Recently promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas, catcher Juan Centeno will make his first major league appearance today against the San Francisco Giants.
The longtime minor leaguer – who, even after seven years of professional play, is only 23 years old – was called up on September 9 and will play in his first major league game at 7:10 p.m. today.
Centeno spent two years playing for the GCL Mets before he was promoted in 2009 to play Short-Season Class A for the Brooklyn Cyclones. He started 2010 playing for the Cyclones where he was hitting .371/.417/.517 in 104 plate appearances.
That same year, he was promoted to the St. Lucie Mets and then eventually to AA Binghamton for one game. He played for St. Lucie in 2011 and Binghamton in 2012. He started 2013 in Binghamton for six games before being promoted to join Class AAA Las Vegas.
Centeno hit .305/.346/.371 in 237 plate appearances for the 51′s.
Centeno has long been the best defensive catcher in the Mets system with a an accurate and powerful arm that always has him among the league leaders in caught-stealing percentage. He’s a fierce blocker at the plate and has a reputation for it throughout the league.
“He’s as good a defender as we have,” Collins said today. “He has gotten better offensively. He is going to get some hits. He absolutely controls the running game.”
Centeno will bat eighth tonight behind Ruben Tejada, who was called up on September 11, and before pitcher Aaron Harang. He will face off against Giants pitcher Matt Cain.
With the start, Centeno will mark the second Binghamton Met to make their MLB debut in 2013, alongside Travis d’Arnaud, as well as the 52nd B-Met all time to play on the team and then make their major league debut that season.
He’s been an MMO favorite for a few years, and it will be great to see him make his debut tonight.
(Photo by Gordon Donovan)
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