FanPost

What should the Mets plan be for Wilmer Flores?

For starters, I am a huge Wilmer Flores fan. After being over hyped when he first arrived, I believe that he is being very undervalued by many now. A lot of his depreciating value has to do with his lack of a perfect fit at any position. In a perfect world I would have had Wilmer become a catcher years ago. He has soft hands, a strong arm, and little to no foot speed so it seems like an ideal landing spot now, but who knows if it would have worked out in the long run. Unfortunately for the real world Mets, Flores did not become a catcher and the Mets had to go out and get d’Arnaud instead of the outfielder they desperately needed. So that leaves us with the question of what should the Mets do with Flores now.

There is the possibility that the Mets could throw him out at 2nd base and he could do a serviceable job while providing an above average bat for his position, but I would like to fill other needs on the Mets. I think that the best plan of action is to run Wilmer out in Vegas every day at first or third, let him put up gaudy batting numbers in that ridiculous ball park, and then shop him in the offseason for the best outfield return that the Mets can manage. I truly believe that if the Mets play Wilmer all year in Las Vegas that his stock will skyrocket to the point that his lack of position won’t matter to other teams. The worst case scenario is that the Mets trade him and he does fulfill his power potential, he becomes a solid first baseman for some other team, and wins a batting title down the road, fulfilling his early comparisons to Miguel Cabrera, which I actually think is a real possibility. But it is a risk that the Mets need to take in order to fix their outfield. The truth is that there are far too many question marks around Flores to not make this move if it all works out this way. The Mets have an infield, they need an outfield, and due to Wilmer’s slow feet, this is the only way he can help solve that problem.

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