’ve already seen how quickly world series dreams die when defense is considered more afterthought than essential. (Thanks sandy…maybe seek out some smart, situational hitters with hot gloves, soft hands, good arms…fast legs)
As for letting guys have a position – perhaps this current period of OF depletion will allow lagares to develop into the player we thought and hoped he was years back.
So with granderson and Bruce gone – who the hell provides clubhouse positivity and looseness?
Shouldn’t someone have been kept around to help transition Amed and Dominic into major league life?
Oh well…
Greg answered that question in his Saturday (August 26) post; Greg informed us that Dave Lennnon reported Cespedes, Cabrera, and Reyes conducted the hitters-only meeting for the younger players. Cespedes is out for the rest of the season, which means Cabrera and Reyes are the active veteran team leaders.
If Smith doesn’t pan out at 1B, that seems to be the best fit for Flores, as long as he doesn’t have to make a play like the game 5 Duda throw home. When he didn’t DH, Ortiz played 1B. Miguel Cabrera shifted from OF to 3B to 1B.
Add: Now that Wright is suspending his latest rehab, I assume he’ll be around the big-league clubhouse more. I assume Cespedes will be with the team, too. They can be DL mentors for the younger players.
David should be preparing himself mentally to take over the Mets’ managerial tasks in 2018.
I’d love to see David as manager someday. But unlike Mattingly, whose career was ended by the same thing, David Wright is Rich with a capital R. On top of the $100 million plus he’s earned from baseball, he had that small stake in VitaminWater from those ad deals he did when they were still a small company, before getting bought by Coca-Cola for four brazillion dollars. He must sincerely want to play again, because he keeps trying to come back, but he probably doesn’t ever need to work again. And by all appearances he leads a pretty low-key lifestyle. I guess guys like A-Rod get broadcasting gigs to have something to do, but the superstars from the past 15 years have so much money, it’s not like they really need eight months away from the family every year to pay the mortgage anymore.
And I agree with Dave about Wilmer Flores. The team needs to stop treating him like a super-utility infielder that he’s not, and just install him at a position that he can get comfortable with. He came up as a solid shortstop, so he does have skills. Make him the starting second baseman already.
Flores hasn’t ever been a good fielder and has always been marked as needing improvement, but it seems to me – maybe this is just fuzzy memory – his fielding has regressed. Flores doesn’t look especially muscle-bound or thick, but I wonder whether what weight he has gained has cut down on what athleticism he had in the field as a younger Met.
Wilmer doesn’t do lateral movement. He’s an abiding liability at 3B. He does the least damage at 1B. I feel confident that Flores could beat Bartolo Colon in a foot-race (but I’m not putting money on it),
Howard Johnson was no Gold Glove. Strawberry could play defense if he wanted to, but usually couldn’t be bothered. Mike Piazza was not there for his defense. Wilmer should stay.
2nd base or bust in 2018. Doesn’t have the glove, arm or range for left side of the infield. Why continue to put him at 3rd? Insane. He can hit well enough for 2b and probably fields better than Murphy. And if Smith implodes, move him to 1st. Ok? Is this really so difficult?
“And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row!”