Sandy Alderson spoke with reporters at length during the GM meetings Monday. One discussion topic was the Mets catching situation. Alderson said that he is expecting to stay in-house behind the dish, citing a hope that Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki will put up better numbers.
After Wilson Ramos tore his ACL, the 2016-2017 free agent catching market was left barren. The best available catcher hands down is 4-time All Star Matt Wieters. After Wieters, though, the drop off is stark.
Other free agents catchers include Alex Avila, Nick Hundley, Jason Castro, Dioner Navarro, Kurt Suzuki, A.J. Ellis, A.J. Pierzynski, and because I had time to type his name, Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
With the exception of Wieters, none of the catchers mentioned above constitute much of an improvement over d’Arnaud and Plawecki, but all of them would be more expensive than the Mets’ pair.
There will certainly be a bidding war for Wieters, most likely rendering him too expensive for the Mets. Despite their historically under-performing, the two young Mets backstops still have a lot of upside that Sandy Alderson is counting on.
