Latest Update from Mets:
Catcher Kevin Plawecki suffered a left hand injury in the game Wednesday night at Miami. An X-ray taken that night was negative. A follow-up MRI at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York yesterday revealed a hairline fracture. Plawecki will be placed on the 10-Day Disabled List, retroactive to April 12. Treatment of the injury will not require surgery. The Mets later today will announce a replacement for Plawecki.
The hope is that Plawecki could be back in as soon as 2-3 weeks.
Original Report
Mike Puma of the New York Post is reporting that New York Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki has a broken left hand. The team originally announced that the x-rays came back negative.
Plawecki left Wednesday’s game in the eighth inning after being hit in the left hand by a fastball from Tayron Guerrero. He initially stayed in the game and ran the bases, before being removed before his next at-bat that would have happened in the same inning.
Plawecki getting hit came only hours after the team placed Travis d’Arnaud on the 10-day DL with a torn UCL.
Tomas Nido replaced him in the game and is now likely to get a ton of playing time. The Mets also have veteran defensive specialist Jose Lobaton that is likely to get promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas. Lobaton would have to be added to the 40-man roster.
Nido and Lobaton are both strong defensive catchers while Nido was hitting .278/.350/.389 in Double-A at the time of his promotion and Lobaton is 7-for-21 with a home run and six RBI in Vegas to start the season.
Free agent catchers include Carlos Ruiz, Geovany Soto, Ryan Hanigan and Derek Norris. Veteran Miguel Montero was recently designated for assignment by the Nationals.
Thoughts from Joe D.
Before some of you start looking at what catchers are available for trade, two words for you: Not Happening. It’s way too early for teams to start dealing away their best trade chips and furthermore the worst thing from the Mets front office to do is deal out of desperation and without a shred of leverage.
Everyone keeps bringing up J.T. Realmuto as if the Marlins are just going to give away a young offensive and defensive minded catcher who is under team control through the 2020 season. They’re not. Realmuto will have a huge price tag and it’s why he wasn’t dealt over the winter along with all the other trade assets they moved. Plus there’s no indication that the Marlins will deal him within the division anyway.
The Mets have only one play here and that is to go with some combination of Jose Lobaton and Tomas Nido until June 1 and then reevaluate the situation. Luckily, both are well regarded defensive catchers and that’s what is most important for our starting rotation. The Mets were not getting much offense out of Plawecki (.593) OPS and d’Arnaud (.650 OPS) anyway.
So let’s keep our fingers crossed and ride out this mild storm with what we’ve got and take this opportunity to see what we have in Tomas Nido.
