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Seeking to upgrade on Ruben Tejada, the Mets will be aiming high at shortstop this offseason. However, they have already lined up one possible fallback option. Jorge Castillo of the Newark Star Ledger reports that the Mets have reached out to free-agent shortstop Rafael Furcal, who did not play at all in 2013 due to Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.
It's not clear how much interest the Mets actually have in Furcal. The 36-year-old was once of the premier shortstops in the game and he hit .300/.366/.460 as recently as 2010. But he has undergone a steep decline since then as he hit just .231/.298/.348 in 2011 and .264/.325/.346 in 2012.
The one advantage Furcal has over someone like Jhonny Peralta or Stephen Drew is that he will be significantly cheaper. The price differential is there for a reason though and it would seem odd for the Mets to settle on someone as uninspiring as Furcal is at this point.