Last night, Mike Puma of the Post wrote that the Mets intend to employ catcher Kevin Plawecki as “more than a traditional backup” to starter Travis d’Arnaud. A potential scenario outlined by manager Terry Collins included resting d’Arnaud every fourth game instead of, say, one game per week as is traditional. It makes sense on the surface. The goal is to try to keep d’Arnaud, who again missed significant time on the disabled list in 2015, on the field. Is it fair to call d’Arnaud injury prone at this point?
The argument, often made by myself and others, had been that his injuries were often unrelated to his catching duties and simply freak occurrences. For example, the broken pinkie he suffered in 2015 was caused by being hit by a pitch and hardly something that could be expected. However, he suffered a bone bruise during rehab that caused him to miss additional time. All told, that disabled list stint cost him seven weeks in total.
He then suffered an elbow injury on a collision at home plate just ten days after returning from the disabled list. Undeniably an injury associated with the catcher position, he missed the next five weeks rehabbing from that one. It’s understandable that the team will go to extended lengths to do what they can to minimize his potential for injury and time off the field.
It’s tough to get an exact read on what d’Arnaud is at the plate at this point because of all of the time he’s missed. He’s shown flashes of brilliance offensively, like his great start to the 2015 season, through smatterings of playing time across his three seasons in the majors. In just 67 games in 2015, he slashed .268/.340/.485 with 12 home runs, a wOBA of .355, and a 137 wRC+. Even with the limited playing time, he seemed to have blossomed into the player his consistent ranking as the top catching prospect suggested he could become: an outstanding offensive catcher that can hit for average and power with above-average skill behind the dish.
The biggest knock against d’Arnaud, then and now, is his ability to stay on the field. The Mets are now trying to build his workload around what has become a painfully obvious issue that will remain a consistent concern. As a result, Plawecki will supposedly see more time behind the plate than your typical backup catcher. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? That remains to be seen, but the potential is certainly there for possibly one of the best starting/backup catcher combinations in baseball.
Although d’Arnaud came packaged as an elite catching prospect, Plawecki was no slouch in those rankings. Heading into the 2015 season, MLB.com’s Jim Callis rated Plawecki as the number six catching prospect in all of baseball. Although he has no real standout tools, his weaknesses appear minimal. His ceiling is believed to be as a solid regular with good contact, gap power, and at the very least an average receiver. Many teams would kill to have that kind of regular, where the Mets will employ him as a “super backup,” or something like it.
We have to look at actual results, though, and Plawecki had a rough go of it in his debut season. He spent a lot of time as the team’s starting catcher last season because of d’Arnaud’s injuries, making his major league debut early on April 21st. In fact, he started two more games at catcher than d’Arnaud did over the course of the season. While he garnered praise for his work with the pitching staff, he was absolutely dreadful at the plate. He slashed .219/.280/.296 with a wOBA of .252 and a 60 wRC+. He struck out quite a bit, and his 6.6% walk rate is not going to cut it at the major league level with his toolset. In short, he’s got some work to do if he wants to reach his projection of solid regular.
The thing with Plawecki’s debut performance at the plate, though, is that d’Arnaud was just as bad in his short debut stint in the majors in 2013. It’s too early to get too concerned over the performance of a rookie catcher in his first taste of the majors, especially one thrust into the spotlight as abruptly as Plawecki was because of d’Arnaud’s inability to stay on the field. He’s got the talent and the prospect chops to improve, though, and should he come close to his potential the Mets could have one of the best catching duos in all of baseball. Of course, a lot of that depends on how healthy d’Arnaud can remain over the course of the season, and the Mets are moving forward with a plan to do as best they realistically can to ensure that.
My take on KP is: “Show me.”
I have no hopes beyond that.
When it comes to him, I’m agnostic.
Fair enough, James. He definitely has yet to shown that he can handle himself with the bat at the major league level.
Plawecki is in kind of the same boat as Dilson Herrera. Now that the Mets are in contention the leash is a lot shorter. In AL games do you think d’Arnaud could see some DH time with KP behind the plate or do you more expect to see Wright at DH with Flores at 3rd? Could also DH Grandy with our OF depth. Really nice problem to have.
The roster flexibility is definitely nice to have. Well, roster flexibility with quality players, that is.
Matt, I respectfully disagree, almost completely. I dont see any similarity between KP and Herrera. Firstly, Herrera is blocked completely by a proven major league vet that the Mets are shelling out 10M$ for. Say anything what you want about Walkers splits or how shameful it is not to extend a platoon role to Herrera, none of that matters. There is a concrete wall between him and the Show barring an incredible turn of events. Beyond that, Flores most competent position is 2B, from which he has a much better OPS. So there is another tier to the block. KP is the primary back up catcher. It doenst make a lick of difference what his offense is. The Mets shed Recker, and clearly want to give KP the role. If you think his leash is short…exactly who puts on the armor behind d’Arnaud?
Also, I think its worth keeping in mind that the primary role of the back up catcher is to manage the pitching staff, a thing that KP does admirably. By most accounts I read, he is generally considered a better receiver that TdA, or at the very least just as good. When he was called up as an injury replacement you can bet the first thing TC said was: “you now throw down the fingers for a great staff, you caught most of them in the system already, and we need you to keep making these guys look good. Anything you do at the dish is a total bonus.”
In a game v the Braves last Sept (the famous sweep at Turner field), my wife and I had the pleasure of running into some family members of KP while we were waiting to actually get into our seats and watch BP. What we found out was pretty cool. All along the way as a kid, Plawecki was head and shoulders a standout versus all the competition be it little league, high school or what ever. He had batting averages in the 600s! Their whole family are rabid Cubs fans, including Kevin…although that has been modified! In his quick rise through the system, he was a .290 hitter and .800 OPS guy. I think with the confidence of the pitching staff, he can and should concentrate more on his ABs. KP is pre-Arb right now, and will be in Bigs for the foreseeable future either as the primary or back up catcher.
Thanks for sharing the story Chris. Very cool
Awesome story, Chris!
Say what you want but if KP hits 219/280 he is going to be out of a job….as quickly as AR was. Maybe you missed May and June when we have 4 players hitting below 250,
Ruben
The idea that the Mets are looking for Plawecki to play by making both guys learn other positions is making me cringe.
Plawecki would be a name only a few would know if he were not playing catcher and he definitely would not be in the big leagues if he didn’t play catcher, so why are we looking to get him more appearances? He was in the bottom 10% of all hitters last year in the majors, and in his brief time at AAA… he might have been the worst hitter.
In fact, you have to go back to the first half of 2014 to see any success from him, and even that should have been tempered because of high .344 BABIP.
Thankfully for him, the bar for backup catcher is set really really low, and as bad as i made him out to be, he’s at least that level. But until he improves, either in the majors or the minors, he should only be a backup, and we shouldn’t be risking TDA in order to further Plawecki’s career.
And to futher cement’s Plawecki’s non-value… a team only has a need for one starting catcher. The fact that the Mets are not shopping him and other teams are not calling about him should tell you that his stock is really really low right now, which is the opposite of fan sentiment
I don’t think this is a case of “risking TDA in order to further Plawecki’s career” so much as trying to keep TDA fresh and injury-free (relatively).
Rob, you present a very balanced article concerning the plight of both players.
Having seen Plawecki play for Savannah on a few occassions in 2013, I thought he was a dominant offensive player. He maintained that through AA. He was rushed to the majors because of the d’Arnaud injury and it apparently effected his offense. Plawecki should start the season in AAA and hone his offensive skills and hit his way back to the majors. The Mets, from first hand appraisal, don’t believe this to be necessary.They seem to think that one of the catchers may be a right handed complement for Duda.
d’Arnaud has the potential to be an all star catcher and should not be getting any more rest than necessary. Plawecki has the potential to be a very good major league catcher but should be allowed to develop more. The experiment of playing first base should be explored but it appears that until Plawecki’s offense improves that it is premature to force him into the line up.
Plawecki was definitely more of a force at AA and (especially) at Savannah. It’s an interesting situation. The Mets clearly feel he’s ready to, at least, provide more value to the major league roster than the likes of Recker, etc. Maybe they’ve determined that he is, indeed, no more than a backup. If so, that’s fine. Or maybe they think he just needs more seasoning in the majors with a healthier TDA and less pressure.
I think all of the talk about first base may be a bit overblown and likely to not manifest itself beyond a few games here and there.
Grote and Dyer. Those were the days.
Doc Marshall, and Bill Bergen
Now those were the days!!!
You can look it uo..