Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki were the two main catchers for the Mets in 2015, with d’Arnaud being the team’s starter and the rookie Plawecki his backup.
D’Arnaud has proven himself as an established player and Plawecki is expected to follow suit as well despite some growing pains in 2015. As a result, the Mets are trying to figure out a way to get both players in the lineup on some occasions next season.
During the GM Meetings last month, assistant GM John Ricco told reporters that the team had no plans to trade either catcher.
“Catching is a position where you can’t have enough depth,” Ricco said. “And we have two guys we think are frontline catchers, but I think there’s ways for us, especially in the short term, to make use of both of them. The short answer is I don’t think we’ll be talking about either one of them in trades because they are both going to help us win.”
On Friday, Ricco added some more clarity to the situation and told reporters that both d’Arnaud and Plawecki are likely to get some exposure to other positions during spring training which begins in February.
“We’ve had some talk about that, because we have two players we like a lot, and we think they’re going to be good hitters. And we’d love to have them both on the field,” said Ricco. (ESPN New York)
“But in terms of the specifics of that, we’ll have plenty of discussions with Terry Collins. And, ultimately, that will be his decision as to where he plays those guys. But we like both of them, and we’re going to want to try to get them both as much playing time as possible.”
D’Arnaud, 26, hit .268 with 12 homers and 41 RBI last season and played in just 67 games due to injuries. Plawecki, 24, played in 73 games, hitting just .219 with three homers and 21 RBI.
Thoughts from Joe D.
I would imagine that first base and left field would be the two positions the Mets are considering as far as getting TDA and Plawecki some added exposure to in the Spring. But at the same time, I wouldn’t expect both players to be in the same lineup all that much next season unless the Mets have plans to carry three catchers which I don’t envision at this time.
Still, nothing wrong with making both catchers a little more versatile. It may prove valuable sometime in the future. For now however, I hope they get a chance to work on improving defensively as catchers this Spring in all areas ranging from blocking pitches to throwing out would-be base stealers.
