Player Data: Age: 27, B/T: R/R

Primary Stats: 58 G, 161 PA, .222 BA, .261, OBP, .327 SLG, .588 OPS, 34 H, 3 HR, 13 RBI, 5 BB, 44 SO

Advanced Stats: 63 wRC+, 27.3 K%, 3.1 BB%, .276 BABIP, .292 xwOBA, 0.9 fWAR, 0.3 bWAR

2021 Salary: $577,720

Grade: C-

2021 Recap

Tomás Nido came into 2021 with a clear goal: back up James McCann, the $40 million catcher the team signed in the offseason to add some consistency to the position. This was similar to his role in 2019 and 2020, when he backed up Wilson Ramos.

So 2021 started with clear expectations, and he handled those duties wonderfully the first two months. His hitting was slightly below average, but that’s okay because of his defense. That sweet, sweet defensive.

On the season, Nido ended up as the best pitch framer in baseball, according to Statcast. He turned a league-high 53.5 percent of non-swinging pitches (1,146 total) in the shadow zone, the area just outside of the strike zone in all directions, into strikes. He was particularly adept at getting called strikes from just to the left or right of the zone between the letters and knees. He also was at the top of the league at getting called strikes from pitches down and outside of the zone (36.5 percent).

That is helpful when your ace’s wipe-out slider basically lands in that zone every time:

Jacob deGrom’s slider location with two strikes.

When someone like Jacob deGrom wasn’t getting swings and misses there (not often, to be fair), Nido turned them into strikes better than any other catcher.

On top of his framing, Nido stood at 10 defensive runs saved, tied for third in the majors among catchers with at least 350 innings behind the plate. He also threw out 57.1 percent of runners (12 of 21) trying to steal a base on him, the best in the majors with the same innings qualification.

While James McCann is a step up from Wilson Ramos defensively, McCann is no Nido, and the 27-year-old plays the backup role of a defensive-first catcher perfectly.

It’s the hitting, however, where Nido struggled this season.

His quadruple slash line of .222/.261/.327 /.588 over 161 plate appearances–a fine number of PAs for a backup catcher–is not pretty to look at (though they’re a tick better from 2019, when he was last a full-time backup).

It looked like Nido was making strides in 2020 at the plate, going 7-for-26 to start the season in a backup role. But three weeks into the year, he caught COVID-19 and spent the rest of the year recovering.

With McCann joining the team and expectations high, Nido didn’t get much playing time in April as the Mets had half-a-dozen games rained out and McCann could comfortably catch nearly every game they played. That changed in May, though, when the team started playing consistently and McCann’s bat lay cold. That’s also when Nido performed best at the plate, putting up an .872 OPS with three homers and 11 RBI in 50 plate appearances, including a go-ahead homer against Atlanta and another one a week later in Colorado. It was shades of 2020 Nido.

But then, perhaps sensing some pressure from Nido and manager Luis Rojas, who admitted he was giving Nido a more even split of playing time as McCann struggled playing six-of-seven days of the week, James McCann’s bat caught fire (briefly), and Nido returned to more of a backup role. And then the injuries came.

Between June 23 and the end of the season, Nido spent over 50 days on the injured list due to a wrist bruise and a thumb sprain that never fully healed. Between injured list stints, Nido had just 14 hits in 67 at-bats (.203), striking out 28.6 percent of the time. He didn’t hit a home run after getting injured, and he barreled just one ball from June to the end of the season. It came on his last hit of the year.

The Mets eventually shut down Nido with a week left in the season, seeming to realize his thumb sprain never fully recovered. That showed in his offensive output. He was passable at the plate (89 wRC+) before the injury, occasionally going on a hot streak. He had just a 28 wRC+ and made poor contact afterward. It’s hard to hit when you have bruised wrists and sprained thumbs.

Grading solely on expectations, Nido did his job wonderfully for two months. Then one part of his game was wiped out when injuries mounted. Thanks to his defense, Nido was still able to make an impact on the field, nearly notching a whole win above a replacement player (according to Fangraphs). A fully healthy Nido over a whole season probably ends up with a whole letter grade higher. A C-minus feels fair.

2022 Outlook

Nido should slot right behind James McCann in the depth chart once again in 2022 (barring any trades that send McCann elsewhere).

Ideally, Nido will perform better offensively than he did in 2021. If he provides any value on at the plate, it’s a plus given his tremendous defense and framing skills. But over 400-plus plate appearances in his career so far, Nido hasn’t shown that consistency offensively. And again, as a backup, defense-first catcher, that’s fine.

His 2022 projected salary is $900,000, according to MLB Trade Rumors, which is perfectly fine money to spend on a quality backup like Nido.