Mets Insider: Wilmer Flores gets lesson from Keith Hernandez

Reinhold Matay/USA Today Sports

Wilmer Flores is learning a how to play a new position from one of the Met greats.

PORT ST. LUCIE — Wilmer Flores got a crash course in the “fundies,” Sunday morning. The Mets called in 11-time Gold Glove first baseman and current SNY analyst Keith Hernandez to help the utility infielder learn the position.

Flores is expected to get a start at first base in a Grapefruit League game this week.

With Terry Collins and infield coach Tim Teufel among others looking on, Hernandez went over the basics of playing first with Flores on one of the back fields before Sunday’s game against the Red Sox at Tradition Field.

Collins said he will use Flores at first base at times this season to spell Lucas Duda and get Flores’ bat in the lineup against lefthanded pitchers.

Hernandez was the first baseman on the Mets’ 1986 world championship team and is now analyst for Mets games on SNY. He is known for lamenting the lack of “fundies,” or fundamental skills, in today’s game. Hernandez did not work Sunday’s broadcast, but made a special trip to Port St. Lucie to work with Flores.

Flores, who said he played three games at first in the minor leagues, has never played there in the majors. The Mets want to get him at-bats against lefties because he hit .310 against them last season.

BACK TO BASICS

David Wright had an RBI single and went 1-for-3 in his second Grapefruit League game Sunday. After being diagnosed with spinal stenosis, Wright did not start playing games until Friday and after taking Saturday off, looked a little rusty in the field in his second game.

The third baseman missed a hard-hit ground ball in the first inning, one that he would normally make.

“I felt like I had a good bead on it, it took a bit of a tricky hop,” Wright said of David Murphy’s ground ball that got past him. “I am not sure if that’s just not having much action over there (yet this spring) or generally did it just take a tricky hop.

“I felt like I was there to make the play,” Wright said. “Now it’s a matter of just finishing it off.”

Wright is scheduled to play Monday, the first time he has played in a back-to-back games this spring.

BACK ON THE MOUND

A year and three days after Tommy John surgery, Josh Edgin made his first pitch in a game. The left-handed reliever threw 16 pitches in a minor league intrasquad scrimmage, which was a big milestone.

“I didn’t sleep a lot last night, I was excited. I had a lot of adrenaline,” Edgin said. “I still have a lot of work to do on mechanics, but it felt good to get back out there.”

Baseball – NY Daily News

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