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Mets Add A New Infielder To Provide Better Defense With Lindor Expected Back Soon
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- Mets Add A New Infielder To Provide Better Defense With Lindor Expected Back Soon
The New York Mets have made an infield addtion as they prepare for the return of shortstop Francisco Lindor , selecting Zack Short off waivers from the Detroit Tigers , according to a report from Darragh McDonald of MLBTradeRumors.com . The 31-year old Short is out of minor league options, so he'll need to be added immediately to the active roster.
Adding him is related to a series of moves after the Mets put starter Christian Scott on the IL today with a hip problem. The Mets sent down reliever Daniel Duarte to Triple-A Syracuse, with right-handers Tobias Myers and Jonathan Pintaro called up to replace those two.
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There's no doubt about what the Mets won from Short. He's a glove-first infielder, but he probably won't hit much. He has 640 big-league plate appearances spread across six seasons, according to McDonald, and his slash line during that time is .172/.273/.292. His numbers for the Tigers this year track similarly at .167/.304/.222.
Short keeps getting chances with teams like the Mets because of his glove. His MLB résumé includes hundreds of innings at shortstop, second and third base, and he's also done some brief stint in the outfield.
Those stints and his infield appearances have been so intermittent that there aren't a lot of reliable defensive metrics available, but he's been credited with minus-10 Outs Above Average and minus-1 Defensive Runs Saved. As MacDonald noted, teams like the Mets presumably have internal metrics that view him more favorably.
The Mets haven't had anything resembling stability on the left side of their infield so far this season. Lindor went out early with a calf injury, and the Mets moved Bo Bichette to shortstop. Bichette has been adequate most of the time, but over an extended period his metrics tend to flatten out and he becomes an average to poor infielder.
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The real reason for this move is to replace infielder Vidal Brujan , who has added speed but not much else to the Mets, both in the lineup and on the field. He's been valuable occasionally as a pinch runner, but Brujan has also had some rough moments defensively.
Short probably won't give them a lot more with his bat, but he will give them more defensively. His glove is valuable for the Mets right now, and he'll probably get plenty of time as a defensive replacement. Lindor is due back at the end of June, and his mobility is likely to be limited early on, which means that Short will be logging plenty of innings when Lindor has to exit early or need a day off.
