Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com ranked the Mets’ Kevin Plawecki as the sixth best catching prospect in baseball, with Blake Swihart of the Red Sox taking the top spot.
“The Purdue University product has been on a fast track ever since the Mets took him with the 35th overall pick of the 2012 Draft. Plawecki has excelled at two levels in each of the last two years, playing in the 2014 Futures Game and finishing with strong showing in Triple-A.”
“Throughout his climb up the Mets’ ladder, Plawecki has shown a penchant for making consistent contact. He rarely strikes out and has hit for average at every stop, with a career .295 average entering the 2015 season. He has a contact-over-power approach, but he does have enough strength to clear some fences. Plawecki hit 11 homers in 2014 and that sounds about right in terms of what’s fair to expect in the future. Drafted as an offensive-minded backstop, Plawecki has been solid behind the plate, with good hands and enough agility to block balls well. His arm is average, and he’s never going to be the kind of catcher who completely shuts down a running game.”
Mayo’s colleague Jim Callis added that while the Mets already have Travis d’Arnaud, who ranked No. 1 among catching prospects a year ago, Plawecki could conceivably push him for the starting job in the second half of 2015.
“Plawecki doesn’t have a standout tool,” he writes. “But he also doesn’t have a weakness, as he makes repeated contact with gap power and is an efficient thrower and receiver.”
In an exclusive interview with MMO’s John Bernhardt, GM Sandy Alderson acknowledged to us that it’s a good problem to have.
“Right now we’re fortunate that we have two who are essentially major league ready. I think Plawecki is close and of such high quality. At the same time, as they sort of both converge on the major leagues, it’s a question of whether both can be accommodated.”
“I think there are circumstances under which that’s possible. For example, sharing the catching duties and then one of them playing first base a little bit or playing in the outfield. Or, during interleague games one of them DHing against left-handed pitching. I think there are ways to do it.”
“The question is really whether that’s the best use of those two resources. And it may be, because beyond those two there’s a little bit of a drop-off at least in the catching we have in the system. We’ve got a couple of very young guys that we really like, but there may be a little bit of a drop-off after Plawecki. And so we have to be careful about trying to keep both of those guys in the system.”
