According to Ken Rosenthal, the Mets have contacted Jerry Hairston (Jr., I hope), the only free agent who plays both center field and shortstop.

This is an excellent point.

Old man Hairston’s kid has capably fielded both positions in his career, according to both UZR and plus/minus. Those are both in pretty small samples, mind you, but given the fact that he’s also been a decent defensive second baseman, it’s safe to say he’d be a nice addition to the roster as a utility man to a team with defensive question marks in the middle infield and general lack of range in the outfield, Angel Pagan notably excepted.

Hairston made $2 million last year with the Reds and Yankees, a figure he more than earned with his defensive flexibility. I can’t imagine he’ll require much more this year, though I have no inside information.

The problem? Hairston can’t really hit. He has had random spurts of success in short bursts — most notably when he posted an .871 in 261 at-bats for the Reds in 2008. But other than that, he’s hit like the utility infielder that he is. He has a .701 OPS for his career.

And the Mets already have a 34-year-old, weak-hitting utility infielder under contract for $2 million. His name is Alex Cora, and though he can’t really hit or field as well as Hairston, nor play as many positions, he’s loaded up on intangibles.

So there’s that.

The Mets’ best route to recouping some of Beltran’s offensive production is by adding platoon bats to pair with Daniel Murphy and Jeff Francoeur. That likely won’t cost them money, but it will cost them roster spots and so they probably won’t be able to afford to carry multiple replacement infielders, even if one can handle the outfield.

Assuming 12 pitchers and two catchers, plus Murphy, Luis Castillo, Jose Reyes, David Wright, Cora, Jason Bay, Angel Pagan and Francoeur, the Mets have three roster spots to work with.

Hmm… I started this one way and now I’m changing my mind a little. Maybe, maybe, if the Mets could find a right-handed bat and a left-handed bat (Nick Evans and Chris Carter, perhaps? Ryan Garko?), Hairson could slot in as the 25th man and super sub. He’d sort of render Cora redundant, of course, but Alex Cora transcends redundancy, or something.

Twitter’s telling me I’m wrong though, so I’m open to changing my mind. Feel free to explain what I’m missing.

And that’s all fun and games anyway, since I’m sure there’ll be a handful more changes before the Mets even get to Spring Training.