Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

After receiving disappointing results from the catcher position over the last several seasons, the New York Mets decided to end this long stretch of ineffective catchers and were looking to acquire one of the top backstops on the open market over the offseason.

While the front office made a competitive run at catcher J.T. Realmuto, they weren’t prepared to wait all winter for his decision and opted to look elsewhere to find their solution behind the plate. Moving on to the second-best catcher in free agency, management ultimately landed backstop James McCann, signing him to a four-year, $40.6 million contract.

At the time, some experts initially viewed this deal as a slight overpay for someone who’s spent the majority of his career as a backup catcher. But less than one month into the 2021 campaign, it’s becoming very clear the Mets acquired the perfect player for this job and almost certainly won’t regret handing him a lucrative deal this past winter.

Handling one of the deepest starting rotations in the majors, McCann has already made a massive impact on his new team by utilizing his impressive leadership skills and baseball IQ to help him form strong connections with the club’s pitching staff. Along with being a great communicator and a student of the game, the 30-year-old has also controlled the strike zone extremely well so far, which allowed him to produce a career-high 51.4% strike rate last season.

Though the former Detroit Tiger leaned on the defensive aspect of his game early on in his career, he’s steadily become a reliable hitter at the plate over the last few seasons, which is one of the major reasons he drew plenty of interest from the Mets this past offseason. Coming into his own in the batter’s box last season, the veteran catcher pushed former Chicago White Sox teammate Yasmani Grandal for playing time and was considered one of the top-hitting backstops in the major leagues.

Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Splitting time as the everyday catcher, McCann earned 111 plate appearances, generating three doubles, seven home runs, 15 RBIs, a .247 ISO (career-high), a .339 BABIP, a .378 wOBA, a .343 xwOBA, a .429 xwOBAcon, a 24.6% LD rate, a 47.8% hard-hit rate, a 143 wRC+ score, a 1.5 fWAR rating and a slashing line of .289/.360/.536/.896 during the shortened season.

Comparing these stellar metrics to the rest of the majors, the right-handed slugger finished with the third-highest SLG, the fourth-highest wOBA and wRC+, tied for the fourth-highest fWAR and AVG, tied for the fifth-most home runs, the sixth-highest ISO, the seventh-highest OBP, the 10th-highest BABIP and tied for the 15th-most RBIs among all catchers who earned at least 50 plate appearances, according to FanGraphs.com.

Coming off one of the top statistical offensive performances of his career, the Mets are hoping to receive similar production from McCann this season, although that hasn’t transpired just yet. Despite hitting his first home run in blue pinstripes on Apr. 14, which provided his team a 5-1 lead over the Philadelphia Phillies, the 6′ 3″ catcher has witnessed a lack of power and also hasn’t made nearly as much contact up to this point.

Through his first seven games with the Mets, the former second-round pick has received 27 plate appearances, producing one home run, three RBIs, a .120 ISO, a .316 BABIP, a .326 wOBA, a .248 xwOBA, a .265 xwOBAcon, a 15.0% LD rate, a 50.0% hard-hit rate, a 107 wRC+ score, a 0.2 fWAR rating and a slashing line of .280/.333/.400/.733.

Even though these results have been recorded over a very small sample size, it’s still less than ideal to have McCann struggling to replicate his slugging and contact metrics from a season ago. While New York isn’t expecting him to carry the offense, especially since he’s batting near the bottom of the order, they will need him to consistently turn the lineup over throughout the 2021 campaign.

Looking to break out of his current hitting woes, it appears one of the main causes behind this slump can be directed to the righty’s struggles against fastballs, which are pitches he’s flourished against over the last two seasons. After creating a .283 AVG, .257 xAVG, .455 SLG, .437 xSLG, .343 wOBA, .328 xwOBA and a 50.0% hard-hit rate against heaters in 2019, he followed that up by posting a .326 AVG, .278 xAVG, .478 SLG, .464 xSLG, .394 wOBA, .380 xwOBA and a 50.0% hard-hit rate against them last season.

As for this season, McCann has largely faltered against fastballs early on, generating a .278 AVG, .225 xAVG, .278 SLG, .291 xSLG, .292 wOBA, .269 xwOBA and a 40.0% hard-hit rate. In addition, the former White Sox has also been extending the strike zone far more than he did against those pitches last season, particularly during two-strike counts.

Staying disciplined at the plate against fastballs in 2020, McCann recorded a measly 23.5% chase rate (career-best) with two strikes against him, however, that number has increased by almost 10 percent this season – climbing to 33.3%. But thanks to his encouraging 33.3% chase whiff rate with two strikes, the Mets’ starting catcher isn’t actually striking out more against heaters, as he’s reduced his strikeout rate against them by 5.7 percent (15.0%).

While the Arkansas standout hasn’t been striking out at an increased rate in 2021, he’s been inducing significantly more ground balls against heaters, increasing his GB rate from 33.3% in 2020 up to 46.7% this season. As a result, his LD rate against those pitches has plummeted compared to last season, dropping from 38.9% down to just 20.0%.

On the bright side, there’s a way for McCann to turn things around against fastballs and it could be as easy as laying off pitches that are located outside the zone on the outer half of the plate. Having said that, the 2019 AL All-Star has struggled to accomplish that feat through the first seven games of this season, especially with two strikes against him.

But if McCann can reduce his chase rate against fastballs during two-strike counts to below 30 percent, then he’ll likely start seeing some positive results involving his slugging and contact metrics moving forward. In turn, chances are he’ll also force pitchers into the zone more frequently, potentially allowing him to work out of those difficult counts more effectively.

Considering the Mets have played the fewest number of games (eight) among all 30 teams in majors, the fanbase certainly shouldn’t be panicking about this slow offensive start from the California native. Based on his stellar results over the last few seasons, there’s plenty of data to suggest he’ll eventually surpass this hitting slump, it’s just a matter of when he’ll reach that point.

That being said, making these adjustments against fastballs would probably help McCann break out offensively sooner rather than later, allowing him to return to the same hitter who excelled with the White Sox from 2019-2020.