Notice: Trying to get property 'display_name' of non-object in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/generators/schema/article.php on line 52
keyboard_arrow_uptop

People love ripping on the New York Mets these days, and let's face it, in some ways they've earned it with back-to-back September swoons in 2007 and 2008, and a 2009 season that was arguably baseball's biggest nightmare of the decade. 

So far this spring, things are no better, and if anything, a little weirder. Now shortstop Jose Reyes, who had a miserable 2009 due to a recurring hamstring problem, has been diagnosed with a thyroid issue that will keep him off the baseball field for somewhere between two weeks and two months. That's a crazy big window thanks to a condition that's hard to predict, but even the Mets are making every indication that Reyes won't be at shortstop on Opening Day. And as the club learned last year, he's tough to replace. But there is a decent short-term answer, and it's not the one you think. 

The man who is supposed to fill in for Reyes is Alex Cora, a journeyman who hit .251/.320/.310 last year as Reyes' back-up. With that kind of line, it's only makes sense for the Mets to start considering other options. One name that is getting tossed around inside their offices is Ruben Tejada, the club's top shortstop prospect. Now the first reaction is to laugh this off as the worst idea ever (hey, it is the Mets), as we're talking about a 20 year-old who played at Double-A last year and while solid, didn't exactly light things up with a batting line of .289/.351/.381 for Binghamton. Thing is, giving Tejada the job, at least temporarily, might not be such a bad idea. 

When one thinks of a Latin American shortstop (Tejada is Panamanian), the expectation is a raw athlete oozing with tools — but Tejada is the exact opposite. He has a near-zero chance of ever being a star, but at the same time, he's one of the most fundamentally sound 20-year-olds you'll ever see. He works the count, makes consistent contact (59 strikeouts in 553 plate appearances last year), and while his range at the position is merely average, he makes the plays on the balls he gets to. Strikeouts and out-of-control fielding are the things that usually spell doom for a rookie, but Tejada has both of those bases covered, so as long as Reyes is out, why not see what the young player can do? 

This wouldn't be another case of the Mets curbing the development of some high-ceiling prospect by rushing him to the majors; Tejada is pretty much all he's ever going to be right now, and he's certainly not going to be worse than Cora. 

Thank you for reading

This is a free article. If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing to Baseball Prospectus. Subscriptions support ongoing public baseball research and analysis in an increasingly proprietary environment.

Subscribe now
You need to be logged in to comment. Login or Subscribe
mhmosher
3/12
If Omar Minaya has anything between his ears - which is certainly debatable - Tejada will be the starter and Cora will be on the bench.
metty5
3/12
Love these blurbs, thanks kg
ScottBehson
3/13
Since it seems like 2010 will be a washout, too (who knows when Reyes and Beltran will be back and if they can stay healthy), I'd feel much better if the Mets let the kids play now. I'm more interested in seeing:
FMartinez, Thole, Davis, Mejia & Tejada than
Pagan, Barajas, Murphy, Kalero & Cora.

stephenwalters
3/13
Agreed. Having just watched the kid a couple of games in Florida, this is a solid diagnosis.
My beef is with KG's adoption of what I consider waffly BP rhetoric: Why do BP authors so commonly hedge their bets by saying "not the worst idea" or similarly qualified stuff? Clearly, the worst idea would be putting me at short, or my Aunt Tilly (though she ranges pretty well to her right), or something like that. Is this a way of having plausible deniability if the idea is adopted and fails? A way of saying, well, I never said it was, you know, a GOOD plan...
KG, you're better than that: just say "good idea" or "bad idea" or "this is what they should do" when proposing a move. We know nobody bats 1.000 in this game.