Mets Claim Zack Short

The Mets announced that they have claimed infielder Zack Short off waivers from the Tigers. Detroit designated him for assignment last week. The Mets transferred infielder Jorge Polanco to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding 40-man move. Short is out of options and will also need an active roster spot when he reports to the team. On the pitching side, the Mets also placed right-hander Christian Scott on the 15-day IL, retroactive to June 12th, with a right hip impingement. Fellow righty Daniel Duarte was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. Righties Tobias Myers and Jonathan Pintaro were recalled to replace those two. MLBTR covered the Scott news earlier today.

Short, 31, is a glove-first infielder who doesn’t provide much at the plate. He has 640 big league plate appearances spread across six seasons and has produced a .172/.273/.292 line in those. That includes a .167/.304/.222 line in 46 plate appearances for the Tigers this year.

He continues to get opportunities because he has a strong reputation with the glove. He has hundreds of innings at shortstop, second base and third base, in addition to very brief stints in the outfield. Most of that time has been at shortstop, with over 900 innings there. Publicly available metrics aren’t particularly glowing about his shortstop work. He’s been credited with minus-10 Outs Above Average and minus-1 Defensive Runs Saved but teams presumably have internal metrics that look at him more favorably.

The Mets have been on their backup plan at shortstop for quite a while. A left calf strain put Francisco Lindor on the injured list almost two months ago. Bo Bichette, signed to play third base, has been back covering shortstop basically on an everyday basis since then. Bichette isn’t really considered a strong defender at short, which is why he was being moved to begin the year. Presumably, Short will take a spot on the bench and will be used at short when stronger defense is warranted, perhaps later in games when the club is trying to hold a tight lead.

Vidal Bruján has been on the club’s bench for about six weeks but he has a .100/.182/.100 line in 12 plate appearances. He is out of options and could get squeezed off the roster when Short joins it, though another option would be to keep both Bruján and Short while optioning Eric Wagaman to the minors. Wagaman was selected to the roster about three weeks ago but has only received three plate appearances this month.

As for Polanco, transaction is a formality. His initial IL placement, due to a right wrist contusion, was retroactive to April 15th. That means he has already been out for 60 days and can be reinstated at any time. Last week, his rehab assignment was paused due to ankle soreness and his current timeline is unclear.