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          New York Mets

          Alderson weighs in on shortstop 'situation'

          • Adam Rubin, ESPN Staff WriterMar 12, 2014, 02:04 PM ET
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              Adam Rubin has covered the Mets since 2003. He's a graduate of Mepham High School on Long Island and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He joined ESPNNewYork after spending 10 years at the New York Daily News.
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          Ruben Tejada has struggled early, but Sandy Alderson has not pulled the trigger on signing Stephen Drew ... yet.PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- What does Ervin Santana signing for one-year at $14.1 million and the Atlanta Braves forfeiting a draft pick mean for the Mets’ pursuit of Stephen Drew, who similarly turned down a qualifying offer and is currently unemployed?

          “I’m not interpreting it in terms of ‘our situation,’” Sandy Alderson told reporters Wednesday. “I don’t know that we have a situation here.”

          Alderson had said Saturday that Ruben Tejada is not under a microscope. Since then, Tejada committed another error Monday.

          Yet Alderson’s stance has not considerably changed.

          “We continue to look at how he’s doing, but it won’t be a judgment based on one game or two games or three games,” Alderson said. “We’ve got a lot of spring training left. In the meantime, we’ll continue to look at our other options.”

          Alderson said he could see Drew holding out beyond Opening Day, to ensure he cannot be given a qualifying offer next offseason as a free agent. But Alderson does not believe Drew would hold out past this June’s draft in order to wriggle free of the 2014 draft pick a team would have to forfeit if it signed him now.

          “That looks a little less viable since a good part of the season has come and gone,” Alderson said about waiting until June.

          As for the viability of Wilmer Flores at shortstop, Alderson brushed aside a first-inning muff on a double-play attempt Tuesday.

          “I thought he was fine,” Alderson said about Flores’ first start at the position since 2011. “I’m not smart enough based on the first-inning bobble to know that he can’t play shortstop.”

          As for the inactivity of Ike Davis and Lucas Duda and how that affects the first-base evaluation, the GM added: “It changes things pretty radically, the fact that they haven’t been out there, or haven’t been out there very much. We have a couple of weeks -- almost three weeks -- left. Hopefully they’ll get back out there. But I think, given the fact it’s a truncated version of spring training for both of them, you’ve got to be cautious about making judgments. So we will be.”