Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada finally reported to Spring Training. Tejada, who will replace Jose Reyes as the team's shortstop, had not reported to Port Saint Lucie before his teammates, something manager Terry Collins would have preferred.Tejada addressed the media early Sunday morning, indicating that visa problems held him up.
To read more from Tejada's talk, click here.
I'm a little disappointed Tejada didn't report earlier. It's clearly something Collins would have liked, since Tejada is taking on a major role this season. No one expects this transition to be easy; the Mets lost more than and All-Star, they lost the excitement and energy that only Reyes provides. However, I think Tejada is a guy who can make this transition relatively smooth. Now, I use "smooth" lightly because a lot of Tejada's success this year will depend on the 2nd baseman.
Most days, that'll probably be Daniel Murphy. Others, it'll be Justin Turner. And if the pattern that's been plaguing the Mets for the last few years continues, we'll get to see a minor leaguer that we've never heard of thrown into the mix.
According to Matt Cerrone on MetsBlog.com,
"...Collins said that when shortstop Ruben Tejada arrives in camp, he’s not going to “yell and scream at him,” but he plan to have a conversation with him. Collins explained that he wanted Tejada in camp early to both work on his agility and quickness, and beginning developing a defensive rapport with Daniel Murphy."If you read here on, you can get a more complete description of Collins's reaction to Tejada arriving late.
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