Over at Mets Minor League Blog, Toby Hyde looks at the Mets’ top center-field prospects. Presumably Andres Torres, who’ll be 34 on Opening Day, is not the long-term solution.

I’ve seen a few fans wondering already why the team, unlikely as it is to contend in 2012, wouldn’t just hand the starting job to Kirk Nieuwenhuis. I chatted with Toby about it this morning and he confirmed what I was thinking: First, and most obviously, Nieuwenhuis is coming off season-ending surgery, so there’s no reason to rush him back to full health at the big-league level.

Second — and this speaks to the larger point about not rushing prospects in general — baseball is tough enough as it is, and there’s no sense in overwhelming a player by forcing him to compete at a level he might not be prepared for. Plus there’s the whole arbitration-clock issue, for what that’s worth.

Unless Nieuwenhuis shows up in Spring Training fully recovered, then turns tons of heads with his Grapefruit League performance, he’s likely ticketed for at least another month or two in Buffalo. If goes to Triple-A and again plays like he did in the couple of months of 2011, I suspect we’ll see him in Flushing before long.

In Torres, the Mets have a veteran stopgap and switch-hitter who can play all three outfield positions and slide into a fourth outfielder role if and when Nieuwenhuis or any other young Met is ready to command center field at Citi.