On this past Sunday, catcher James McCann was in the starting lineup for the Mets. Nothing unusual about that, except for the fact that he had been the catcher the night before against the Diamondbacks. Generally, in the modern era catchers get a rest day when there is a day game after a night game, especially when they are on the wrong side of 30 as McCann is. Another reason to have given him a rest is that he has been struggling at the plate, with a slash line so far this season of only .210/.273/.247. Sitting on the bench, ready and willing to play, was backup backstop Tomas Nido.
Nido was drafted by the Mets back in 2012, and has been in the organization for his whole career. He first hit the big leagues in 2017, and in between stints back in the minors he has been the Mets backup catcher ever since. A reasonably good defensive catcher, Nido was not much of a hitter for his first few years with the Mets. Then last year, after having retooled his swing some, Nido started to hit with more authority. In 2020 he slashed .292/.346/.583. However, that was only in 26 PA. It was a shortened season, plus he was sidelined with the covid virus for a while, and he was the second-string catcher.
In 2021 he has played in 10 games so far, with just 21 PA. He has assembled a .278/.381/.556 line, with a homer and 3 RBI. The internal stats look pretty good as well, Statcast has him at a hard-hit rate of 56.3%, and FanGraphs has him barreling the ball 12.5%. McCann, in contrast, has 47.5% for the hard-hit stat and he barrels the ball at a microscopic 1.7% rate.
With respect to defense, It’ hard to judge Nido with his limited playing time, but his stats look decent. He has no errors yet, he does have one passed ball. With respect to framing, Nido is on the positive side this season with a 0.5 figure. In the past some Mets pitchers, notably Noah Syndergaard, preferred having Nido catch him as opposed to previous catcher Wilson Ramos.
McCann arrived with a good defensive reputation, and his pitchers seem comfortable with him behind the plate. Some of his stats have suffered a bit though. FanGraphs has him as a negative 1.3 framer, and he has 3 errors. He also has 2 PB, one of which was a freak play that allowed 2 runs to score and cost the Mets a game. McCann does have a good arm, he’s thrown out 4 prospective base stealers this season while allowing 11 SB.
So what to make of all this? McCann has clearly slipped in production this year, especially batting. Yet he has caught almost all the games, the main exception being second games of double headers. He turns 31 in a few weeks, has this heavy workload negatively affected his play? Meanwhile Nido, in very limited action, has played pretty well.
It would make sense for Nido to start more games, surely those day games after night action, and occasionally some other games as well. And if Nido continues to outhit McCann, he should get even more starts at McCann’s expense.
McCann, of course, signed a big free agent contract in the off-season, specifically 40 million over 4 years to play for the Mets, while Nido is still pre-arbitration and thus he toils for a more modest salary of $577,720 per year. Unfortunately, in MLB the player with the bigger, often long-term contract gets a longer leash, teams do not want to pay big bucks for a backup.
Nido also had a fine year in 2016 in the minors, .320/.357/.459/.816 and 2018 .270/.300/.431/.731 so he knows how to be successful with the bat. Last year and the start of this year he has found his stroke in a small sample size. He is only 27 yoa and controllable until 2025. Nido is a serviceable back up. McCann is on pace for 491 PA, 132 games this season which seems reasonable if he hits. Now right he isn’t hitting so Nido should get more opportunities but he is only a back up.
Why are you citing his minor league stats from 5 years ago when 2 and 3 years ago we saw he was horrific in a backup capacity in 2018 and 2019?
He is not a serviceable backup. I don’t think he’s a major leaguer. But then again, neither is McCann right now either. It’s a lose-lose situation we’re currently in. I really can’t blame Rojas for just praying that McCann is 75% of the player he was even 2 years ago because 75% of what McCann could be is probably better than 150% of what Nido is.
Name,
My recollection is that the Mets rushed Nido to the bigs due to need. I believe he won the batting title in the FSL high A ball, but stumbled offensively at AA. While I agree with you that his minor league stats from years back are very old, and that two of his early seasons in the bigs were real bad, I do think his has shown some resilience despite the mishandling related to his career development. I do think there is still some potential as a decent backup, and it seems the pitchers do like throwing to him. McCann is #1, but Nido should be in there a couple of times a week.
The minor stats were provided as a prospective of what he doing now and that he is coming into his primary years. Maybe he figured it out at the major level but he still can’t control running game (below league average). McCann is slumping and probably should have been sat one or two times. McCann has only 88 PA and it is soon too for 70/30 , 75/25 or even 80/20 split. McCann is the starter and Nido the backup and certainly not a 60/40 split.
I’ve been waiting to write this… McCann is not a good framer. I’ve seen great framers… catchers who catch the ball and make the pitch look better than it was. McCann moves the glove after the ball stops moving, often too much, and makes it obvious that he thought the ball missed the zone. Stupid.
I watch baseball very closely. I try not to miss many pitches in any game. Ramos was a disaster defensively and was glad he was let go. McCann is better, no doubt. But no one should confuse McCann with a great catcher. He, like Ramos, in not great with plays at the plate. Guillorme’s throw home early in the season should have been caught… Molina, Posada, even Girardi catch that throw and the Mets maybe win that game.
I want to see more Nido. Give McCann 60% of the starts if you want to honor his contract. If he hits, slide him a little taller. But Nido can and should contribute to the team’s needs and help keep McCann fresh for the long season… it takes all 26!
sounds like we are on the same page, Wobbit
I have to disagree with the inimitable Name… While i was very frustrated by Nido during different times of his tenure, I always liked his style defensively- active and energetic- and I have come to expect a decent offensive game if given some regular at bats.
I’m not sure what you’ve seen on other clubs, Name, but catcher is a fairly thin position and almost every player has holes in his game. Nido is indeed serviceable, and might even be a more than adequate contributor if given the chance. Pretty hard to make a contribution if you rarely get to play at the ML level.
In a fairly thin position, Nido still comes out on bottom.
2018-2019 : 105 catchers had at least 50 PA. Nido’s 32 wRC was ranked 7th lowest. And he played in 84 games and got 234 PA so you can’t claim that he hasn’t been given a chance. That’s not serviceable. And it’s not like you can pump up his value because of defense either as he’s pretty average in that respect.
He’s about as close to an automatic out in baseball as they come.
The Mets have to hope McCann can bounce back at least some, being on the hook for four years. But they can still hope for that bounceback and play Nido more than they have to this point. Nido’s been a serviceable backup and right now he would be an improvement over McCann. If they play six games a week, Nido should get two starts
If that were the arrangement then it’s hard to say Nido is being underused.
Week 1 : 5 games (no Nido starts)
Week 2: 5 games (2 Nido starts)
Week 3: 6 games ( 1 Nido start)
Week 4: 5 games (no Nido starts)
Week 5: 7 games (2 Nido starts)
At most you could say he should have started another game in week 3.
Brian is suggesting Nido start about 1/3 of the games. Based on your chart, under that arrangement he would be looking at about 9 starts, and he only has 5, so that’s not just one more.
I interpreted it as that McCann should sit two days every week factoring in off days.
A catcher that starts only 2/3 of the team’s games wouldn’t even have enough ABs to qualify for the leaderboard.
In the last full season of 2019, only four catchers played enough to qualify for the leaderboards – Realmuto, Grandal, Vazquez and Ramos. In 2018 it was six catchers and 2017 it was four. You better be doing something pretty good offensively to get that may ABs as a catcher and no one should shed a tear if McCann hits like he is currently and doesn’t get the playing time necessary.
75/25 or 70/30 should be a reasonable breakdown for catcher playing time. Gonna be a long season and McCann needs to stay fresh.
It seems everyone forgot that Nido had redone his swing in the 2019 offseason and showed very well in 26 plate appearances before getting hurt last season. Isn’t that what teams look for, a glimmer? Not looking to pick on McCann but he is swinging at everything now and Nido is looking good, so why not?