Letting Rookies Have a Chance to Fail

In watching the contending St. Louis Cardinals for the past few days I’m struck by the contrast in how they handle rookie players compared to what we’ve seen on the Mets.  During the off-season the Cards traded former World Series hero David Freese to the Angels of Los Angeles for slick fielding centerfielder Peter Bourjos.  The latter was never much of a performer with the bat, but when you’ve lost your slot to Mike Trout it’s either move on or find a new profession. 

The plan was to play Matt Carpenter in place of David Freese at 3B, newly signed Jhonny Peralta at SS, Matt Adams at 1B and leave 2B open for highly regarded rookie Kolten Wong.  During his minor league career the diminutive Wong showed a great line drive swing that produced a career line of .300 hitting with good stolen base totals and in his last season achieving double digits in home runs. 

As often happens, the best laid plans do not proceed as expected.   During the early stages of the 2014 season Wong looked overmatched.  After his sub .200 debut during 2013 he started off hitting just .225 for the Cardinals.  Seeing their hot keystone rookie struggling, the Cards’ management dispatched him to AAA for 15 games during which he hit .344 to prove to the Cardinals he was ready to return.  Slowly but surely he’s rewarding their faith, having raised his average 20 points already and playing with a new found confidence.

Contrast that approach with what was done with Wilmer Flores.  During his long minor league career which began at just age 16, Flores hit .290 with an average as high as .321 with as many as 36 doubles, 18 HRs and 86 RBIs in a season.  During his career he was known as a man without a position as his road to the majors was built with his bat rather than his glove. 

Then a strange thing happened.  Ruben Tejada who had an embarrassingly bad 2013 season started off the exact same way in 2014.  The Mets thought, “What if we moved Flores back to his natural shortstop position and see how he does?”  They did just that and while no one will confuse him with Mark Belanger or Ozzie Smith, the scouting reports said he was making all the routine plays and his off season conditioning camp did show some improved lateral movement.

On May 9^th they brought him back and in his first game upon his return he supplied a 2-5 night at the plate.  The next day he had an 0-4 and he was punished with benching for 7 full days to make room for Tejada.  During that 7 day period Ruben did a little better – hitting .238 – but he was not exactly dominating out there. 

From May 20^th through 25^th Flores got a chance once again.  He didn’t wow anyone either but finished that stretch with a .250 average.  The last time I looked .250 was higher than .238, so I would think you’d want to see more of the 22 year old Venezuelan rookie. 

Instead, from that point forward Flores was buried on the bench.   Everyone shook their head in amazement that day after day Ruben Tejada was penciled into the lineup while Flores collected splinters.  If you’re not going to play him, then what was the point of bringing him up – to cool off his bat?

Then came the wondrous night of June 1^st.  Wilmer Flores demonstrated to major league baseball what he was capable of doing, going 2-5 with 6 RBIs.  Wow!  That performance surely would open the club’s eyes about what Flores could mean for a lineup struggling to score runs.

Or not.

After being uncharacteristically rewarded with a start the following night during which he had the temerity to go only 1-4, he found himself BACK ON THE BENCH AGAIN. 

For the season thus far Ruben Tejada is hitting .221 with 2 HRs and 15 RBIs over 204 plate appearances.  Wilmer Flores whose scorching hot bat has been systematically cooled by his rare insertion into the lineup has hit .232 with 1 HR and 7 RBIs in just over 1/3 the number of ABs.  Extrapolated he would have 3 HRs and 21 RBIs had he been given the same opportunities, but perhaps even more as he started off ice cold in Las Vegas and came on with a vengeance once he found his stroke.

So what can we see here?  One club – the one with the winning record who has to worry about post season opportunities – is willing to take a rookie and let him play, working his way into hitting consistency.  The losing club takes this .300 hitting player and seems almost afraid to play him for fear he might, oh, I don’t know…drive in six runs or something in a single game?

Now there IS hope in Metsville in the form of fellow rookie Travis d’Arnaud.  Even though Terry Collins was inexplicably enamored with the career .200 hitting Anthony Recker, he mostly gave d’Arnaud every opportunity to succeed until the club finally sent him out to the desert to rediscover his swing.  He hit the ground running and is currently hitting over .400 for Las Vegas with 5 home runs in less than a week.  Maybe he will have that same Kolten Wong experience upon his return – being allowed to play on good days and bad days without fear of being benched on the day he doesn’t provide multiple hits and RBIs.