Most major league teams will probably not go into Spring Training with potentially two high-upside catchers showcasing their talents like the Mets will have in Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki.
It’s safe to say that d’Arnaud will likely head into the 2015 season as the team’s starting catcher. His strong resurgence since returning from Las Vegas has been nothing less than phenomenal, and during that 56 game span, he is hitting at a .286/.332/.507 clip with 10 home runs and 29 RBI. The Mets will be thrilled if d’Arnaud can continue his ‘second half’ production through the end of the season and into 2015.
However, the Mets have another impressive catching prospect not too far away in the pipeline. Kevin Plawecki, the Mets’ 2012 first rounder out of Purdue, has wowed everyone as he wrapped up his third professional season. Plawecki began the season with 58 games in Double-A Binghamton where he batted .326/.378/.487 with 43 RBI in 224 at-bats . His performance earned him a mid-season promotion to Triple-A Las Vegas where he continued to produce at the plate. He batted .283/.345/.421 with five home runs in 152 at-bats.
The 23-year old has risen through the ranks quickly and despite being 3.6 years younger than the average player in the Pacific Coast League, was able to produce consistently after a slow start.
Pitchers and coaches alike have spoken highly of Plawecki’s improved game-calling skills and have always praised his leadership. Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com spoke highly of him saying, “He now looks like he’ll be more than capable of being an everyday player in the big leagues.” He also ranked him as the #4 catching prospect in all of baseball.
“We have two pretty good catchers now,” GM Sandy Alderson told the Press & Sun-Bulletin on Thursday. “Plawecki is at Triple-A now, so he’s knocking at the door. We like Travis. We like Kevin. We like them both. I would expect that we’ll see them both in spring training next year and see where it takes us.”
it would seem as if trading one of them would be in the Mets best interest. There isn’t much room on a roster for two catchers with their projected caliber. Both of them are right-handed and there doesn’t seem to be a logical way to platoon them. Obviously, d’Arnaud has proved (somewhat) that he is capable of playing at the Major League level while Plawecki has yet to prove anything other than he is a solid prospect.
The Mets could give Plawecki some time in the majors alongside d’Arnaud in 2015. However, we saw that this system didn’t work too well with Lucas Duda and Ike Davis.
For now, the Mets find themselves in an enviable position and while it may appear that they’ll have a catching controversy down the road, they also have the luxury of time. Ultimately however, Sandy will have to decide between d’Arnaud and Plawecki at some point.
