Devin Mesoraco, C

Player Data: Age: 30, B/T: R/R, Free Agency: 2018

Basic Stats: 66 G, 229 PA, 10 HR, .222/.306/.409

Advanced Stats: 96 wRC+, .306 wOBA, .230 BABIP, .187 ISO, 0.7 fWAR, 0.7 bWAR

Grade: C-

2018 Review: 

The former All-Star catcher and longtime Red was traded to the Mets on May 8 for the struggling Matt Harvey, another former All-Star who had had his career derailed by injuries. Both teams hoped that a change in scenery would help them at least get closer to what they used to be.

Mesoraco’s Mets career got off to a good start, as he posted an .849 OPS at-bats in 17 games in May. However, he mostly struggled from June onward, with a .649 OPS in June, .618 in July, and .530 in August. He missed most of September with a neck injury, although he did bat .455/.500/.909 in the five games he played. Defensively, he had the 11th lowest framing runs of any catcher in baseball according to Baseball Prospectus. The lowest was Willson Contreras, who had 8,347 framing chances; if you prorate Mesoraco’s framing chances to that number, he would have been worth -14.9 framing runs, which would have ranked second worst in baseball. Even just watching him, it was easy to tell that he was not good at framing pitches.

After all was said and done, despite the hot start, Mesoraco was not great for the Mets. While his 96 wRC+ was slightly below average, MLB catchers as a whole only hit for an 84 wRC+, so his overall offensive output was fine considering he plays a very valuable position. The problem was that he didn’t play that position very well. Still, he did receive praise from his manager and battery-mates for working and communicating well with the pitching staff. And he came through in some big moments from time to time, batting .286/.415/.595 with runners in scoring position and .258/.303/.774 in “late/close” situations according to MLB.com. In fact, seven of his ten home runs with the Mets came in the eighth inning or later, tied for the 14th-most homers in those innings in the Majors.

Also worth noting is considering how much Harvey’s value had dropped, the Mets were lucky to actually get a player as good as Mesoraco in return. Harvey posted a 4.50 ERA and 1.3 bWAR with the Reds, with the Mets paying his $5.6M contract, which was significantly less than Mesoraco’s $13M backloaded final year of his contract. So in terms of value per dollar, Mesoraco was practically a steal.

Despite his streakiness and bad framing, Mesoraco was a tolerable fill-in at the very least. It saved the Mets from having to use Jose Lobaton, and as mentioned before he did work well with the pitching staff. If you prorate his plate appearances to 600, he would have been worth slightly less than 2.0 WAR, which is about average for a starting position player. So nothing too exciting, and there were definitely plenty of flaws in his game, but he was solid enough to earn a C- rating in my mind.

2019 Outlook: 

With Mesoraco set to be a free agent this offseason, he really shouldn’t be someone that the Mets look to re-sign. He’s 30 years old and has a long injury history, and has just one above-average, healthy season under his belt, and that came in 2014. While there’s a small chance he could bounce back, it’s really not a risk worth taking as there are better catching options both within the Mets organization and on the free agent market.

Kevin Plawecki has finally developed into a serviceable offensive catcher, and has better defensive skills than Mesoraco anyway. Tomas Nido hasn’t figured things out with the bat yet, but is still a good prospect with great framing skills who is worth looking at. There are also a couple of upgrades they could go for in the free agent market, such as Yasmani Grandal and Wilson Ramos, or possibly even a trade for J.T. Realmuto. The point is, the Mets are still trying to figure out their catching situation, and while Mesoraco was an acceptable fill-in, he isn’t a good fit to be a long-term solution. He will, however, likely land somewhere on a one-year deal. But with his age, injury history, and mediocre performance, it would not be wise for the Mets to pursue him.