Looking Ahead: 2012 without Jose Reyes
There is a very strong possibility that Jose Reyes might not be a Met come 2012. There might be too much of a gap between what the team can give him and what he wants. He might want Carl Crawford money when Carl Crawford isn’t even worth Carl Crawford money.
So Terry Collins has to think under the assumption that Jose Reyes is not a Met.
He has Ruben Tejada, who filled in for Reyes while he was on the disabled list and when Terry decided to give him a day off. Tejada played in 96 games this season (totally did not realize that), 41 of them at shortstop. Tejada only had eight errors compared to Reyes’s 18.
But being 21 years old, Tejada might still benefit from the minors, seeing as pretty much the Mets were pretty much made up of the Buffalo Bisons and Jason Bay.
Another option the Mets have is Justin Turner, who is normally a second baseman by trade, but has been known to moonlight at short. By moving Turner to short, that allows for Daniel Murphy to play second base, a position he was learning to play when he was plagued by injury. Murphy’s bat played a big part of the Mets being in the thick of things as long as they were. Once we lost Murphy’s bat, the season was over. I want Daniel Murphy somewhere on this field. And second base might be his spot.
As for what the Mets should focus on instead, I think they should focus on an outfielder with some pop. Jason Bay, while excellent defensively, has no pop. I’m still waiting for him to pop. And of course, there’s always a need for pitching, unless you’re the stupid Phillies. We need pitching all around in my opinion. Starters, relievers…where’s Billy Beane when you need him?
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