Cabrera takes 2nd to rethink trade talk
MIAMI — Maybe Asdrubal Cabrera’s days with the Mets aren’t so numbered.
After Cabrera turned in another solid performance both at the plate and in the field after his move from shortstop to second base, Cabrera backed off his request for a trade.
“I always want to be here,” Cabrera told The Post after the Mets beat the Marlins, 8-0, on Wednesday night at Marlins Park. “This is a great team. In that moment when I said that, I wasn’t saying I want to get traded. I was just saying it didn’t seem like they had a plan for me. … If they’ve got a plan, they should tell me.”
Cabrera is still displeased with the way the situation was handled, when he wasn’t told he’d be switching positions following his return from the disabled list
When he came back in San Francisco, Cabrera made it clear he thought it was time to leave the Mets.
“If they don’t have a plan for me, I think it’s time to make a move,” Cabrera said on Friday after he was informed of the position switch. “What I saw the last couple of weeks, I don’t think they have any plan for me.”
Perhaps his improved performance since coming back has something to do with his new attitude.
On Wednesday, he hit a two-run homer in the first inning off Miami left- hander Jeff Locke and added an infield single and a walk. He left the game in the eighth with cramping in his legs, but neither Cabrera nor manager Terry Collins believes it’s serious.
The 31-year-old also flashed some leather at second, when he made a diving stop to his right on Christian Yelich’s inning-ending groundout in the bottom of the first.
Collins dismissed the idea that Cabrera should have any difficulty playing second.
“He can play second base,” Collins said with a smile. “There’s no big adjustment. This guy’s a tremendous infielder and [has] got great hands. I saw him in Washington play second base, so I knew he could. … I hope he relaxes a little bit and goes off on the offensive side, because we need his bat.”
Since he’s come back from the sprained thumb, Cabrera is 10-for-21 and has four multi-hit games in his last five.
More importantly, he is no longer completely averse to playing secondeven though he previously stated that it might diminish his worth on the open market if he becomes a free agent after the season.
“I like this team a lot,” Cabrera said. “I’ll be fine with playing second. I’m a professional player. I would like to stay here at any position. I just felt like I didn’t have good communication with the team in that moment. Now we have to wait and see what happens.”