December 7,2011 was a sad day as a Mets fan. That day signified an end to the Jose Reyes era in New York. No matter what people thought about the contract Reyes was given, or his propensity to get injured; he was a lifelong Met who had been the Mets best player in recent years. With Reyes’s exit came a hole in the leadoff spot in the batting order and at shortstop.
There is a lack of shortstops and game-changing players in baseball. The Mets lost both with the departure of the smiling, excitable Reyes. Ruben Tejada was called upon to fill the role of starting shortstop and lead-off hitter. Tejada doesn’t have the speed, arm or power of Reyes, but he has managed to play as well if not better than Jose Reyes to this point in the 2012 season Tejada has a 1.8 WAR compared to Reyes 1.7 WAR according to baseballrefrence.com.
Tejada doesn’t wow you with stolen bases, triples or flashy plays. He wows you with his consistency in all aspects of the game. Tejada has been a consistent singles hitter with a .323 BA and a .370 OBP. He has done this at a position where any hitting is extremely valued. He has had this success even while having dealt with an extended stint on the disabled list. Tejada has shown he can hit for 30 doubles a year, which nobody thought was possible when he was coming through the Mets farm system.
Tejada’s longevity at shortstop had also been questioned in the past based on his lack of elite athleticism. At shortstop he has been above average according to fielding metrics. Aside from an errant throw here and there, Tejada has shown he is at shortstop to stay.
Tejada is currently on an 11 game hitting streak and has not shown any signs of slowing down this season. With a strong end to the season Tejada can go into the off-season, with a lot of confidence. What makes Tejada’s emergence exciting for the Mets and their fans is the prospect of having Tejada under team control until 2017, and his ability to improve at only age 22.
Tejada has done the near impossible of allowing one of the great ones to fade in Mets fans minds. Tejada will never be the same kind of talent as Reyes but Ruben is carving out a niche where he can flourish for years to come.
7 comments
SaltyGary
8/7/2012-10:10am at 10:10 am (UTC -4)
I wasn’t sad, LOL. No matter what the financial state of the team was I never thought it would be a good idea to keep him, it was time to move on.
SaltyGary
8/7/2012-10:12am at 10:12 am (UTC -4)
Tejada really has had a great start. I for one am thankful for the consistency and hopefully he doesn’t get the injury bug that has plagued us at short.
srt
8/7/2012-11:44am at 11:44 am (UTC -4)
I’ll admit….I wanted Reyes resigned. But I’m long over it.
I’m happy with Ruben’s solid defense and surprising success with the bat this season. I had him pegged for a light hitting SS. I was wrong…..
Stickguy
8/7/2012-12:17pm at 12:17 pm (UTC -4)
yeah, with Reyes, we were of the same mind that extending him to a reasonable (at the time) deal should have been job 1 when Sandy got hired, and it could have been done before the Crawford contract went down.
Not sure that Reyes would have been willing (but coming off 3 bad years in a row, he might have) but it should have been attempted at least.
Trs86
8/7/2012-1:20pm at 1:20 pm (UTC -4)
They are getting the same production out of Murphy, Cedeno, Tejada as they would Tejada and Reyes. Thus equal production at 5% of his cost. Easy decision for Wilpons.
Stickguy
8/7/2012-1:35pm at 1:35 pm (UTC -4)
really, the only 2 areas that I think need serious work (that will be hard to do) are the OF and C.
with Thole likely back, maybe C is not too bad, since it is getting a viable RH hitting partner for him.
OF though, I consider it to be empty for 2013. Some bodies floating around, but not 1 starter, and potentially every one of the current guys could be gone.
and don’t get all hepped up about the P. SP should be OK, with the returnees, MiL reinforcements, etc. Might add 1 more mid-level guy to beef it up of course, but they should be good enough.
and the pen? sure there will be a few new guys (always are), but if they can manage to get that right this time, the nucleus (skinny franky, parnell, edgin) is there. 1-2 MiL types sticking, and a couple of new bloods, and the pen hopefully is not a train wreck. And it is also the area easiest to accomplish major changes to.
gategem
8/7/2012-4:21pm at 4:21 pm (UTC -4)
It’s possible that Reyes is succumbing to the pressure of living up to his contract. We saw that in Beltran is first year with the Mets. A much better comparison will occur next year when Reyes is in his second year of the contract and Tejada has been around the block a few times as a regular.
Now Murphy, Cedeno, Tejada may rival (this year) Reyes and Tejada offensively but the defense up the middle with those two would have been superb. Imagine the range and the plays the two of them would have made. Also with Reyes you get the speed component missing from this lineup. With that said there is no way Reyes is worth the contract he signed but if someone was foolish enough to offer it to him he would have been a blithering idiot to pass it by.
Fans and teams get over players rather quickly. St. Louis lost Albert Pujols (Reyes doesn’t even compare to Pujols in his dreams) but Beltran has been doing a nice job for them. Out of sight; out of mind.