Reese Kaplan -- Two Different Career Paths for Defense-First Shortstops

Today is a tale of two prospects, players who everyone assumed could succeed in part at the major league level. Given the hype infielders Ronny Mauricio, Brett Baty and Mark Vientos are getting, you would think that other infielders groomed by the Mets would receive similar accolates.

Unfortunately, for folks primarily slated to play shortstop the scouts look first at defense and second at speed. Power is a nice thing to have, but the Francisco Lindor type of power from that position is rare indeed. So you'd figure guys who hope to be major league starters need to excel with the glove and fly on the basepaths. Such is not always the case.

Back in 2007 the Mets started seeing a young Panamanian shortstop by the name of Ruben Tejada. At the time he was a skinny kid who did not seem to sport the home run power to catch anyone's attention and during his upper minors and major league career never was particularly fleet afoot.  Still, he was later expected to replace the incumbent at shortstop.

Still, he started off in a combination of the GCL and then the VSL by hitting surprisingly well. He was rapping out hits to the tune of .283 average and then followed it up with a .364 tally in the Venezuelan Summer League. Combined at age 17 it was a total of 241 ABs, so it was not just a hot week or two. 

 That all looked promising, though when you checked out the HR total of 3 it suggested the run productivity wasn't going to be part of his arsenal. He did combine for 18 stolen bases so it appeared that batting average and speed might help him along with his competent defense.

As he progressed up the ladder, the hitting was still intriguing. After a fallback year as an 18 year old, he made it to Binghamton at just age 19 and rebounded to hit .289 with 5 HRs and 19 SBs. All of the sudden the little guy from Panama was starting to stir some attention from the organization.

In 2011 and 2012 he got some time in the majors and responded well with the batting average metric, tallying .284 and .289 respectively. The limited power fell off with just 1 HR combined over those two seasons. Speed also diminished with a total of 9 SBs over nearly 800 ABs. Defense was his calling card, not eye popping like an Ozzie Smith, but competent. At the time the Mets teams were pretty bad, so a good glove hitting in the .280s seemed like a formula for success.

The next three years, however, were not kind to Tejada. The batting average dropped, the speed disappeared and the power was virtually non-existent. 

His most famous moment during that period was not anything he did with the bat, but instead the horrific aggressive slide by Dodger Chase Utley which broke his leg during the postseason. After that incident his career hit the skids big time. Word filtered out this week that he's signed to play for the Long Island Ducks after failing to stick with any other team for a significant period of time.

Someone who seems to have taken an opposite career trajectory is gloveman extraordinaire Luis Guillorme. The young Venezuelan started off at age 18 playing for the Mets and turning in a competent but unspectacular minor league debut, hitting .258 with no home runs, 11 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. It was his glove that caught everyone's attention, so people were willing to be a bit lenient on his offensive game.

As he moved up the ladder his bat caught up to his glove. With the exception of a Syracuse season in 2019 when he hit 7 HRs, he was never going to be a middle-of-the-order bat. However, he hit .307 and for his minor league career raised his overall batting average to a very impressive .290. Aside from an oddball season in Savannah when he stole 18, speed just disappeared completely.

His first cup of coffee with the Mets suggested good glove and no stick as he finished hitting just .202. He made it back to the big club in 2019 and improved to .246. Then during the COVID shortened season of 2020 he hit .333. All of the sudden people started looking at him as more than just the guy who catches flying bats singlehandedly in the dugout.

Right now it's crystal clear he has the defensive chops to be a starter on any major league club. His career major league batting average is .267 and paired with his glove he would not embarrass a team if he played regularly.

Of course, with Francisco Lindor on the roster he's relegated to the Mets bench, but he is indeed a highly valuable player who has flourished as a part timer instead of struggling to be a starter like his Panamanian predecessor.

Both of these players came to mind with all of the talk about the current crop of infield prospects. Understand that not everyone is going to be an All Star, but that doesn't mean they can't shape themselves into vital cogs for a pro team.