Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

An MMO Fan Shot by Michael J. Famulari

As this thrilling season reaches its end, the Mets have high aspirations for the playoffs. In my opinion, Tomas Nido has been a major factor in the regular season success that we have seen so far. He has provided many useful things for the team such as his clutch bat, skilled bunting, and his rapport with the pitching staff. Today, I would like to start a discourse about the impact of his defense and make the case for him to win the National League Gold Glove Award for the catcher position as I feel like it is not being talked about at all.

I am going to go through some numbers that illustrate Nido’s impact on the defensive end. Luckily, the Gold Glove Award does not weigh in offensie performance as Nido is not very inspiring in that department, despite him having his best offensive season of his career.

Overall Fielding

The first metric that I am going to discuss is Fielding Runs Above Average (FRAA). According to the Baseball Prospectus glossary, FRAA utilizes data from each play and adjusts the output based on conditions such as the handedness of the batter and the park to measure the value of a player defensively. Nido has posted an impressive mark of 13.8, which is second to only Jose Trevino of the New York Yankees. Fortunately for Nido, Trevino plays in the American League, which makes Tomas the National League leader in this metric. The closest National League catcher to Nido in this category is J.T. Realmuto (PHI), who has a value of 8.2. Based on this distinction, it is clear that Nido is highly touted by this metric.

Pitch Framing

An argument for this type of award would not be that effective if it only hinged on one metric. This leads me into my subsequent metrics, which are Framing (Called Strikes Above Average) Runs (FrmR) and Called Strikes Above Average (CSAA). According to Baseball Prospectus, these metrics measure the efficiency of called strikes that result from pitch framing.

Nido has achieved a FrmR of 12.6 and a CSAA of 0.017 so far this season. To put these numbers into context, I will go back to the aforementioned Jose Trevino, who is a highly touted pitch framer. He has put up a FrmR of 15.8 and a CSAA of 0.020, which are both good for the best in the MLB. While Nido leads the National League in FrmR, he does fall short to Austin Barnes of the Dodgers in CSAA, as Barnes has achieved a CSAA of 0.019 this season. However, Barnes is not as heavily favored in the FrmR category as he has posted a value of 7.5, which is drastically lower than Nido’s mark.

Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

Pitch Blocking

Now that I have discussed overall fielding and pitch framing, I’d like to move on to another important aspect of catching: pitch blocking. One can argue that this is the most important facet of a catcher as a wild pitch can change the course of a game. The metric that I am going to focus on for this part is Blocking (Errant Pitches Above Average) Runs (BlkR). According to Baseball Prospectus, this statistic reflects the ability of a catcher to block pitches.

Once again, Nido’s mark of 0.3 is good for best in the National League. The closest value to Nido in the National League is Keibert Ruiz, who has posted a 0.2 BlkR. Moreover, Nido has only caught 84 games compared to Ruiz’s 102, which makes this difference even more impressive as Ruiz has had more time to increase that number.

Prevention of Stolen Bases

Finally, I would like to talk about another essential aspect of catching, which is controlling the running game. While this area does not solely reflect on the catcher, it is still used to evaluate their defense so I feel obligated to talk about it. The statistic I will be using for this is Throwing (TRAA, SRAA, POAA) Runs (ThrR), which combines steal attempts above average and stolen bases above average, according to Baseball Prospectus.

Nido has amassed a 1.1 ThrR, which is second to Keibert Ruiz (1.2) and Elias Diaz (1.2).

Another useful metric for the prevention of stolen bases is pop time. While the data is not fully indicative of a catcher’s ability to throw runners out, it certainly helps to have a quick turnaround of the ball as a catcher. This season, Nido has achieved an average pop time to second base of 1.96 seconds, according to Baseball Savant. This number ranks 25th in the MLB and is good for the 59th percentile. While this number is not strikingly good, it is still above average. Also, Nido’s elite ThrR that I mentioned before helps to put this number into perspective as he is still efficient in throwing runners out.

Final Thoughts

I have been throwing numbers at you for most of this article, so I figure I would end it off with some words. Nido has had a very impressive season up to this point, and it would be a tremendous achievement for him to have a Gold Glove Award to his name. As I have discussed, he is near the top in just about every statistic that reflects the defensive ability of catchers. Also, his creativity in throwing runners out from his knees is deserving of an award itself!

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This MMO Fan Shot was contributed by Michael J. Famulari. Have something you want to say? Share your opinions with the best and most diverse Mets community on the web! Send your Fan Shot to getmetsmerized @ aol.com.