Usually, when a guy is out almost two months, you wonder if it will take them a little while to find their stroke again due to missing so much time.
Before Travis d’Arnaud went down with a fractured metacarpal bone in his right hand, he was looking like he was on his way to breaking out, and becoming the catcher we expected we were getting when we traded for him.
All together this season, d’Arnaud is hitting .327 with a .358 on-base percentage and .551 slugging in 13 games.
Though it’s a small sample size, d’Arnaud was an integral part of the success we had early on in the season when the Mets seemed invincible. Since he went down, we have gotten little to no production from behind the plate and there’s been a huge hole in the middle of the lineup.
After Kevin Plawecki started feeling dizziness, d’Arnaud’s rehab was sped up by the front office and he was called up a few days premature. In his short rehab stint in the minors, Travis went 7-for-24 (.292 BA).
In his first two games back, d’Arnaud looks comfortable at the plate, and is already producing again, picking up right where he left off.
He has gone 3-for-8, including an RBI single and a double on Thursday night as the Mets edged the Giants 5-4 in a big walk-off win.
After catching in four straight games including a cross-country flight, our young catcher will have the night off on Friday.
“He’s pretty sore, but his presence in the lineup changes the look of things,” manager Terry Collins said last night.
“He’s dangerous. He can get a hit. He can hit a double. He can hit a homer. And, to be honest, for a guy that hasn’t caught in a long time, I thought he’s handled the ball behind the plate outstanding.”
Our own Joe D wrote this on twitter on Thursday:
“I’m hoping that d’Arnaud & Herrera are the youthful spark the Mets need to reverse recent trends. We see that happen a lot in baseball. LGM”
Well, d’Arnaud has certainly had a positive effect thus far. Hopefully he can indeed be the spark we need, and we can build on our first place lead over Washington.
