Update: Travis d’Arnaud is back with the Mets and in tonight’s lineup and batting sixth.
* * * * * * *
With the Mets ridiculously challenged for offense, the team should get a nice boost to the lineup when Travis d’Arnaud is activated from the disabled list on Wednesday.
The Mets’ regular starting catcher has been missing in action since April 19 and while Kevin Plawecki showed some flashes of his potential during d’Arnaud’s absence, clearly he still has some things to work on offensively. Plawecki will be ticketed for a return to Las Vegas to make room for d’Arnaud.
Terry Collins said he hopes d’Arnaud will hit the ground running. Don’t we all?
“You can’t have spring training,” he said. “We’re in the hunt right now and you can’t afford to go 10 days, two weeks to wait until a guy gets ready.”
The Mets who started the year 15-5, have been 16-23 since then, and while all of that wasn’t because the team was missing TDA’s bat, I’m sure it played a big part.
“If Travis gets back to where he was before he got hurt, people are going to think we’re a whole different lineup.”
“So, if he comes back and he’s swinging the bat as comfortably as he was before, we’re a different looking team, because now all of a sudden there’s less of a big hole in the lineup.”
D’Arnaud, who was hitting .317/.356/.538 with two homers and 10 RBIs in 11 games, was the team’s leading run producer went he went down.
If that sample size is too small for you, let me remind you about d’Arnaud’s second half last season when he posted a .787 OPS with 14 doubles, 7 home runs, and 22 RBI in just 198 at-bats.
Additionally, he finished last year even stronger, producing a .313/.372/.531 slash in the season’s final 17 games.
I’m not calling Travis d’Arnaud a difference-maker in the grand baseball sense of the term, but make no mistake that he will make a sizable difference once his bat is back in the Mets lineup. LGM
