But seriously, as much as I hate to lose Jose Reyes for any amount of time I don’t think losing Reyes is a game changer. As good as he is, I think the Mets will do fine with Alex Cora at the bottom of their lineup. Can you say Rafael Santana?
In ’84 Rafael Santana was the backup shortstop for the Mets. In ’85 he was promoted to starting shortstop, and then in ’86 the Mets won it all with a shortstop that batted .218, 1 HR, 28 RBI’s and led the team with 12 intentional walks. He was a solid defensive shortstop, not a Gold Glove by any means. Fundamentally sound.
Also remember Kevin Elster was the backup shortstop who batted .167, 0 hr’s, 0 RBI’s in ’86. He was a better defensive player than Santana and was such a smooth fielder. A pleasure to watch on the field but an automatic out at the plate.
Now check out this interview with Cora at MLB.com. Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez both get chances to ask Alex questions and he does a good interview. He comes off as a leader on camera and we already know he’s a leader in the clubhouse and on the field. We saw that last year when he subbed for Reyes.
I haven’t had a chance to see Ruben Tejada play, but if he is a good defensive shortstop then we have a workable shortstop tandem for the entire year if need be. I hope it doesn’t get to that!
I’m actually fine with Reyes being out. We still need pitching. Pitching and defense wins games. As Keith would say, “FUNDY’s”.
The Mets Report 
Did we watch the same Rafael Santana when we were kids Dave? The Rafael Santana I recall had a rag arm and wouldn't charge balls hit to him. I agree with the awful hitting. He made Mario Mendoza look like Ty Cobb. Ralph Kiner said one of my all time favorite announcer comments about Santana in a game back in the 80's. It went something along the lines of “Santana treated that ball like a baby. He let it crawl right up to him and he smothered it”.I was definitely an Elster fan. The guy couldn't hit, but he could field his position. In 1988, I seem to recall him hitting a huge home run against John Smiley of the Pirates late in the season to basically seal up the NL East. That season, He and Walt Weiss of the A's were rookies and there was a very big deal made about the fact that no team had won a World Series with a rookie shortstop. The Met's and A's were both favored to be in the World Series when the playoffs started. Needless to say we Met fans recall what happened in that NLCS. I'm sure A's fans still have nightmares of Kirk Gibson limping around the base paths too.
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I never thought Rafael Santana or Kevin Elster were any good. This is a post written by David Daniels, who's joining me this season on the site. Hopefully, he can chime in on rag arm Santana.
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Now, now, I actually liked watching Elster play and considering the pitching staff they had that year you could put anybody at short and win. But to Santana's credit he did establish those records in the NLCS for most putouts, assists and chances accepted against the Astros. So he stepped up his game when needed. I was hoping to highlight the fact the Mets can win without a shortstop like Reyes, just somebody who can step up and lead.As for 88, Hershiser. That was my nightmare name. Seemed like the Dodgers pitched him practically everyday. Amazing year the guy had. Probably will never happen again.
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Now, now, I actually liked watching Elster play and considering the pitching staff they had that year you could put anybody at short and win. But to Santana's credit he did establish those records in the NLCS for most putouts, assists and chances accepted against the Astros. So he stepped up his game when needed. I was hoping to highlight the fact the Mets can win without a shortstop like Reyes, just somebody who can step up and lead.As for 88, Hershiser. That was my nightmare name. Seemed like the Dodgers pitched him practically everyday. Amazing year the guy had. Probably will never happen again.
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