Reyes Will Not Move to 3-Spot…Yet

During the offseason Mets manager Jerry Manuel admitted to reporters that he was tinkering with the idea that he would use shortstop Jose Reyes in the no. 3 spot in the order this year instead of his traditional leadoff spot.

In three starts so far this season he has not done that, but Manuel told reporters last night that moving Reyes in the order might still happen.What needs to happen first is that Reyes needs to get comfortable playing again after missing about 11 months.

“I’m not ready for that yet,” Manuel said. “I’ve got to give Jose a chance to get comfortable.”

It does seem like at this point the move is almost inevitable as Manuel has talked about Angel Pagan being able to handle the leadoff role.

Some people might not like moving Reyes out of the leadoff spot, but I don’t mind it so much. Reyes’ career OBP is comparable to Pagan’s and putting Reyes directly in front of the big bats could help the other hitters out a lot more. Reyes tends to distract pitchers when he is on base and if a pitcher is not paying close attention to David Wright and Jayson Bay they’re going to be able to do a lot of damage.

Yesterday, I took a look at what an optimal Mets lineup would look like. Part of what I discussed was the types of hitters in the lineup and where you’d want them. In the leadoff spot you generally should put your highest OBP-type guys and Pagan is not that. Last season he had a .333 OBP and has a .331 career. So having Pagan in the leadoff spot is certainly not ideal, but the Mets could do worse and the fact that he doesn’t have much pop in his bat does make it slightly better that he’s not hitting leadoff.

So Pagan is not your modern leadoff hitter, but he’s not much different from Reyes OBP-wise and having Reyes in front of the big bats could certainly make it worth it.

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