Welcome Back

Last night the Mets were able to welcome back their Opening Day center fielder, Andres Torres.

Torres missed part of Spring Training with a strained calf muscle, then deemed himself ready for the season, only to pull up lame in the first game of the season which landed him on the 15 day DL.

For the Mets, there was definitely a silver lining in the Torres injury.  When he went down, they organization was able to promote Kirk Nieuwenhuis.  Known as an outfield prospect for the past two seasons, Nieuwenhuis was never able to get a shot in the bigs because of his tendency to become injured.

But this season's been different for Nieuwenhuis.  He's been able to stay healthy and provide a much needed, early season spark to the Mets.  Mostly in the leadoff spot, he's batting .325 on the season to go along with eight RBI and two home runs.  He does have seem to strike out a bit, but the Mets can live with that if he continues to get on base 39% of the time.

Nieuwenhuis has been up and down in the field as well.  He's made a couple highlight reel worthy catches in center field, but was also responsible for the dropped popup last week and, while in left field for the first time ever last night, couldn't come up with a bloop hit behind shortstop that allowed Houston to score their first run.  Torres reclaimed his centerfield position upon his return last night.

When Jason Bay returns from his DL stint in the next week or so, the Mets will have a dilemma on their hands.  Nieuwenhuis has done enough to prove to continues to play ball up here.  But it's a numbers game and someone is going to be squeezed.