Reese Kaplan -- Mets History, Shortstop Edition

Just as a quarterback is the center of a football team’s attack, a shortstop is the center of a baseball team’s defense.  He bridges the gap from third base to second base while hopefully generating enough offense to warrant keeping his defensive skills in the game.  Not everyone can hit enough to justify it and some do not have the glove and arm abilities to make you overlook what they can’t do with the bat. Over the years the Mets have seen the good, the bad and the ugly in this position.  Let’s today concentrate on the good.

Bud Harrelson was an old-school captain of the defense, manning his position with the best in the game and giving it his all with the bat and his legs despite not having been blessed to be a true run producer with the long ball or copious numbers of line drives.  If you leave out a few age 36 and 36 seasons with other teams in part-time roles, his best-ever year with the bat was probably 1971 when he hit .252 with no home runs, 32 RBIs and an impressive 28 stolen bases. He always made contact, striking out just 59 times for the year in well over 600 ABs, but the value he brought to his position during his 13 years with the Mets was what he did on the defensive side of the field.

Many years later it was Cuban refugee Rey Ordonez who brought back memories of what Harrelson did leading the Mets’ defense.  Ordonez was not a slugger but was a bit more productive with his bat. In 1999 he hit .258 with a single home run and drove in 60 runs.  Not a terribly speedy player, he tallied just 8 SBs but was acrobatic with the glove and his arm while manning shortstop for the Mets over a seven year period.  

There was a long gap at the position until a fresh faced rookie named Jose Reyes burst onto the Major League scene.  Here was a guy who operated only at full throttle, stealing bases with abandon, hitting line drives, turning singles into doubles, driving pitchers crazy AND serving as a formidable defensive player when his team was on the field.  He once won the NL batting title while playing shortstop, a rare feat indeed. During his twelve years in New York he hit .282 with 108 HRs and drove in 521 while stealing a highly impressive 408 bases. His single season best was 78 during the 2007 season at age 24.  He did return to the Mets years later playing 3rd base and assuming a utility role. His power was up but his bat contact was down. Still, if anyone was naming a best-ever shortstop for the club, he would be at the top of the list.  

The in-between group who had long stays at NY Mets shortstop would include Kevin Elster, Rafael Santana, Frank Taveras and Ruben Tejada.  None contributed enough offensively to keep the job (though some were there longer than they should have held the position), they were mostly regarded for their glove and in Taveras’ case, his baserunning speed and bunting ability.  

One player who contributed positively with his bat was Asdrubal Cabrera, a somewhat mysterious acquisition when he was brought to the Mets, but after a somewhat uneven start he turned in highly credible offense at the expense of mediocre defense.

There were other good bats who could not muster enough on the defensive side of the game to last at shortstop, including Howard Johnson and Wilmer Flores.  They certainly had solid major league bats but the range and defensive acumen simply were not there to pencil them into the shortstop position regularly.

Who was the most credible shortstop you witnessed in the Mets blue & orange (or black and orange or pinstripes or one-day weird uniform variations)?