Mets Shortstop Battle: Andres Gimenez vs. Amed Rosario

Similar position battles of the recent past

Back in the 2013-time frame, the Mets had a similar situation at first base with Ike Davis and Lucas Duda. Both players were first basemen and needed to play every day. They were both tried at different positions, but that experiment failed and then-GM Sandy Alderson had a decision to make. Which one is his future first baseman?

We all know the outcome of that situation. The Mets traded Ike Davis to Pittsburg in 2014 and they went with Lucas Duda at first base until they traded him to Tampa Bay for Drew Smith in 2017.

The trade of Duda came primarily because the Mets had Dom Smith ready to be promoted to the big leagues and shortly after that, the Mets had another difficult decision to make.

That was the decision between Dom Smith and Pete Alonso for the full-time first base job. Both men were excellent players who were very different from each other but played the same position. Only one could play first at a time so Brodie Van Wagenen had to make a choice.

The outcome of this situation was a little bit different from the Davis and Duda one. Smith was able to learn left field and with the advent of the designated hitter in the National League in 2020, he now has two main positions to play as well as spelling Alonso every so often at first base.

Both of these are good models to use for this Gimenez vs. Rosario battle but how does it compare to the others and whose hand will be raised at the end of the fight?

Who will the Mets choose at shortstop?

So where does this Gimenez and Rosario situation fall in regards to these two other situations?

This situation is much more complicated and intertwined than the others due to the roster being much deeper and there not being many positions available for one of them to learn and play full time.

For example, if the Mets move Gimenez to second and keep Rosario at short that creates a problem because Cano is currently the second baseman and if he becomes the DH then a place needs to be found for Smith and the outfield is full as of right now.

Similarly, if Gimenez becomes the shortstop then Rosario needs to be moved and the only real place for him in centerfield, which will not work either. If he goes to center, then Nimmo can go to a more natural corner spot but then Jeff McNeil would need to go to third and that leave J.D. Davis out in the cold.

No matter how you slice it as of right now there is no way to follow the Smith and Alonso model. That leaves Van Wagenen, or whoever replaces him when the team is sold, with two options.

The first being that it follows the Davis and Duda model and one of them gets traded most likely for a starting pitcher. I personally do not see that happening at this point because Gimenez is only been in the league for three weeks and he may cool down and end up being closer to a bench player than an everyday shortstop, especially with not much power.

The second option, being the more likely one, is that Rosario goes back to short when he is healthy, and Cano goes back to second when he returns from the Injured List. This means that Gimenez would go back to the role that he had the first week of the season where he is a late-inning defensive replacement at second base.

I personally believe that Rosario should earn his spot back from Gimenez. That would mean that Rosario would play short and Gimenez would play second until Cano is healthy. That is Rosario’s tryout. If he is still struggling at that point, then Gimenez goes back to short and Rosario becomes a bench player and re-evaluate in 2021.

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Just like the Davis-Duda and Smith-Alonso situations, I am happy that I am not the one making the decisions because at this point in time both are really young talented players and to give up on one by trading him seems like the wrong move but the house is getting crowded and sooner or later someone will have to be evicted.