With the news of his hamate surgery still fresh in our minds, it’s important that we remember that there is no one on the Mets’ roster – 40-Man or otherwise – that can take Francisco Lindor’s place, even for just a few weeks. But that doesn’t mean that the Mets don’t need someone to play short, and ideally, someone by whom they won’t be handcuffed when Lindor returns.
While it may be appealing to just shift Bo Bichette back to short for a limited time, if the Mets really want Bichette to get acquainted
with a new position, the short term benefit might not be worth stalling his progress. Jorge Polanco played most of his career at short, but recent history at that position has been rough. Ronny Mauricio could probably handle a few games there, but isn’t a true shortstop.
With both Jett Williams and Luisangel Acuña departing the system via trades this winter, the Mets find themselves with a serious dearth of upper-minors shortstop talent. This is why the Mets signed a number of fringy guys who could help out on a short term basis at the position. During his press conference yesterday, David Stearns mentioned a number of potential shortstops, including Mauricio, Vidal Bruján, Grae Kessinger, Christian Arroyo, and Jackson Cluff. While we will get to all those players eventually, today we’re looking into Cluff.
Cluff, a product of Brigham Young University, was drafted in the sixth round of the 2019 draft by the Nationals. After missing the 2020 season due to COVID-19 and parts of 2021 due to injury, the ‘21 Arizona Fall League was Cluff’s first real test in professional baseball. He hit .342 with six doubles, a home run, and eight stolen bases in 22 games, which put him into the conversation going into 2022.
Unfortunately, that would be the last time that Cluff batted over .250 in organized ball of any kind. To his credit, the now 29-year old has improved fairly consistently offensively, but in small steps and not enough to garner real excitement as a prospect. In 2025, in 103 games at Triple-A Rochester, Cluff hit .242/.349/.771 with twelve home runs, 14 doubles, and 23 steals.
Additionally, Cluff isn’t just a shortstop. Across 2024 and 2025, Cluff played all four infield positions, center field, left field, and pitched in five games. While he’s no “Super” Joe McEwing, that’s a useful player in the high minors.
His usefulness makes his release by the Nationals a little odd. Yes, he’s too old to really be considered a prospect at this point, and no, he hasn’t done enough to really inspire confidence. But he’s a player with no major league service time who can handle the middle infield and hit a tiny bit. Those guys usually stick around an organization until one or more of their skills has eroded enough to render them unfit for the upper minors.
Cluff was part of the large exodus of players from the Nationals system at the end of last season, and the Mets signed him to a minor league deal. He’s probably destined to spend most or all of the season at Triple-A, but he does represent a type of player that is very useful, especially when your starting shortstop gets hurt before spring training officially starts. Cluff won’t be an embarrassment at short, and the Mets’ lineup is deep enough that, if they had to keep him in the lineup for a couple of days, that probably wouldn’t hurt the club too much.
While Cluff isn’t the ideal long term, or even medium term, solution if Lindor has to miss any significant time, we’ll likely get lots of looks at him during spring training and the Mets will be able to determine if he’s a decent short term, stopgap solution if one of the Mets’ middle infielders gets hurt.
