Editor’s Note – This piece was written before Sunday’s injury.
Ever since being acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays in 2012, there have been high expectations for Travis d’Arnaud from just about everyone. The talent has always been apparent, but it was a matter of staying healthy and having confidence that have enabled d’Arnaud to reach his full potential. We are finally beginning to see the emergence of a promising player, as the 26-year-old is becoming the catcher of the future.
Last season started off poorly, as a .219 average in April and a .178 average in May would leave fans questioning if the team had a top prospect whose tools could translate into success at the major leagues. These two months were preceded by a 2013 late season call-up where d’Arnaud hit .202 in 99 at-bats, which did not help his case. However ever since July of last year, d’Arnaud has hit around .270 with 11 homers and 37 RBIs over 272 at-bats. This is a nice stretch during the regular season for Travis, as we are finally seeing the offensive prowess we have heard about. The offensive side of the ball is not the only aspect where d’Arnaud has seen improvements.
There have been tremendous improvements in throwing out runners so far this season. Last year’s stolen base leader Dee Gordon tried swiping a base off Jacob deGrom and d’Arnaud last night, and was caught stealing, resulting in an inning-ending double play. Yunel Escobar of the Nationals experienced the same fate as Gordon in the opening series, as did Peter Bourjos of the Cardinals in a spring training game. So far d’Arnaud is throwing runners out at a 43% clip, which is awfully high. The league average of catchers throwing out runners has been around 28% the past two seasons, meaning that maintaining a 43% success rate would put d’Arnaud up with elite catchers in terms of controlling the base paths. While throwing the baseball has not been problematic, keeping the ball in front has been an area of focus.
Throughout the offseason, bench coach Bob Geren and d’Arnaud were working on improving defensively, as d’Arnaud led catchers with 12 passed balls. Now this statistic can be misleading, as there could have been a cross up between the catcher and pitcher, or d’Arnaud could have been trying to frame a pitch, causing the ball to go off the tip of his glove. Regardless, this number has to be improved upon for d’Arnaud to be considered a complete catcher.
The Mets may have a problem in the near future as their prospect Kevin Plawecki looks like he will have a nice career in the majors when the time comes. According to MLB.com, Plawecki is the 6th best catcher in the minors, which provides the Mets with a couple of options. Either they could feature a two-headed monster behind the plate, or trade one catcher away in order to get a nice return. It is always better to have more options than none, so it is a relief to see d’Arnaud succeeding this year with a viable backup plan in the minors.
We saw the blossoming of the former Phillies and Blue Jays farmhand, as the second half of last year gave spectators hope that the Mets would have a decent catcher. For d’Arnaud to maintain his status as catcher of the future, he must stay healthy, continue to hit and drive the ball, and play solid defense behind the plate. If he does this, he may be mentioned as one of the top catchers in the game.
How timely!
Travis is out for 6-8 weeks and has been hitting well, playing good defense, and part of the new Mets. Now he is out until June. He will be missed.
I hope Kevin Plawecki is ready. He started slow but picked things up of late. Recker is very strong, and good for a 400′ homer every 25 at bats, sandwiched between a lot of strike outs. He is a good back up, but that’s it.
This is going to test us.
Still can’t believe the injury Peter. I wrote this in the morning, and then in the afternoon I hear d’Arnaud is going to miss time. Truly a shame since he was playing at a high level.
I think Plawecki is going to get the majority of time. It does not make much sense to bring him up to sit on the bench. Recker is a good backup as you said, but he will probably get more starts than he would have before. Hopefully the Mets can keep rolling.
It hurt my heart just a little bit while reading this. In any event, he’s out for a little while. But that’s fine, if the Mets are smart they will call up Kevin Plawecki and be able to see which one is more polished (albeit a small sample size).
A little off topic, but not really, the Mets started off pretty strong without Flores hitting- but now Flores is heating up. If all goes well, Flores might be able to pick up some slack and not allow the team to miss a beat.
Sorry to tug on the heartstrings Julian!
Plawecki will probably experience some growing pains throughout the first couple of games, however I think he’ll play good baseball once he gets comfortable.
Flores has been heating up, which is reassuring, because we have heard Flores’ bat is the strongest part of his game, but he has not had consistent appearances throughout his journey for the Mets. Let’s hope Flores continues to step up with all the injuries that have happened.
TC is difficult to read, but…
I’d like some straight answers.
I sure hope so. The Mets didn’t spend eight years of purgatory to see their playoff dreams leave after their starting catcher got a six-week injury. I know Plawecki isn’t a guarantee, but the Mets have to make gutsy calls during a time like this.
Who else? Johnny Monell?
I am a big Plawecki fan having seen him play in the minors so I have a ton of confidence that in the future he will be a better than average major league catcher. I hope he performs well given this opportunity and his career gets sucessfully launched. Hopefully TC will bat him eighth taking pressure off his initiation period.
The problem is losing TdA who was already blossoming into a good hitter and important player in the batting order.TdA won me over the first two weeks and made me feel confident that early 2014 was behind him. TdA will be missed.
I have confidence in Plaw, too, that he will eventually settle in to be a solid major league catcher.
The problem, obviously, is that the Mets have already paid their dues in living through d’Arnaud’s adjustment time. Paying that fee again now, with the team really counting on production from that slot in the lineup, could be particularly costly.
Here is hoping that Plawecki can hit the ground running.
I don’t think the Mets will have to wait on Plawecki’s development as much as they did with TDA. Plawecki has a very level swing, and drives the ball to all fields, as he showed in his first game. TDA has more upside and power, but Plawecki should adjust himself quickly, IMO.
TDA has shown to be the real deal. When he comes back, Plawecki will have to step aside, assuming he hasn’t been demoted because we’ve all heard that the catching position is the toughest to learn at MLB level.
Even as he struggled last year I felt TDA would hit.My real concern about him was his injury history.He has no chronic issues but he is one of those guys that is unlucky.Injury prone.
Did we stash Monell or did we have to release him? He was a killer in ST.