One of GM Brodie Van Wagenens’ big offseason moves was signing free-agent catcher Wilson Ramos. Most fans and analysts were pleased with the move, as Ramos was a proven hitter with passable defense. One-time starter Travis d’Arnaud was annointed as the backup catcher, once a brief minor league rehab assignment was completed.
However, things have not worked out as planned. As all of you know, d’Arnaud was DFA’ed over the weekend, after an embarrassing start to the year. His slash line in the majors was terrible, at .087/.160/.087. It is a small sample, but that line is below than that of four of the Mets starting pitchers, only Jason Vargas is worse with a hitless start at the plate for him. All the other starting pitchers have higher batting averages and slugging averages than d’Arnaud, and all but Steven Matz have higher OBP. His defense was substandard as well, and the result is that light-hitting Tomas Nido has been recalled to the big club as the backup catcher.
The situation with Ramos was different. He had a great start, for the first couple of weeks he was among the batting leaders with a .400 plus batting average, and he was driving home runs as well. Since that hot start, his stats have plunged. Through Sunday’s action his line for the year is .259/.330/.309. Not horrible, but considering the way he started it’s a big fall. Notice the low SLG, in a month’s worth of games Ramos has exactly two extra base hits, a double and a homer. He’s among the slowest runners in the game, and since he’s hitting a lot of ground balls he is a potential double play threat when runners are on.
His defense has been poor as well, having recorded five passed balls already. Mets pitchers have given up nine wild pitches while he was in the game, and it would figure a more agile catcher would have blocked some of those WP’s. His arm was supposed to be his defensive strong suit, but while he has been in the lineup opponents have 16 SB, with only two CS. He doesn’t seem to be calling the game very well either, anecdotally there are a lot of his signs being shaken off by the pitchers this year.
Surely Ramos will break out of the slump at some point, but at 31 years he’s no youngster, and the backup catcher should get a decent amount of playing time. Is Tomas Nido the answer, or is there a better candidate?
Devin Mesoraco saw plenty of action for the Mets last year, and he is still under contract with the team. However, he refused to report to Syracuse, and is currently not playing. Both Mesoraco and his agent say he was mislead by the front office, and there is no refutation of that by the team. The result then was Mesoraco essentially being fourth on the organizational depth chart at catcher behind Ramos, d’Arnaud, and Nido.
Mesoraco is not a star but he has proven to be a serviceable backup with some pop with his bat. More importantly, most of the starters, especially Jacob deGrom, love to have him behind the plate. With deGrom and and Noah Syndergaard struggling, it would be worthwhile to have a catcher they are comfortable with available to play. Van Wagenen said over the weekend there is an “open door” for Mesoraco to return to the organization. Maybe it’s time to entice Mesoraco through that door.
Driving home runs well? He has one homer and has been a ground ball machine. He also has played abhorrent defense as he’s a bad pitch framer and passed ball machine. Oh and Travis the Mets should have kept Plawecki and nontendered Travis.
John, you beat me to it on this post. Catching is going to become a problem. Don’t forget we have Rene Rivera in Syracuse. He’s a solid defender and I think an upgrade over Nido.
As for Mesoraco, I’ve heard a few reports, most recently from Andy Martino, that scouts felt he looked terrible in ST. And there must be some truth to this because the other 29 teams all passed him over even as a backup. I liked him last year and clearly JDG and Wheels felt comfortable with him, but if he’s really washed up from injuries as has been reported, then that’s that.
Matty, maybe his defense was subpar in ST, but at the plate he did have a SLG of .462, not too shabby.
I didn’t expect Ramos to be a great framer but I thought he’d be better throwing than he has. He bounces as many balls to 2B as TDA.
Maybe the steals are a function of the pitchers not being great at holding runners but when you’re bouncing throws, it’s hard to blame that on someone else. If he’s rushing to throw because he feels he has to be quicker because of the pitcher, he needs to stop and do what he was doing before. I’d rather he make a perfect throw and be late than a rushed throw that runs a high risk of winding up in CF.
I didn’t think much of it when it first happened, but i think it’s not right what Brodie did to Mesoraco.
Yes, Mesoraco should have specified an opt out in his contract, but still it’s cruel not to let him pursue another opportunity if you’re not going to use him. You already have the ability to hold hundreds of young players hostage in your system, so why do would you feel the need to do the same to veterans?
If the prevailing bias is to disvalue older players in favor of younger guys, at least do them the solid of letting them choose another path if they don’t make the club.
Oh, poor Mesoraco. If he was that bad in spring training and nobody wants him, maybe it is time to hang up the cleats for good.
Is it any different than what they did to Gregor Blanco or Rajai Davis or Adeiny Hechavarria or Hector Santiago?
Yes. As far we know, none of them asked for their release, which i think any club should accommodate such request for any player aged 30+.
They’ve already paid their dues and should be granted that chance.
So, you sign a minor league contract and when they send you to the minors, they should let you out of it because you asked? I’m sorry – that’s crazy.
You know, that’s how it works in the real world. You and I and 99.9% of the population are free to quit our current job at any time (without any notice) to pursue another opportunity.
I understand it’s contract and not at-will employment, but i still wish GMs had a heart on this topic. And it’s not like every veteran you sign is going to want to leave as most usually sign with the club they think they have the best shot to make the club.
Certainly I wish there were more economic fairness in the relationship between players and owners. But what you’re advocating for is not fairness — it’s enforcing a contract when it’s convenient and that convenience is only for the player. Should the Mets not have to pay Carlos Gomez and Rene Rivera because they’ve been terrible? It’s a business, not a charity, as I think you’ve mentioned more than once.
“it’s enforcing a contract when it’s convenient and that convenience is only for the player.”
That’s not true because the current status quo is that a team can break any contract when it’s convenient for them.
If you view a contract as a guarantee for
1. Money
2. Roster spot at some level in the organization (majors or minors)
then if the team decides to release a player, then they are not honoring the second clause
The team can sever a relationship anytime it desires and it would be nice if they allowed some players, in this case veterans in the minors, the same ability.
This is just a weird hill to plant your flag on.
Found this out and thought I’d pass it on – in case, like me, you didn’t know it previously.
“ARTICLE XX-B: If an Article XX-B MLB free-agent signs a minor league contract at least ten days prior to MLB Opening Day, and then is either not released by 12 PM (Eastern) on the 5th day prior to MLB Opening Day or added to an MLB Active List (25-man roster) or MLB Disabled List by 3 PM (Eastern) on MLB Opening Day, the player automatically receives a $100,000 retention bonus, and the player can unilaterally opt-out of the minor league contract on June 1st if he has not been added to an MLB Active List (25-man roster) or an MLB Disabled List by that date.”
So, Mesoraco could have accepted the minor league assignment and then opted out on 6/1 if he wasn’t in the majors. There’s a procedure in place to handle his situation. And if that wasn’t good enough, he should have had an earlier opt-out provision included in his deal. That provision may not be standard but it’s certainly not unheard of and we saw it with Gio Gonzalez just this year.
Most of the time, the teams will have the FA waive this clause, which was the case for every veteran in AAA right now.
Or they will release the player and then resign him to a minor league deal to avoid the payout.
There are only a few instances where the team actually paid out that 100k retention bonus as most of the time teams know whether they want to carry the player on the roster or not.
There’s a lot that the MLBPA can fight for in the next CBA, though i’m not sure how much they care about old fringy veterans to address this issue when there are bigger pots of gold to chase.
I have no doubt that Ramos will revert to his norm and come back around on offense, however his defense certainly leaves a lot to be desired. I worry about the relationship between catcher and pitcher. Perhaps the turnover of the catching core has affected the rhythm of the Met’s pitchers.