Future Positional Analysis – Shortstop

We continue our organization positional analysis with shortstop.

This is going to be fun.

For now, Ruben Tejada and Wilmer Flores are the two Mets shortstops. Frankly I don’t see that changing for 2016 because I don’t expect the Mets to look outside their organization for their future shortstop. My guess is Flores gets first shot here next season to play every day.

There seems to be an infinite amount of shortstop prospects in the Mets system, four of which are scheduled to play in each of the full season teams.

They are: Gavin Cechinni (AA - .317), Amed Rosario (A+ - .257), Luis Guillorme (A - .318), and Alfredo Reyes (Brklyn - .228). The will play, respectfully, Las Vegas, Binghamton (a probable repeat for Rosario), St. Lucie, and Columbia.

Who’s the best? Well, Reyes projects as the least talented and his age (22) is also working against him.

According to the scouts, don’t discount Rosario’s stats. This was a 19-year old playing in the prospect AA level at an age far younger than the vast majority of the leagues.

That being said, the defensive specialist Guillorme made tremendous progress with a bat that turned out to produce the second best batting average in the Sally League. 

This was quite impressive for the 21-year old former 10^th round pick (no, he wasn’t a free agent signee out of Latin America) out of Coral Springs, Florida.

Lastly, the 21-year old Cecchini impressed everyone with his rebound year in Binghamton. He’ll move on to Las Vegas for opening day 2016 and we’ll probably see him in Queens come September.

I ask again, who’s best? The experts say Rosario but I’m going with Guillorme’s complete game.

Past these guys are seven more international bonus baby prospects that simply are too early to project. They are Yeffry De Aza ($475K bonus in 2013 – GCL: .313), Edgardo Fermin ($250K bonus in 2014 – GCL: .262 ), Hansel Moreno ($50K bonus in 2014 – DSL-1: - .210), Gregory Guerrero ($1.5mil bonus in 2015 - DNP), Andres Giminez ($.2mil in 2015 - DNP), Kenny Hernandez ($1mil in 2014 – DSL-1 - .196) and Yoel Romero ($300K in 2014 – DSL-1 - .194).

It’s obvious that the Mets are making a conscious effort to solve their long term woes at this position.

Others still plugging around are Matt Reynolds (AAA - .267) and Wilfredo Tovar (AAA - .283) on the Las Vegas squad, and Milton Ramos (K-Port - .317) who might wind up on the South Carolina team.

Summation – As Howard Cosell used to say, there is a plethora of talent on this report and any one of these guys could wind up with a primo job on the Mets.

My money right now would be Flores in 2016, a battle of Flores vs, Cecchini in 2017 and Guillorme taking over full time in 2018 while Rosario becomes a major trade chip to restock the pitching prospects.

I could be wrong with the names of the players I have chosen but not with where they have come from. There is major shortstop talent in the Mets organization well past the beginning of the next decade.

Grade – A+