“Turns out the Mets quietly a week ago had Matt Reynolds come to Port St. Lucie, Florida, to work out with the other players who are staying in baseball shape there”.
Advertisement
After Chase Utley’s dirty slide on Ruben Tejada in Game 2 of the NLDS resulted in a broken right leg (forcing him to miss the remainder of the playoffs), the New York Mets needed a replacement in the middle infield. He hit. 267 with a. 721 OPS this season at Triple-A.
Flores moving into the starting lineup also weakens New York’s bench substantially. However, the tandem of Flores and Tejada at shortstop was an under-rated part of the Mets’ success over the second half of the season.
While many may find it odd for the Mets to call up a player who has no Major League Baseball experience – to play in the postseason, no less – the team simply had no other viable candidates to fill in at shortstop. “They had wanted Reynolds as a contingency in case an injury just like this had occurred”.
Reynolds totaled 183 games with the (AAA) Las Vegas 51s over the previous two seasons, where he posted a combined slash of.292/.344/.431.
At the start of the season, Flores was tabbed as the starter, with Tejada in a backup role. By the end of July, with the Mets importing experienced second basemen Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe in a trade with Atlanta and David Wright moving closer to a return from the disabled list, Flores appeared increasingly extraneous. That left the Mets little choice but to promote Reynolds, giving him the unusual honor of making his big league debut during postseason play.
Advertisement
The Mets will make room for Reynolds on the 40 man roster by placing Tejada on the 60 day disabled list, and he will be added to the 25 man roster tomorrow to replace Tejada.
