For Mets, Ruben Tejada's range more important than Alex Cora's smarts

I've been adamant about starting the season with Jenrry Mejia in Binghamton and Ike Davis in Buffalo, and I'm sticking to it.

You can throw Fernando Martinez into that category too.

Even if they continue to be the three most exciting players in camp.

But when it comes to promoting Ruben Tejada to fill in for Jose Reyes while he recovers from his thyroid condition, I'm willing to look the other way for a month.

The situation at shortstop is different.

Look, it would be cruel and inhumane to subject sinker-ball pitcher Mike Pelfrey (not to mention the rest of the staff) to the utterly rangeless double-play combo of Alex Cora and Luis Castillo.

There's got to be some type of correlation between angst over a grounder up the middle and the fact that Big Pelf started feverishly licking himself on the mound after Jose Reyes went down last year.

Tejada is 20... he hit .289 despite being a pup in Double-A last season. It's impressive. Still, offensively, he's going to be in over his head at the big-league level. That's OK.

His real game -- his defense and his speed on the base paths -- are big-league ready right now now and won't be damaged by a month or so at the Show.

So give me the kid for six weeks until Reyes gets back.

Then he goes back to the farm so we can find out if he's the second baseman of the future, the utility infielder of the future, something more or something less.



(blog.slive.com)