I think they went into the season relying on Kiké because he was a 5-win player in 2021 who had a freak injury last season.
As a full-time CF (and only 31), it seems reasonable to think he’d bounce back. He hasn’t, though his struggles at the plate could be related to learning a new position. Shortstop certainly seems harder for him, and he could be pressing, but it’s mostly time to move on.
Shortstop prices were pretty outrageous last winter. Once Xander signed with San Diego, Bloom had a choice between these two depth charts.
Option A
CF - Kiké, Duran
SS -
Player X (signing or trade), Story (in July)
Option B
CF - Duvall, Duran, Tapia
SS - Kiké, Mondesi, Chang, Story (in July)
Now, there are a lot of variations on who Player X could have been. Some of the non-superstar options ones we pined for have been total duds (Rojas, Wendle, Andrus, Iglesias, Rosario, Tim Anderson). Others have been decent (Mateo, Kim, DeJong), but who knows how available they ever were.
In any case, it really isn’t clear who the correct choice was. The fact that Yu Chang—a guy who went 0 for 18 to start the season and logged all of 47 PAs—
currently ranks 29th of 50 eligible shortstops in fWAR (min. 40 PA, I’m making a point) illustrates how much of a crapshoot it is to find a decent shortstop. Kiké hasn’t panned out, but he was as good a guess as any.
To be clear, my preference last winter was to sign Correa and sort out the rest later. But that aside, Option B seems much better to me than Option A. It also suggests that the FO thinks this:
• They believe in Duran and don’t want to block him in 2023
• They believe that Story is a shortstop, at least until Mayer arrives
• They like Houck as a starter, or at least not a trade chip
• They thought Mondesi and Chang were decent fallbacks
I think the Bloom and co. have so far been justified about two of those things. Mondesi hasn’t improved, which is too bad. Chang looked good after the slow start, and played a terrific shortstop. It’s too bad he got hurt, but he’s back soon. We’ll see about Story.
I just don’t see any evidence of mismanagement or malfeasance.