The Mets took Ike Davis and Reese Havens four picks apart in the first round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft.
But while Davis already has made it to the big leagues and shown flashes he’s a possible long-term answer for the Mets at first, Havens’ career has barely gotten started four years later, due to a variety of injuries.
In fact, entering last night’s action, while Davis has already played 226 games in the majors, Havens has only managed to play in a total of 234 games over the past four years, including 21 this season as Double-A Binghamton’s second baseman.
“Reese is doing great,” said Pedro Lopez, Binghamton’s manager, in a phone interview. “He’s a hard working kid. This is the first time I’ve had a chance to be with the same ball club as him, and he’s working hard. He really is.”
Havens’ season was delayed, once again, this year by an upper back strain, forcing him to miss nearly all of April. And since returning to the field, he has looked like a player who missed a month. The 25-year-old is hitting .145 with a home run and eight RBIs through 21 games, including enduring a 3-for-31 slump in his last 10.
“Right now, I just feel like he’s playing catch-up with the whole league,” Lopez said. “For him, this is spring training, and that’s what spring training is all about. It’s a lot of fun to be around him.
“He goes out there and works hard every day. He goes out there with Luis Natera, our hitting coach, to try and work on his swing and try to make things right. This is the first time I’ve worked with him on a regular basis and I think he’s going to come out of this one.”
Havens’ struggles at the plate this season are some of the first of his career, thanks in part to all of the injuries that have kept him off the field virtually from the day he signed with the Mets. Despite missing time each of the past four years with a variety of injuries to, among other things, his elbow, groin, oblique and back, Havens has always managed to hit. He also has showed a knack for both getting on base and extra-base power, posting a career .360 on-base percentage and .446 slugging percentage.
Of course, both of those numbers have been generated in limited sample sizes because of his injuries. But now that Havens is finally back on the field, Lopez hopes the second baseman can get his bat going, get back on track and head toward joining Davis on the right side of the diamond at Citi Field.
“Since he’s been here, he’s been great,” Lopez said. “He’s been going through all the drills and he’s going through every workout we have, and there hasn’t been an issue.
“I really just hope and I pray to God that the injuries are in the past, and he can just be Reese Havens, and do what he does best and have some success in his baseball career.”