New York Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud has had issues throughout his career defensively, as he regressed last season throwing out runners at only a clip of 21.8%.
Working on his throwing has been a huge point of emphasis this spring for New York. The team brought their efforts so far that they brought in catching guru, Glenn Sherlock to be the third base coach, but particularly to work with d’Arnaud behind the plate.
These issues have shown to have not been resolved thus far in spring training. The 28-year old catcher is still having issues throwing out base stealers. This spring season, d’Arnaud is now 0-for-12 throwing out runners, including 0-for-4 Friday with ace Noah Syndergaard on the mound.
Syndergaard did allow a major league high 48 stolen bases last season. However, he did work on his delivery time this offseason, lowering it down to less than 1.3 seconds. Postgame, Noah didn’t take any of the blame for the four stolen bases in today’s game. He told David Lennon of Newsday.com, that his times to the plate were “fine.”
Travis isn’t getting frustrated just yet, as he feels he made a couple of good throws during the game Friday afternoon. He told reporters, “it’s getting the technique of the transfer down and getting a good grip of the ball. Once I get that, I have a higher percentage of making a clean throw.”
Mike Puma of the New York Post met with Mets manager Terry Collins postgame. Collins gave his insight on the struggles his starting catcher is facing behind the plate. “If he’s driving in a ton of runs, you will ignore what the throwing is like … if he gets it going offensively he’s going to play a lot of games.”
For the meantime however, Mets fans shouldn’t be surprised if they see backup catcher, and Syndergaard’s personal catcher last season, Rene Rivera in the Opening Day lineup.
With Syndergaard already being named the Mets Opening Day starter, Terry Collins said there is a “good chance” Rivera will be the catcher for for that start.
