Injuries to Wilmer Flores and Jose Reyes force Travis d’Arnaud to play third base

Both Wilmer Flores and Jose Reyes were scratched from Wednesday night’s game due to sore left rib cages. With the Mets’ roster already thin due to recent trades and injuries, Travis d’Arnaud was given his first career start at third base.

The Mets have had instability at the third base position ever since David Wright’s back injuries took him out of action. Third base was a position of strength for the Mets between 2005 and 2014, when Wright played more than 100 games per season at the position for ten straight seasons. Overall, Wright played more than 1,500 games at third for the Mets, by far the most in team history.

This season, the Mets have had five players play at least ten games at third, including Reyes, Flores, T.J. Rivera, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Matt Reynolds. d’Arnaud joins them and Neil Walker as the seventh Met to start at third this season. It remains to be seen whether the injuries to Flores and Reyes are just the minor dents of a long season or something more serious.