The Mets have 17 games remaining in their season, and at the moment, they still do not know who their second baseman is going to be on a game-to-game basis.

For most of the season, the answer was Neil Walker.  Even with him struggling in the middle of the season, at a time where he couldn’t feel his toes, he was having the best season of his career.  It was more than tying his career high in homers.  He became a much better hitter from the right side of the plate.  He was much improved defensively.  He was a big part of the Mets.  However, his season was over as he needed season ending surgery to address the herniated disc that prevented him from feeling his toes over the summer.

Fortunately, the Mets had a good backup option with Wilmer Flores and Kelly Johnson.  Flores hit .306/.346/.542 with five homers and 19 RBI in August.  He mostly did the damage against lefties, but he was also maturing as a hitter with him starting to hit against righties.  Flores didn’t need to be overexposed against righties though because Johnson was having a resurgent season as a part time player with the Mets.  In his 71 games with the Mets, Johnson has hit .269/.328/.473 with nine homers and 23 RBI in 73 games.  The Mets very well could have rode this platoon the rest of the season.  However, disaster struck again.

On Saturday, Flores slid headfirst into homeplate, and he injured his neck.  He is having difficulty just taking batting practice.  There is no telling when he will be able to fully warm up for a game let alone play again.  This would be an opportune moment for Johnson to step up, but he has been slumping.  Over the past two weeks, Johnson is hitting .188/.212/.313 with one homer and three RBI.  While Johnson has been terrific all year for the Mets, it is quite possible that he has been overexposed playing semi-regularly after the Walker injury.  Given Flores’ injury and Johnson’s slump, Terry Collins had to do something drastic, and that was starting T.J. Rivera last night.

Rivera had not started a game since the September 5th finale for AAA Las Vegas where he overtook Brandon Nimmo for the Pacific Coast League batting title.  Rivera answered the call.  He would make three terrific plays in the field.  The third one in the ninth got overlooked because Daniel Murphy busted it out of the box to beat the throw, and because, as usual, James Loney didn’t stretch.  However, it was at the plate where Rivera really stood out.  Rivera came through in the clutch time and again delivering in both of his RBI opportunities with a two out RBI single in the first and a sacrifice fly in the fifth.  When there were two outs in the top of the 10th, Rivera delivered with a home run off an 0-2 pitch from Mark Melancon, who had not allowed a home run since July 17th.  With this game, Rivera made a case for himself on a Mets team that does not have an answer to second base right now.

This is unexpected as many thought this opportunity would never come.  During the season, the Mets gave chances to Eric Campbell and Ty Kelly first while Rivera was thinking of new ways to try to get called up to the majors.  The Mets would have to go through a rash of infield injuries for him to even be considered.  He waited so long, in part, because he doesn’t fit the Mets profile.  He’s an aggressive contact hitter at the plate.  He’s not working the count.  He’s finding his pitch, and he’s going to drive it somewhere.

So no, at no point during the first 140+ games this season did anyone, especially the Mets, think that Rivera would ever be the solution at second base.  However, the Mets are looking for an answer at the position right now, and Rivera stepped in and helped the Mets win a game they lose any other time in their 54 year history.  It really might just be time for Rivera.