Earlier today, the Mets acquired second baseman Neil Walker from the Pirates for Jon Niese, seemingly filling out their infield. Apparently they weren’t done, though, as they’ve now signed middle infielder Asdrubal Cabrera to a two-year deal, as first reported by Chris Cotillo.

Cabrera will earn $18.5 million over two seasons with a club option for a third year, and our contract crowdsourcing project had him pegged for $27 million over three years — similar AAV, but an extra guaranteed year.

After two slightly below league average seasons at the plate in 2013 and 2014, Cabrera was again above league average last year, which is valuable for someone who can play shortstop. Thing is, it’s no guarantee Cabrera is any better at the plate than Wilmer Flores — Steamer’s 2016 projections actually prefer Flores — and it might be a stretch to consider Cabrera a shortstop anyway.

Over the last three seasons, Cabrera has been baseball’s worst defensive shortstop by DRS (-30), baseball’s worst defensive shortstop by UZR (-25), and second-worst defensive shortstop by FRAA (-18). Flores has never been trusted at short by scouts and the metrics have seen him as below-average in a still-small sample, and the newly-acquired Walker is average, at best, at second base. Lest we forget Ruben Tejada, who also graded out among the league’s worst defensive shortstops this year, despite a generally solid defensive reputation. The Mets infield defense was exposed as a liability on the national stage in the World Series, and yet it doesn’t look like they made it a priority to improve that area at all for the upcoming season.

The surplus of infield depth seems to indicate that the Mets aren’t optimistic about David Wright’s chances of playing a full season at third base. Flores will likely see time at both shortstop and second, Cabrera will see time at both middle infield positions, and Walker could even play third base in a pinch, though he last appeared at the hot corner in 2010.

It’s possible that the addition of Cabrera, alongside Walker, opens up the possibility of Flores being shopped as a trade chip. We all remember the infamous non-trade of Flores at the deadline this year. On the other hand, it’s possible the Mets are just stocking up on depth early as opposed to later, so they don’t have to trade for Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe midseason again. Too much depth isn’t a bad thing, but the collection of infielders the Mets have assembled and their somewhat similar skillsets makes for a bit of an odd family.