Mets may be leaning toward picking up Asdrubal Cabrera’s option

According to sources as reported by Marc Carig, the Mets may consider picking up Asdrubal Cabrera‘s $8.5 million club option

The Mets haven’t been in contention for anything during most of the 2017 season. However, there have been some interesting story lines related to the future of this club. One of those plots involves Asdrubal Cabrera and a stark change from just a month ago.

According to some sources, the Mets are now beginning to lean toward picking up Cabrera’s club option next season. This comes just a handful of weeks after Cabrera requested the Mets trade him and then retracted that statement days later. Cabrera has an $8.5 million option or the Mets can buy him out for $2 million.

The biggest question is where would Cabrera get the most consistent playing time? He has just started to play third (eight games) and has handled that position okay defensively. We already know his days at short are more than likely over. Cabrera has been his best in the field at second base and there could be an opening with the recent developments.

Neil Walker may be gone by the end of the month, if not after the season. Jose Reyes is also a free agent and T.J. Rivera may need Tommy John surgery if he doesn’t respond well to the PRP injection he received. That leaves Cabrera and Wilmer Flores on the current roster to fill the slot at second.

Over at the hot corner, it was announced earlier in the day that David Wright has begun baseball activities in Port St. Lucie. The Mets captain is certainly not giving up on returning to the diamond so add this to the fold when analyzing how the Mets’ infield will take shape. Wright still has three years and $47 million left on his contract after this season.

When healthy, Cabrera provides decent value as a switch hitter and still has some pop in his bat. Injuries have been present, but you can normally count on Cabrera to be an above .260 hitter from both sides of the plate. He also holds a career .995 fielding percentage in 1,946.1 innings at second and didn’t commit an error in 20 games there this year.

It will be interesting to see how this situation continues to develop. Cabrera will turn 32 in November and the other factor in play is how the Mets will attack free agency with several contracts set to come off the books.

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However, it’s an affordable price for a player like Cabrera. For contextual purposes, $8.5 million would put him 12^th  in average earnings among all second basemen this season. That places him as a slightly above average player at his position. And that’s a pretty fair assessment.